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Steph Walsh is the Co-Founder of WiLF, a TikTok-first agency helping brands drive growth through creator content, UGC and social commerce. In this Q&A, she shares why content mix matters more than trends, how a nano creator campaign delivered a 6.2x ROAS, and why brands need to stop treating TikTok as an organic-only channel.
1. What’s one social strategy you’ve doubled down on this year that’s actually moved the needle?
Honestly, the thing that's made the biggest difference this year is getting the content mix right for brands and being really intentional about it.
We stopped leaning so heavily on branded content and started thinking about every piece of content having a job to do. UGC builds trust; people trust real voices, especially Gen Z, who are increasingly sceptical of anything that looks too produced. Creator content builds reach, inspiration and culture. And branded content anchors who you actually are. When those three are in balance, everything performs better.
The shift that's really compounded things is layering search intent on top of that mix. Over half of Gen Z now start their product research on TikTok before they even open Google, so we started asking "what are people already searching for? and how is this relevant to our brands mission, vision, community and values" before we briefed any content, whether that's UGC, creator or brand how can we create content that applies SEO to each peice of content to continue to build our community and drive KPI’s from a paid perspective.
2. Walk us through your best performing post. What was the idea, why did it work, and how did you know it hit?
We are working with a health and wellness brand in the supplements space and honestly the post that performed best wasn't the one we expected.
We briefed a number of nano creators to just talk about their morning routine. No script, no hard sell. The only ask was that the product had a natural moment in it, they used it, they mentioned why, that was it. The creator put their own spin on it completely and it felt nothing like an ad, which was exactly the point. She was a true reflection of our target consumer and so authenticity delivered the results. A few things came together. The hook was personal and specific, it wasn't "here are 5 reasons to take magnesium," it was "this is the one thing I changed that helped me actually sleep." That kind of specificity is what stops the scroll. It also tapped into a search behaviour we'd already spotted — people looking for natural sleep solutions was a rising query on TikTok at the time, so the content had organic discovery working in its favour too.
We turned it into a Spark Ad and that's when the sales really moved with the Smart+ Product Catalogue on TikTok. We hit a 6.2x ROAS on that campaign, with a 3.1% conversion rate. The cost per acquisition came in well under what the brand was used to seeing from Meta.
We’re looking to build nano creator / UGC catalogue for our clients as Social Commerce becomes more prominent in a shift in the industry, we want to be prepared for the shift and have those relationships already in place.
3. What’s a mistake you see brands making on socials right now that’s quietly killing reach or engagement?
Two things I see constantly, and both are quietly doing real damage.
The first is brands chasing trends that have nothing to do with who they are. I get it — you see something blow up and you want a piece of it. But if it doesn't fit your brand's DNA, the views don't mean anything. You might get a spike in views, but doesn’t deliver on your long term social growth and business KPIs. They're not engaging, they're not converting, and the algorithm picks up on that pretty quickly. Reach without relevance is just noise for brands.
The second one is treating TikTok as an organic-only channel and this one is going to really hurt brands who haven't figured it out yet. Paid on TikTok isn't just about reach, it's about data. It tells you exactly what's resonating with your actual target audience, what hooks are working, what's driving action, the creators/ UGC partnerships that are delivering on sales. That insight is invaluable on its own but it becomes critical when TikTok Shop launches here. The brands who've been running paid, testing creative, UGC parters and understaing their TT audiences and building that data foundation are going to hit the ground running. The ones who haven't are going to be starting from scratch while their competitors are already scaling.
4. What’s the metric you care about most and why?
Difficult question to answer. In my view, it's all down to the business KPI's/ marketing objectives and the campaign. The metric of focus should be different dependant on the brief and what success looks like for each brief.
5. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given about content or creativity?
Great content ideas can come from anyone and anywhere...
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6. What’s the worst advice you followed for way too long?
"Don't put yourself out there until you're ready"Not sure anyone is every ready to start a TikTok agency. We waited so long until the website was ready, the deck was polished and everything was in place. The best advise to counter that is: "Just go for it"
7. What book, album, podcast, or creator has quietly shaped how you think about your work?
Honestly, Emma Grede. I'm obsessed with her!
Her podcasts and her latest book "Start with Yourself" (100% worth a read for women in business) have quietly shifted how I think, not just about brands, but about backing yourself (something that's been my biggest challenge and learning starting WiLF). She talks about building brands with real purpose behind them, and I genuinely believe that. The brands that last aren't the ones that chased every trend they're the ones that knew exactly who they were, never wavered from it and reflecting that across the entire business and social eco-system.
That belief shows up in everything we do at WiLF. In how we brief creators, how we push back when something doesn't feel true to a brand, and in how I think about building this agency too.
8. What’s a habit or rule in your workflow that keeps you sane and consistent?
Always maintain the non-negotiables, for me it's: Moving my body everyday, a morning walk with my fiance & co-founder of WiLF for a coffee and Face-timing my mum in the UK <3
9. If you had to explain your content strategy to a non-marketer in one sentence, what would you say?
We make content people actually want to watch on TikTok, get the mix of brand, creator and UGC right that provides a deeper understanding of the brand, and then use paid to amplify what's already working across the funnel. That's how you build trust, test creative and drive sales at the same time.
10. What’s something about working in socials that doesn’t get talked about enough?
How much creativity and craft actually goes into it.
There's this assumption that because the output looks casual, a 30 second video, a quick post, it must have been easy to make. But that casualness is the craft. Making something feel effortless, authentic and uncontrived takes real skill, real time, and real creative thinking. The best performing content on TikTok looks like someone just picked up their phone. What you don't see is the strategy behind why that topic, the research into what people are searching for, the ten versions of the hook that didn't work, and the instinct it takes to know when something is actually going to land.Social media is one of the most fast-moving, creatively demanding disciplines in marketing right now. The people doing it well are strategists, creatives, trend forecasters and data analysts all at once — often in the same afternoon.
I think the industry deserves a lot more credit for that than it gets.
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