# Succession Media

> Succession Media is a DTC growth agency for Shopify brands doing $50K to $1M a month. It runs direct-response creative, Meta media buying, conversion rate optimization (CRO) and AI search optimization (AEO + GEO) in one loop, with senior operators only, month to month and no setup fee. The first call is a free growth audit of the ad account, creative and funnel.

- Website: https://succession.media/
- Book a free growth audit: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/booking/Sbnpip0cRT4Nf9QSMpZl
- Email: hello@succession.media
- Last updated: 2026-09-24

## Services

- **Creative System Rebuild**: A Schwartz-grounded creative engine, not a pile of one-off ads. We rebuild your mechanism, ladder sub-avatars, and structure advertorial top of funnel so the work compounds.
- **Media Buying and CRO**: We run the spend and tighten the funnel in one loop. Account structure, testing cadence, and landing-page CRO managed together so every dollar works harder.
- **AI Search Optimization (AEO + GEO)**: AI search optimization is the practice of making a brand discoverable, quotable and recommendable by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Overviews. It combines Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) on your own pages with Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) across the wider web.

## Who it is for

- A Shopify DTC brand doing $50K to $1M a month
- Past product-market fit, ready to scale spend
- Tired of junior-staffed agencies and creative plateaus
- Willing to treat growth as testing, not a light switch
- Categories: Men's vitality, Skincare & beauty, Supplements, Sexual wellness, Women's health, Sleep & recovery, Nutrition, Longevity

## Team

- **Hamid Chakir**, Co-Founder, CRO and Landing Pages. CRO and landing-page architect for 7 and 8-figure DTC brands. Runs the strategy call, the funnel teardown, and the weekly testing loop that turns spend into profit. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamidchakir
- **Yassine Chakir**, Co-Founder, Direct-Response Creative. Builds the direct-response creative system that scales DTC brands: mechanism angles, sub-avatar laddering, and advertorial top of funnel grounded in the Schwartz framework. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yassine-chakir-b5005413b

## Key pages

- [Home](https://succession.media/): services, client results, process, team and FAQ
- [AI Search Optimization for DTC brands](https://succession.media/ai-search-optimization/): what AEO and GEO are and how Succession Media gets brands recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews
- [Case studies](https://succession.media/case-studies/): client results and how the work was run
- [Guides index](https://succession.media/guides/): practical DTC growth guides by the Succession Media team
- [Full site text for AI](https://succession.media/llms-full.txt)

