Ramin Karimi · Findings, vol. XI Why people
actually buy.

Performance marketer, Toronto. Founder of ORCAS Marketing.

Eleven years, 130+ brands, over a million units sold. Everything here came out of a live account with real money in it, so none of it is theory and none of it is in order.

Send me a message Visit ORCAS

Ramin Karimi, performance marketer, in downtown Toronto — R. KarimiToronto

11Years in the accounts

130+Brands

1M+Units sold

29Written up in full

Ozlo Sleepbuds · truMedic · Bondi Born · myBrainCo · Odin · Andrew Schulz · 18.21 Man Made · Doze · Avena Originals · Giarité · BlueCube · C3 Training · LocoLuxury · The Art of Living · Makers Cabinet · Golden Carers · NoNetz · Plunge Therapy · Enerex Botanicals · DRYKI · Poseidon Animal Health · Coconut Matter · THE LNK · MagBak · Forgotten Skincare · Savvy Touch · M.S. Skincare · Mr. Black · Everyman · Ozlo Sleepbuds · truMedic · Bondi Born · myBrainCo · Odin · Andrew Schulz · 18.21 Man Made · Doze · Avena Originals · Giarité · BlueCube · C3 Training · LocoLuxury · The Art of Living · Makers Cabinet · Golden Carers · NoNetz · Plunge Therapy · Enerex Botanicals · DRYKI · Poseidon Animal Health · Coconut Matter · THE LNK · MagBak · Forgotten Skincare · Savvy Touch · M.S. Skincare · Mr. Black · Everyman ·

Finding

One sentence was worth eleven times the average.

Same product. Same audience. Same budget. The only thing that changed was the line at the top of the ad.

BrandtruMedic

Variable testedHeadline only

The line"Her face says it all."

Industry average CTR0.90%

What it did10%

10%against0.90%

Eleven times the industry average link click through rate, from a single sentence. That is the whole argument for taking creative seriously.

Finding

You do not find the winning ad. You breed it.

Run twelve. Ten die. Two live. Take what made those two live, make twelve more, kill ten again. Do it until the thing that survives is unrecognisable from where you started and prints money.

Most people run three, pick their favourite, and call that a strategy.

Generations4

Started with12

Survived2

Fig. 02 · selection pressureFilled = survived

Finding

The category never turned out to be the variable.

Massage devices. Cold plunge tubs at five thousand dollars. Sleep technology from ex-Bose engineers. Gut health enzymes. Horse supplements. Nothing on this wall has anything in common with anything else on it, which is exactly the point.

The category changes. What makes a person stop and buy does not.

truMedic truShiatsu Pro ad featuring Oprah Winfrey — truMedicROAS 1 → 6.5

Odin Ice Baths take the plunge ad — OdinROAS 10×

Ozlo Sleepbuds ad, say goodbye to sleepless nights — Ozlo~30,000 backers

Avena Originals gut health enzyme ad — Avena OriginalsSupplements

Poseidon Animal Health equine supplement ad — PoseidonAnimal health

Savvy Touch Rocket Fuel sports supplement ad — Savvy TouchSports

myBrainCo brain nutrition sale ad — myBrainCoNootropics

C3 Training gym classes lead generation ad — C3 TrainingLead gen

LED lighting kit ad, control everything with your smartphone — LED kitsMy own, at 19

The index

Every brand, and not one of them like the last.

E-commerce, lead generation, SaaS, travel, a stand-up comedian and a senior care platform. Some were launches, some were rescues, some went to global retail. Twenty-nine of them are written up in full.

Years active2015 — 2026

Brands130+

Industries18

Industries

E-commerceLead generationSaaSConsumer techSupplements Fashion & apparelSkincare & beautyHealth & wellnessFitness & coaching TravelCreator & entertainmentAnimal healthMen's groomingHome & sleep Creative toolsSenior careAccessoriesEDC

What I actually do

Paid acquisition

Meta and Google. Account structure, budget, scaling, and knowing when to stop.

Creative strategy

Angles, arcs and hooks. Twelve at a time, not three. The part that moves the number most.

Pre-sell pages

The second act after the click. Took truMedic from 3 to 6.5 on its own.

Signals and tracking

Conversions API, event quality, feeding the algorithm something true.

Lead generation

Speed to lead, qualification, and follow up that actually gets answered.

Launches

Crowdfunding through to global retail. Ozlo did roughly 30,000 backers.

The method

I drew the whole thing before I could explain it.

ORCAS is not a word I liked the sound of. It is five things in order, and I have not needed to change one of them since. The tools have all changed. The steps have not.

Drawn2023

Steps5

Changed sinceNone of them

The original ORCAS seal, drawn by Ramin Karimi in 2023

The original sealDrawn 2023

The current ORCAS mark, redrawn by Confident Creators

Where it got toBy Justin, Confident Creators

OOmnipresent

Be on the drivers. Meta, Google, wherever the attention actually is that week.

RRelevant

Pre-sell pages and experiences. Meet them where their head already is.

CCreative

Worth more than everything else combined. Campaign arcs, not one-offs.

AAdvertising

Send the right signals back. The machine only learns what you feed it.

SSystems

How all of that fits one specific business. That part is never a template.

The original ORCAS process diagram: idea, brief, formats, placements, test, funnel, read, repeat

Same page, lower half · idea, brief, formats, placements, test, funnel, read, repeat2023

Where the data came from

I have been on both sides of the invoice.

First adAge 19

Own money in$60,000

Came back$149,412.94

BasedToronto, Canada

I learned what advertising was at thirteen, in my father's restaurant, watching which nights were full and asking why. The first thing I ever sold was my own. At nineteen, newly in Canada with no English, I put everything I had saved into LED kits and the ads to sell them, without really knowing how any of it worked.

It worked, and I did not walk away from it feeling clever. I walked away knowing it would work far better once I understood it. I have started and run several businesses of my own since. That is the part most people buying media have never done, and it changes how you read a number.