You’re not testing, you’re gambling
🎯 Why Most Brands Burn Budget Chasing Winners Instead of Building Them, Google Ads Gets SMB-Friendly, and more!
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In this newsletter, you’ll find:
🎯 Why Most Brands Burn Budget Chasing Winners Instead of Building Them
🛠️ Google Ads Gets SMB-Friendly
🏆 Ad of the Day
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🎯 Why Most Brands Burn Budget Chasing Winners Instead of Building Them
If you’re testing 3–5 creatives a week, you’re not testing, you’re gambling. We’ve scaled dozens of DTC brands, and there’s one truth every plateaued account eventually faces:
Volume isn’t optional anymore. It’s the difference between hoping and knowing what works.
The 40+ Creatives Rule
No creative team hits on gold every time. But when you push 40+ ads per month, you unlock two levers:
- Statistical certainty, you don’t scale guesswork.
- Angle intelligence, you discover what types of messaging resonate, not just which ad won.
This doesn’t mean 40 new ideas. It means building adaptable creative systems:
- 4 hook variants × 3 VO styles × 3 offer CTAs = 36 ads
- 1 day of B-roll, 2 voiceover creators, 1 editing team
That’s your entire creative calendar.
The Hidden Enemy? Channel Burn
Even great creatives fail when the platform’s too crowded. Meta’s auction pressure means testing gets expensive fast, especially at volume.
That’s why we allocate a % of creative tests to Snapchat Ads. Snapchat gives you high-impact reach among 13–34s, with users 34% more likely to buy after seeing an ad, and far less auction pressure.
Serenity Kids saw a 47% CAC drop and 2.7x ROAS by leading with Snap-first UGC.
When your tests run cheaper and convert smarter, you scale faster.
Snapchat also offers $375 in bonus ad credit when you spend $350, meaning you test wide, early, and without burning Meta budgets. You can start immediately with Snapchat Ads here.
The Real Test Is This:
If your team isn’t producing 40+ ad variants per month, you’re not iterating fast enough to keep up with fatigue.
If your platform strategy doesn’t include cheaper, high-conversion lanes like Snapchat, you’re paying more to learn less. Creative volume is no longer the extra lever. It’s the price of playing.
And the brands winning now? They’re not making more ads. They’re building better systems, and using smarter platforms to test them.
🛠️ Google Ads Gets SMB-Friendly
Google quietly rolled out two major updates that simplify campaign setups and widen access to advanced targeting, affecting both how you track conversions and how you build audiences for Search campaigns, with big implications for SMBs and data-driven teams.
The Breakdown:
1. Enhanced Conversions Move to New Tag - Google has removed Enhanced Conversions from the standard GTM conversion tag. Advertisers now need to implement a new dedicated tag to continue collecting hashed first-party data like emails.
2. What It Means for Setup - Separating Enhanced Conversions from core tracking simplifies workflows and reduces setup confusion. But it also puts pressure on advertisers to double-check GTM configurations to maintain tracking continuity.
3. Customer Match Minimums Drop to 100 - Google slashed the Search campaign requirement for Customer Match lists from 1,000 to 100 users, unlocking high-intent targeting for smaller brands that previously couldn’t qualify and also mirroring the recent YouTube policies.
Together, these changes reduce technical barriers and widen access to advanced targeting features. Smaller advertisers can now compete more effectively in Google Search, while all marketers must update GTM setups to avoid losing conversion data.
🎥 Ad of the Day
What Works:
This ad doesn’t just sell clothes, it sells a feeling. Showing a relaxed couple basking in summer sunlight leverages emotional contagion: viewers subconsciously absorb the carefree, joyful energy. The worn, sunlit wall evokes a rustic European vibe, enhancing the sense of laid-back adventure and lifestyle escapism.
The large “Summer Kickoff Sale” text is front and center, making the offer instantly recognizable. The use of white font over the sunlit photo background creates optimal contrast and ensures high readability even on mobile.
Toad&Co already has eco-conscious brand equity, and this ad subtly reinforces it visually. The natural color palette, which includes yellows, earthy reds, and linen tones, echos sustainability and mindfulness. The models’ styling is casual but well-fitted, striking the ideal balance between nature lover and lifestyle-aware urbanite.
Broader Insights:
It’s not just a sale, it’s the start of a summer lifestyle. This ad triggers FOMO (fear of missing out) on the season’s best moments, then provides an instant remedy: “shop now, live lighter.” For an audience that values experience over excess, this is frictionless, brand-aligned, and deeply aspirational.
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