What We Found
GMV Max had been learning from the wrong data points. In his first month it was all mass sampling and getting low quality content, and because that was the only content to pull from, GMV Max was getting sales and collecting data points. By the time the paid content came in from retainer creators, GMV Max didn't have the confidence to spend on those videos and kept defaulting back to spending on the low quality ones. Out of 1,000 creatives only one had an “Outstanding” badge, and most of the spend was going to product card and two videos that were not getting a strong ROI.
The price was also working against him. It's a £34.99 serum in a category where most serums sell for £15 to £20, and the comments under the videos were people saying they loved it but it was just too much money.