## Case studies

- [How we lifted paid conversion rate 35% for a top-10 US supplement brand, at the same traffic](https://succession.media/case-studies/top-supplement-brand-conversion-loop/): Succession runs the conversion layer for one of the largest subscription supplement brands in the US, alongside its in-house media buying team. By matching landing pages to ad angles, shipping variants the same day and reading results daily on one shared scorecard, we lifted paid conversion rate from 1.78% to 2.41% at roughly the same daily paid traffic.
- [How Complement raised its conversion rate 44%](https://succession.media/case-studies/complement-conversion-rate/): Complement sells evidence-based plant-based supplements, from a vegan multivitamin to organic protein and creatine, to people who eat real food and want to fill the gaps. Succession worked on the store's conversion layer: product pages, landing pages, the offer and checkout. Conversion rate increased 44%. We walk through the full breakdown on a call.
- [How Glimmr added $337,203+ in monthly revenue](https://succession.media/case-studies/glimmr-monthly-revenue/): Glimmr is a family-owned superfood haircare brand, born in Melbourne and now selling in the USA, known for its 10-Minute Superfood Hair Mask. Succession worked on growth across the funnel: creative, landing pages and conversion, run as one loop. The result was a monthly revenue increase of $337,203+. The full breakdown is walked through on a call.
- [How Lemme lifted conversion rate 40%](https://succession.media/case-studies/lemme-conversion-rate/): Lemme sells women's supplements in gummy, capsule and liquid form, covering digestion, sleep, stress, beauty and women's health. Succession worked on conversion across the store: product pages, landing pages, offer and checkout. The brand's conversion rate increased by 40%. We walk through the full detail on a call.
- [How Love Sweat Fitness lifted conversion rate 58%](https://succession.media/case-studies/love-sweat-fitness-conversion-rate/): Love Sweat Fitness, founded by trainer Katie Dunlop, sells plant-based women's supplements and the MOVE workout app to a community it puts at more than a million women. Succession worked on the store's conversion layer: product pages, landing pages, offer and checkout. Conversion rate rose 58%. We walk through the full breakdown on a call.
- [How Nuora added $96,400+ in monthly revenue](https://succession.media/case-studies/nuora-monthly-revenue/): Nuora sells vaginal probiotic gummies and gut support capsules to women through its Shopify store, mynuora.com. Succession worked across the growth funnel, from ad creative to landing pages and conversion, treating the ad and the page as one piece of work. The result was a monthly revenue increase of $96,400+. The full breakdown is walked through on a call.
- [How Poopy Time Tea grew monthly revenue by $61,200+](https://succession.media/case-studies/poopy-time-tea-monthly-revenue/): Poopy Time Tea sells an herbal debloat and detox tea, plus gummies, a fiber drink and a probiotic, to people who want gentle help with bloating and regularity. Succession worked across the growth funnel, connecting ad creative to the landing pages and conversion work behind it. Monthly revenue grew by $61,200+. The full breakdown is shared on a call.
- [Popstar Labs: $143,800+ more monthly revenue in a restricted ad category](https://succession.media/case-studies/popstar-labs-monthly-revenue/): Popstar Labs is a men's sexual wellness brand founded by two urologists, best known for its Volume & Taste supplement. Succession worked across the funnel, from compliance-first creative to landing pages and conversion, in a category where ad platforms restrict what brands can say. Monthly revenue increased by $143,800+. The full breakdown is shared on a call.
- [How Primal Harvest grew monthly revenue by $148,541+](https://succession.media/case-studies/primal-harvest-monthly-revenue/): Primal Harvest is a natural supplement brand founded in 2018, best known for Primal Greens, Primal Probiotics and Primal Multivitamin. Succession worked on growth across its funnel, running creative, landing pages and conversion as one loop with a shared scorecard. Monthly revenue increased by $148,541+. We share the full breakdown on a call.
- [SugarBear's 495% conversion rate increase, and the method behind it](https://succession.media/case-studies/sugarbear-conversion-rate/): SugarBear, now SugarbearPRO, has sold its blue bear Hair Vitamin gummies since 2015 and also makes sleep and prenatal vitamins plus lash and brow care. Succession worked on conversion across the store, from product pages and landing pages to offer and checkout. The conversion rate increased by 495%. The full breakdown is shared on a call.
- [Wholier: $472,162+ more monthly revenue after a full creative and funnel rebuild](https://succession.media/case-studies/wholier-monthly-revenue/): Wholier makes plant-based health essentials, including a multivitamin for plant-based people and organic plant protein. Succession was part of a full creative and funnel rebuild for the brand, treating ads, landing pages and conversion as one system. Monthly revenue rose by $472,162+. The detail behind that figure is shared on a call.

