Filipe Santana: how a Brazilian producer builds nutra VSL offers and reads the US market

Filipe Santana is a Brazilian direct-response producer who builds VSL offers, including nutra (supplement) offers in Brazil, and who has compared the economics of selling in the US. He started in 2021 with marketplace dropshipping, moved into freelance copy and site work, and then became a producer with a partner experienced in nutra. He designs offers from research into ingredients and mechanisms, and in the VSL makes the viewer believe in the problem before presenting the solution, with proof for every claim.

This profile is based on a long podcast interview published in early 2025. Only a summary of that episode was available, so the points below stick to its main themes, and revenue figures are left out.

Who is Filipe Santana?

By his account, Santana started in 2021 selling through marketplace dropshipping in Brazil. When those accounts were taken down he moved to his own Shopify store and scaled a gadget category until the market saturated and buyers stopped trusting it. He then freelanced, stepping into urgent situations for clients as a manager and learning copywriting and site building along the way.

Watching how much his clients made from their offers convinced him to become a producer himself. His first product, he said, was a pack of ad creatives, and he learned marketing through a course and a great deal of self-study. He later partnered with someone who had worked in the nutra market since 2014, and together they built supplement offers. Earlier, his dropshipping work had included selling on Amazon in the US.

Here is that path in five steps:

From dropshipping to nutra offers

By his account, in a podcast interview (early 2025)

1. 1Marketplace dropshippingHe started in 2021, selling through marketplace dropshipping in Brazil.
2. 2His own Shopify storeWhen those accounts were taken down, he scaled a gadget category until the market saturated and buyers stopped trusting it.
3. 3FreelancingStepping into urgent situations for clients as a manager, and learning copywriting and site building along the way.
4. 4ProducerWatching how much his clients made from their offers convinced him to become a producer himself. His first product, he said, was a pack of ad creatives.
5. 5Supplement offersBuilt with a partner who had worked in the nutra market since 2014.

Research first: how Filipe Santana builds a nutra product

Santana described research as the first step of any offer, above all the search for new mechanisms and ingredients. He uses large marketplaces as a research source to see which ingredients and product types are gaining traction.

He stressed that the specific form of an ingredient matters, using turmeric's active compound, curcumin, as an example of how the type and form of an ingredient change what it can credibly be sold for. For a copywriter, that detail is the difference between a generic product and a mechanism with a reason to believe.

Two habits stand out:

1. Start from the solution. He prefers to begin with the solution and work back to the problem. It makes the product easier to sell and lets him reuse frameworks across offers.
2. Build the logic around a ready product. When the formula already exists, the job is to find the logic that links its ingredients to the problem and to the solution. When there is no ready mechanism, he builds the argument step by step, as a chain of premises that lead to a conclusion.

The unique mechanism guide covers how to turn that logic into a mechanism the VSL can carry. The honest limit: the logic has to be supported by evidence, not just plausible.

The rules at home: why Brazil is a hard market for nutra

Santana pointed out that Brazilian rules separate supplements, herbal medicines and drugs, and that a mistake in how a product is classified or advertised can have serious legal consequences. Brazil's health regulator, ANVISA, sets the sanitary requirements for food supplements in RDC 243/2018, and it consulted on changes to that rule in 2025 (ANVISA public consultation).

The US has its own line between supplements and drugs. A supplement may make structure/function statements with the FDA disclaimer, but a claim to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate or prevent a disease makes it a drug claim, and implied claims count (21 CFR 101.93). Moving markets doesn't remove the rules; it swaps one set for another.

Brazil vs the US: the economics he described

His comparison of the two markets is one of the clearest explanations of why so many Brazilian producers look north. By his estimate, validating an offer in the US costs roughly three times more per sale than in Brazil, but the average ticket is also roughly three times higher. Validation takes more cash, and the ceiling is much higher.

A worked example with illustrative numbers: in Brazil an offer costs the equivalent of $35 per sale to validate and sells a $70 average order. In the US the same offer costs $100 per sale and sells a $200 average order. Both roughly double their ad cost, but each US sale leaves $100 before product costs against $35 in Brazil, and the US audience is larger. The catch is the test budget: a hundred validation sales cost $10,000 instead of $3,500.

Side by side, the same illustrative numbers look like this:

One offer, two markets

Illustrative numbers from the worked example above, Brazil in dollar equivalents

Brazil: cost per sale to validate$35

Brazil: average order$70

US: cost per sale to validate$100

US: average order$200

He named men's health, blood sugar and weight loss as the most promising categories, and hearing and survival products as less explored in Brazil. The who's who of Brazilian nutra operators shows how common the move to the US has become.

