BIO / THOMAS SMETHURST

Thomas Smethurst is a creative strategist with a background in high-scale customer acquisition on paid social, specialising in driving data-driven performance.

Black and white portrait of a smiling man with short, dark hair and facial hair, wearing a casual T-shirt, standing in front of a brick wall.

The Story

Thomas Smethurst’s journey started as a full-time uni student studying Criminology and English. Answering a call-out for someone who “knew Photoshop”, Thomas started at Afterpay in the Shop team onboarding merchants onto the Afterpay website and app.

After a shift in the team, Thomas joined the Paid Digital Customer Acquisition team, where I found a passion for data-driven creative strategy. Thomas led paid channels through significant budget growth while improving efficiency and strengthening performance over time. He is focused on building systems that drive sustainable, long-term results rather than just short-term wins. Known for taking full ownership of outcomes, he works closely with brand and analytics teams to lift performance and has a strong interest in leveraging AI to make marketing teams faster, sharper, and more effective. Thomas also invests in the broader success of his team, contributing to cross-functional initiatives and fostering a collaborative, accountable culture where strong ideas thrive and genuine connections are built.

Thomas doesn’t just "make ads"—he builds repeatable growth systems. From scripting high-retention UGC to architecting AI-powered creative frameworks, he focuses on the entire sprint cycle: Hypothesis → Rapid Execution → Signal Detection → Scale. At Afterpay, he has spearheaded experimentation across Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, managing thousands of assets and refining the creative-to-media-buying feedback loop to drive millions in new customer growth.

Beyond the Dashboard

Outside of work, you’ll find me on the football pitch, learning to surf, cheering on at a Broncos game, or behind the decks DJing. I believe the best strategists are those who stay curious across sports, music, and the creator economy.

Two male DJs performing at a nightclub, one with curly blond hair and the other with straight brown hair, both wearing headphones, with a crowd taking pictures in front of them and colorful stage lighting.
A young man surfing on a wave at a water park or pool with a white wall and onlookers in the background.
Group of friends at an outdoor event, smiling at the camera, with a large screen and advertising banners in the background, including a cartoon of a man with a drink and a silhouette of a person, under partly cloudy skies.