## Guides

- [Why is my Meta CPA going up when nothing changed on the ads or the site?](https://succession.media/guides/meta-cpa-rising-nothing-changed/): Something did change, just not something you touched. CPA is cost per session divided by conversion rate, and cost per session is CPM divided by sessions per impression. Split the rise across those three numbers and it lands on one of five causes: a pricier auction, a saturated audience, budget drifting to costlier campaigns, weaker clicks, or different buyers reaching an unchanged site.
- [Do Advertorials and Listicles Beat Product Pages for Meta Ads?](https://succession.media/guides/do-advertorials-work-meta-ads/): Often, for cold supplement traffic that needs persuading, but the public evidence is weaker than it looks. Most published numbers come from page-builder vendors and agencies, not matched experiments. Build one when your cold traffic is problem-aware and your product needs explaining. Then prove it with a same-ad split test against the product page, judged on cost per purchase.
- [Does llms.txt or schema help my Shopify store show up in ChatGPT?](https://succession.media/guides/llms-txt-schema-shopify-ai-search/): Not much on their own. Shopify already serves /llms.txt, /llms-full.txt and /agents.md by default, so an llms.txt app adds nothing, and Google says its AI features do not use llms.txt at all. Product schema is worth keeping accurate for rich results, but Google says no special AI schema exists. The bigger levers are Shopify Catalog data, letting OAI-SearchBot crawl your store, and product facts in plain text.
- [How can I check if ChatGPT recommends my brand?](https://succession.media/guides/check-if-chatgpt-recommends-your-brand/): Write 30 to 50 prompts your buyers actually ask, run each several times in fresh sessions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and record whether you are named, your position, how you are described and which sources are cited. Repeat monthly. Answers vary between runs, so one screenshot proves nothing. Tools such as Otterly.AI or Semrush automate this from about $29 to $99 a month.
- [How do I get my Shopify products recommended by ChatGPT?](https://succession.media/guides/get-products-recommended-chatgpt-shopify/): Shopify products already reach ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog, so eligibility is mostly automatic for US-selling stores with completed policies. Being recommended is a second step: complete, specific product data, pages AI crawlers can read (allow OAI-SearchBot), and third-party proof such as reviews, editorial roundups and certifications. ChatGPT ranks merchants on availability, price, quality and whether you are the maker.
- [How do I track ChatGPT and Perplexity traffic and sales in Shopify and GA4?](https://succession.media/guides/track-chatgpt-traffic-shopify-ga4/): ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to links it sends, so filter Shopify and GA4 by that source. In GA4, create an AI assistants channel in a custom channel group and place it above Referral. In Shopify, check sessions and sales by referrer and UTM source, and open an order's conversion details. Keep paid ChatGPT ad clicks, which carry your own ad UTMs, in a separate channel.
- [How do sexual wellness, men's and women's health brands scale when Meta keeps rejecting their ads?](https://succession.media/guides/sexual-wellness-brands-meta-ad-rejections/): Meta allows sexual and reproductive health ads targeted to people 18 and older when they focus on health rather than pleasure, but rejects ads that imply the viewer has a condition, attack appearance, or promote sex toys or enhancement products. Scale by writing compliant angles from the start, keeping the landing page consistent with the ad, and hiring a team that owns creative, media and page together.
- [How do supplement and wellness brands get recommended by ChatGPT?](https://succession.media/guides/supplement-brands-chatgpt-recommendations/): AI engines recommend supplement brands they can verify. The strongest observed signals are third-party certifications such as NSF, USP or Informed Sport shown on product pages, published research tied to the exact ingredient form and dose, coverage in health publishers and evidence databases, and genuine community discussion. Revenue and ad spend matter far less. Claims must stay compliant, because engines avoid brands that overclaim.
- [How do supplement brands avoid Meta ad rejections and account bans in 2026?](https://succession.media/guides/meta-supplement-ad-rejections-2026-policy/): Meta reviews the whole funnel: ad text, images, targeting and the landing page. Supplement ads get rejected for disease claims (treat, cure, prevent), for implying the viewer has a health condition, and for transformation imagery that shames. Write structure/function benefits, speak about the product instead of the viewer, make the landing page match the ad, and fix the cited issue before you request a review.
- [How do you apply Eugene Schwartz's five levels of awareness to Meta ads?](https://succession.media/guides/schwartz-awareness-levels-meta-ads/): Match the ad to what the buyer already knows. Eugene Schwartz's Breakthrough Advertising (1966) defines five levels: unaware, problem aware, solution aware, product aware and most aware. Unaware buyers get stories and advertorials, problem-aware buyers get the problem named and a new explanation, solution-aware buyers get your mechanism, product-aware buyers get proof, and most-aware buyers get the offer and a product page.
