You probably have heard a bit from author/speaker/biz guru Simon Sinek and his START WITH WHY Ted talk that propelled his career almost 20 years ago (you can view it here, if you haven't). Basically, succeed by focusing on your purpose—the WHY (cause)—rather than just the WHAT (products) or HOW (processes). "People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it." So, are you sharing it in your ads, your promotions, the very essence of your brand? Noom does. Can you spot other examples that work?

Hi guys! I spent about 800K on Facebook ads last year and thought I would share some insight into what works best. Especially as it is not as complex as it seems at first glance. 1. CBO TESTINGWe can all agree that Facebook is rather smart. Facebook wants you to get sales so that you come back and spend even more on their ads platform. This is the foundation for this simple account structure. For each of the big product categories you have (Tenst, Snowboards, Jacket, etc) you should have one CBO prospecting (testing) campaign. This means that you should have one CBO for all your jacket ads, one for all your snowboard ads, and one for all your jacket ads. The goal of this prospecting campaign is only to find the best-performing ads that hit certain KPIs in terms of CPA and/or ROAS. The theory behind this is simple. As I stated in the opening, Facebook is smart, they want us to yield great results from their platform. Thus we should help Facebook optimize as best as possible. By having one CBO prospecting campaign for each category, we let each CBO campaign get data on a specific customer type. By only feeding snowboard creatives into the snowboard CBO, we help Facebook define a specific audience. As the Snowboard CBO gets more and more data, it is easier for Facebook to show ads to the correct audience, the snowboarders. If we had gone the other way around and had one big prospecting CBO across all categories, we wouldn't make it easier for Facebook to target the correct audience, in fact, we make it harder. In addition to that, Facebook might find a winning creative from one adset, and give that all the spend. That means that we won't sell much from the other categories. Why do we test in a CBO and not an ABO? If we test in an ABO we force spending to each adset, and unless we have a 100% hit ratio of good creatives inside the adsets, we are doomed to lose money, resulting in lower profit margins. But if we on the other hand do the testing in a CBO we allow Facebook to determine what adsets and creatives to spend on. The ones that are most likely to perform the best will get the majority of the spend. This way we avoid spending on bad-performing ads.

Consumer always seek out the best choice, but when online results show 10,000+, your brain goes numb. So we "satisfice" — a combo of "satisfy" and "suffice.” That is, instead of chasing perfection, we pick the option that meets our minimum needs and move on. You can use this to cut through the clutter that those 10,000 hits represent. Take a peek at this ad. Does "free-range" or "cage free" actually mean what you think it means? After awhile, our bullsh*t meter starts to take over. So, Vital Farms chose a different, easier path — great creative that skips the BS (but blends copy and art to deliver a "satisficing" solution.

Most people think profitable ads come from: Better creatives Better targeting Better hacks That’s not the game. Ads don’t make money on their own. They amplify a business model that already works. Here’s what actually sits behind profitable ads: • A clear offer with a measurable outcome • Simple math (CAC < LTV — no guessing) • A defined next step after the click • Fast response + consistent follow-up • A way to turn one customer into many (retention, upsells, referrals) Without this, ads feel random. With this, ads feel boring — and boring is profitable. Two businesses can run the same ads. One scales calmly. The other panics at week two. Not because of the platform. Because one has a model… and one has hope. Simple takeaway: Ads don’t fix broken businesses. They fund clear ones. Question for you — If ads worked perfectly tomorrow, would your model actually support growth… or collapse under it?

There are so many good ideas just waiting for you (and me, too) to exploit. I know, we're in the creative business, and any purest will tell you that you should be the product of your "original ideas". NEWS FLASH: There are no "original" ideas... just inspiration and edits you can make to pick up a ball and run with it for yourself. Are you familiar with Allan Peters? Designer extraordinaire from the land of 10,000 lakes? Well, you should be, and "fixing" big brand logos is netting him (great) paying work from the very companies he's working on "speculatively". Show your own process on a logo (big or small)... or find a big brand logo and fix it. Film, photo, AI, make a short and post your reel. You may get trolled. Then again, if you think you're pretty good, you'll get fans. Actually be good, and you'll get work. 💰