Episode · 2026-05-22
Oasis App Controversy
Oasis App Controversy | Meta CPCs + CVRs Falling | Oisin O'Connor x Aidan Thibodeaux
Rundown
Chris and Colin open with the Oasis App controversy and fresh Northbeam data showing Meta CPCs and conversion rates falling together, then react to Meta ad exec Yoni's departure and a viral bit about performative 'AI guy' Slack posting. The back half features Oisin O'Connor (Skio) and Aidan Thibodeaux (Social Snowball) discussing the Skio-Squeegie merger, LTV-driven consolidation in e-commerce, and brands like Hudson deploying creator/affiliate armies instead of paid ads.
Takes from this episode
Health-watchdog accounts like Oasis are net positive but must be extremely careful, since getting facts wrong can seriously damage real businesses' reputations.
if you do get information wrong, it can severely affect uh real businesses
Falling CPMs alongside falling conversion rates mean traffic quality is degrading on Meta, forcing brands to diversify their acquisition channels.
This is the direct correlation to we have to diversify our customers as they're scaling outside of these current thresholds, and Meta just can't support it anymore
Meta is tone-deaf about valuing the people, like departing ad exec Yoni, who serve as its critical bridge to the D2C advertiser community.
There's just this tone deafness from Meta on who should be valued within the company
Performatively posting AI updates in company Slack has become a real, if unethical, tactic people use to stay employed.
here's a video breakdown on the unethical way to stay employed at your company by being the AI gremlin
As acquisition costs keep climbing, only the highest-LTV companies will be able to afford to dominate a channel, which will shrink variety in e-commerce over the next 5-10 years.Prediction
the companies with the highest LTV will just pay the most for acquisition and they will just dominate the channel
Brands are aggressively diversifying away from paid ads toward creator and affiliate armies, following the 'Hudson method' playbook popularized by Comfort's founder.
This is what brands are doing. They're diversifying so hard off of just paid ads now.