- [How much does a DTC marketing agency cost per month in 2026?](https://succession.media/guides/dtc-marketing-agency-cost/): Most DTC agencies charge $2,500 to $6,000 a month for one channel, $8,000 to $18,000 for full paid acquisition with creative strategy, and $12,000 to $30,000+ for full service with retention, excluding ad spend. Percentage models run 10% to 20% of ad spend. CRO retainers typically cost $3,000 to $15,000 a month. Scope, spend level and creative volume drive where you land.
- [How much does a GEO agency cost for an ecommerce brand?](https://succession.media/guides/geo-agency-cost-ecommerce/): Published ecommerce GEO retainers mostly sit between $2,000 and $6,000 a month, with one-time AI visibility audits around $2,200 to $5,000. Boutique Shopify programs are quoted at $5,000 to $10,000 a month, and enterprise work runs $25,000 and up. Price tracks scope: catalog size, engines tracked, content volume, off-site outreach and whether the agency implements or only advises.
- [How often should you refresh Meta ad creatives, and how many should you test per week?](https://succession.media/guides/meta-creative-fatigue-how-many-creatives-to-test/): Plan new creative every 1 to 2 weeks on high-spend campaigns and every 2 to 4 weeks on smaller broad ones. Fatigue is a 7-day prospecting frequency of 2.5 to 3.0 plus a 20 to 30% CTR drop from the ad's baseline. Test 1 to 2 new concepts weekly under $5k a month, 4 to 6 at $20k to $100k, spending 2 to 3x target CPA per test.
- [How should a DTC brand structure Meta campaigns and scale from $1k to $10k a day in 2026?](https://succession.media/guides/meta-ads-account-structure-scaling-2026/): Consolidate. Run one Advantage+ Shopping campaign per country for prospecting unless products have different KPIs, a small testing lane for new concepts, and optional retargeting. Make sure each campaign clears about 50 purchases a week. Raise budgets 10 to 20% every two to three days, start on Highest Volume, move to Cost Cap once CPA is proven, and scale creative volume with spend.
- [Intelligems vs Shoplift: Which Shopify A/B Testing Tool, and How Much Traffic Do You Need?](https://succession.media/guides/intelligems-vs-shoplift-ab-testing-traffic/): Pick Intelligems if your biggest tests are prices, discounts, shipping thresholds and offers. Pick Shoplift if you mainly test themes, templates and page layouts. Traffic matters more than the tool: detecting a 10% lift from a 2% conversion rate needs roughly 80,000 sessions per variant. Below that, test big swings like offer and page type.
- [Is GEO worth it for a DTC brand, or is it just SEO rebranded?](https://succession.media/guides/is-geo-worth-it-dtc/): Partly rebranded, partly new. Google says optimizing for its AI features is still SEO, and most of the foundation (crawlable pages, helpful content, schema) overlaps. What is genuinely new for a DTC brand is prompt-level tracking, product data for AI shopping catalogs and earning mentions in the sources AI cites. It is worth a measured pilot for considered-purchase categories, not a budget shift away from what already works.
- [Lots of Add to Carts but No Sales on Shopify? How to Find the Leaking Step](https://succession.media/guides/shopify-add-to-cart-but-no-purchases/): Add to carts with no purchases almost always means one step is broken, not the whole store. Split the funnel into cart rate, cart-to-checkout and checkout completion. Healthy checkout completion sits around 45% on Shopify. If it is far lower, test checkout on a real phone, remove surprise costs and check tracking before you touch the product page.
- [Should a DTC brand doing $50k to $300k a month hire an agency, a freelancer or in-house?](https://succession.media/guides/agency-vs-freelancer-vs-in-house/): At $50k to $100k a month, a strong freelancer or single-channel specialist is usually the best first hire. From about $100k to $300k, when creative, media and landing pages must move together, a small senior agency beats stitching freelancers. Build in-house only when the work is steady and high-volume: a senior growth marketer costs about $10,000 to $14,000 a month fully loaded and covers one or two channels.
- [Should Meta Ads Go to a Landing Page or a Product Page? (Supplement Brands, 2026)](https://succession.media/guides/meta-ads-landing-page-vs-product-page-supplements/): Match the page to how aware the visitor is. Retargeting and catalog ads belong on the product page. Cold traffic that already knows the product category can go to a focused landing page or listicle. Cold, problem-aware traffic usually needs an advertorial or quiz first. Decide with a same-ad split test judged on cost per purchase and revenue per session, not click-through rate.
- [UGC vs static vs advertorial: which Meta ad format works best for supplement brands?](https://succession.media/guides/ugc-vs-static-vs-advertorial-supplement-ads/): Lead with statics for testing volume, use UGC video to build trust once an angle is proven, and send cold traffic to an advertorial when the product needs explaining before anyone will buy. In one 500-ad study of long-running supplement ads, single images were the largest format group. Test formats on the same angle and offer, or you are testing ideas, not formats.
