Ruggable has spent the last 18 months dismantling the direct-to-consumer performance playbook that built the brand, its chief marketing and creative officer said.

Lauren Sherman-Kaoud, who holds the top marketing role at the washable-rug maker, described the shift in blunt terms. "What got us here is not going to get us there," she told Digiday.

Her comment cuts to the core of a wider problem. The classic DTC formula — spend heavily on Meta ads, collect the conversions — has stopped delivering the returns it once did. Digital ad costs keep climbing while performance dwindles, according to the report. Ruggable's answer is to redirect budget toward creators on ShopMy, the affiliate and creator commerce platform.

What does this change for DTC marketers?

The move signals where mid-size DTC brands now place their bets. When paid social stops working as a reliable growth engine, brands do not simply trim budgets. They rebuild the mix around channels where creator credibility drives conversion.

For Ruggable, that means treating creators on ShopMy as a primary advertising channel rather than a supplementary one. The company confirmed the strategy shift covers ad spend, not just organic influencer seeding.

For practitioners watching their own Meta line items, the signal is straightforward. A brand that grew up on performance advertising has decided the channel no longer justifies the spend it once did — and 18 months of restructuring suggests this is a deliberate repositioning, not a short-term experiment.

A playbook under pressure

The report frames Ruggable's decision against the broader squeeze on DTC economics. Rising digital ad costs have eroded the margin that once made heavy Meta spending self-funding. Performance, in the brand's assessment, has dwindled alongside that cost inflation.

Sherman-Kaoud's phrasing — a "classic" problem, in her words — indicates the leadership team views the situation as structural rather than cyclical. Brands facing the same math now have a named example of a company that chose creator commerce over incremental performance spend.

The question other DTC marketers will watch: whether creator-led channels like ShopMy can deliver measurable conversion at the scale paid social once provided. Ruggable's 18-month commitment suggests the brand believes they can, and its results will offer the industry a live test of that thesis.