How he structures the VSL argument

Santana described the core argument in two steps. First, the viewer has to believe they have the problem. Then they see a viable solution. If the first step fails, the second sounds like a pitch; if it works, the solution feels like relief. This is the order of the argument in the video, not of product design: he designs the offer from the solution, but the viewer meets the problem first.

The two orders, side by side:

Solution first in design, problem first in the VSL

Solution firstDesigning the offer

• Research comes first: new mechanisms, specific ingredient forms and what the market already buys.
• He prefers to begin with the solution and work back to the problem: it makes the product easier to sell and lets him reuse frameworks across offers.

Problem firstThe VSL argument

• First, the viewer has to believe they have the problem.
• Then they see a viable solution.

If the first step fails, the second sounds like a pitch; if it works, the solution feels like relief.

One claim, two proofs, three benefits

He uses a simple ratio for claims: each claim is backed by two proofs and tied to three benefits. Whatever ratio you use, the principle protects you twice: viewers believe claims that are proven, and regulators expect health claims to be backed by competent and reliable scientific evidence (FTC Health Products Compliance Guidance).

Here is the ratio applied to a fictional joint-support formula:

The ratio in practice

Example for a fictional joint-support formula

1. 1One claimThe formula is designed to support joint comfort after activity.
2. 2Two proofsProof 1: a published study on the main ingredient at the dose used, cited on screen. Proof 2: third-party testing of the batch for identity and purity.
3. 3Three benefitsComfort on morning walks, keeping up with grandchildren, fewer days skipped at the gym.

Stories and the hero's journey

He recommends real stories to build empathy and uses the hero's journey (a call to adventure, mentors, a transformation) to shape them. He also described combining several stories into one before writing the introduction. If you combine stories, present the result as an illustration, not as one real person: a composite presented as a real customer is a testimonial that never happened, and the FTC's Endorsement Guides require testimonials to reflect real experiences (16 CFR Part 255).

He also talked about opening narrative loops that keep the viewer watching, testing new elements inside the VSL, and keeping the ad and the VSL congruent, so the promise in the ad is the first thing the VSL delivers.

Creatives, hooks and organic tests

He builds ads from the sales copy itself: a hook, the problem and solution in brief, and a soft first call to action. By his account, his Facebook ads run up to about a minute and a half and his YouTube ads two to three minutes.

His rule of thumb for hooks is that a good one keeps at least half of viewers through the first three seconds. You can measure that as hook rate in your ad platform. He also uses organic short video, on TikTok and YouTube Shorts, as a cheap test: a format that works organically tends to work in paid campaigns too.

Closing, upsells and the back end

On the close, Santana talked about urgency, stepped pricing and restating the benefits between calls to action, noting that retention drops after the first call to action, so whatever follows has to earn attention again. Urgency must be real: a deadline that resets or stock that never runs out is deceptive. Stepped pricing has to use prices you really charge. The VSL offer stack guide covers the honest version of each.

He said upsells with several products in them can raise conversion substantially, and he described the back end as where profit really lives: a front end that loses money can be covered by back-end sales, and in his view the operators who scale furthest are often the ones willing to lose the most at the front. He tied the back end to product quality, because repeat orders only come from a product that works for the buyer.

That model is powerful and risky in equal measure. Measure reorders and refunds by monthly cohort before you buy traffic at a loss, and keep enough cash to wait for the back end. The upsell funnel guide covers what to offer after the first order.

News sites, messaging apps and webinars

He described placing VSLs on news portals to borrow their credibility. Paid placement on real publishers is a legitimate channel, but the content has to be clearly labeled as advertising: the FTC treats ads disguised as editorial content as deceptive (native advertising guide). Our advertorial guide shows how to label them.

He also mentioned short VSLs sent through WhatsApp and weekly webinars that deliver value before the offer. Both work best as follow-up channels for people who have already opted in, rather than as cold traffic.

How to apply his approach

Tick these off as you plan your next offer; the ticks stay in this browser:

Apply his approach

• Research ingredients and mechanisms before you write a word, and note the exact form and dose that the evidence supports.
• Draft the solution first, then the problem it solves, then the logic that links them.
• Model the economics of each market before you choose one: test cost per sale, average order and the budget a hundred test sales will need.
• Back every claim with two proofs, and cut any claim you can't prove.
• Use real stories, and label composites as illustrations.
• Pre-test hooks and formats organically, then pay to scale the ones that hold attention.
• Keep urgency real and reference prices honest.
• Build the back end around a product good enough to be reordered. The nutra marketing guide puts the full funnel together.

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