- [What are the best growth agencies for Shopify supplement brands in 2026?](https://succession.media/guides/best-growth-agencies-shopify-supplement-brands/): There is no single best agency; there is a best fit for your constraint. If traffic converts poorly, hire a CRO specialist (DTC Pages, SplitBase, Proscube). If creative is the bottleneck, hire a Meta creative shop (Pilothouse, Y'all). If creative, media and landing pages all need to move together, hire a full-stack team (Common Thread Collective, Succession Media). Judge every option on category proof, named operators and account ownership.
- [What are the red flags when hiring a DTC growth or performance agency?](https://succession.media/guides/dtc-agency-red-flags/): The biggest red flags are guaranteed ROAS, an agency that runs ads from its own Business Manager instead of yours, case studies with no starting point or timeframe, 12-month lock-ins with no performance exit, a senior team on the pitch that disappears after signing, low monthly creative volume, and reports built on platform ROAS instead of Shopify revenue, MER or contribution margin.
- [What Is a Good Conversion Rate for a Shopify Supplement Store in 2026?](https://succession.media/guides/shopify-conversion-rate-benchmarks-supplements/): For a Shopify health and wellness store, the H1 2026 median is 3.31% of sessions (Shogun, 745 stores), with the upper quartile near 5.9%. The all-store Shopify median is far lower, about 1.7%. Cold Meta traffic to a supplement page usually converts well below the blended store number, so judge paid landing pages against their own channel, not the store average.
- [What is a good ROAS for a supplement brand on Meta, and how do you calculate break-even ROAS?](https://succession.media/guides/good-roas-supplement-brands-meta/): A good ROAS is your break-even ROAS plus room for overhead and profit. Break-even ROAS equals 1 divided by contribution margin, so a 50% margin breaks even at 2.0x and a 30% margin needs 3.33x. Published 2026 ranges put wellness and supplements around 1.9 to 3.5x, with subscription brands accepting lower first-order ROAS when 90-day repeat revenue covers it.
- [What is the best GEO agency for a Shopify or DTC brand?](https://succession.media/guides/best-geo-agencies-shopify-dtc/): There is no independently verified best GEO agency. Every ranking we found is published by an agency that lists itself, this one included. The right pick depends on three things: your revenue stage, your category (regulated categories like supplements need claims expertise) and whether you need implementation or advice. Judge agencies on dated case data, a fixed prompt baseline and revenue reporting from Shopify.
- [What questions should I ask a DTC growth agency before hiring them?](https://succession.media/guides/questions-to-ask-a-dtc-agency/): Ask six kinds of questions: proof (a case with starting point, timeframe and measurement method), team (who works on your account weekly), output (concepts, pages and tests per month in writing), compliance (how claims are reviewed), metrics (MER, new-customer CAC, contribution margin), and exit (who owns accounts and assets, notice period). Good answers are specific and numeric; weak answers describe process and logos.
- [What should the first 90 days with a DTC growth agency look like?](https://succession.media/guides/first-90-days-with-a-growth-agency/): Days 1 to 30 should produce an audit, fixed tracking, an agreed scorecard (MER, new-customer CAC, contribution margin) and the first tests live. Days 31 to 60 should run a steady cadence of creative and landing page tests. Days 61 to 90 should show which angles and pages win and where to scale. Expect early signals in weeks, and a reliable read at around 90 days.
- [What Subscribe and Save Discount Should a Supplement Brand Offer?](https://succession.media/guides/supplement-subscribe-and-save-discount/): Most supplement brands land between 10% and 20% off for subscribers. 10% to 15% is the common recommendation, and a 2026 teardown of vitamin brands found a 20% median. Start at 15%, show the saving in dollars, state cancel-anytime terms plainly, and test a steeper first-order discount. Judge the winner on profit per visitor and retention, not signups.
- [Why Did My Shopify Conversion Rate Suddenly Drop? A Step-by-Step Diagnosis](https://succession.media/guides/shopify-conversion-rate-dropped/): A sudden conversion rate drop is usually one of three things: a measurement change, a traffic mix change, or something broken on the path to purchase. Check them in that order. Confirm orders actually fell, then compare traffic by channel and country, then buy your own product on a phone. Only redesign pages after all three are ruled out.
- [Why has my DTC brand plateaued, and how do I break through?](https://succession.media/guides/why-dtc-brands-plateau/): Most DTC plateaus come from one binding constraint: creative that has fatigued (cost per session rising), cold traffic landing on a page built for warm buyers (conversion falling), an offer that caps AOV, or subscribers churning at the first renewals. Break revenue into sessions, cost per session, conversion rate, AOV and repeat revenue, find the one that moved, and fix that before adding spend.

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