Summary of "The New Way to Run Meta Ads in 2025"

Summary of "The New Way to Run Meta ads in 2025"

This in-depth conversation with Nick Shackleford, a former professional soccer player turned marketing expert and founder of Structured Agency, Constant Creative, and partner at Breeze (a fast-growing beverage brand), covers the evolving landscape of Meta ads and digital marketing strategies in 2025. Nick shares insights on customer acquisition, creative strategy, ad account management, retention, product development, and brand building.

Main Financial Strategies and Business Trends

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) & Lifetime Value (LTV) Focus
- Target CAC for Breeze is $85-$90, willing to spend up to $120-$130 if necessary due to strong LTV and repeat purchases.
- Early-stage brands often need to be first-purchase profitable, but brands with repeatability can afford to spend more initially.
- Initial months focus on market education and accepting break-even or slight losses on first purchases to build customer base.
Testing Budgets and Learning Curve
- Large test budgets ($75k-$100k) speed up learning, but smaller budgets ($500-$10k) can still yield insights, just slower.
- Early tests focus on price validation, CPM, CPC, click-through, and cart abandonment to optimize pricing and product-market fit.
Creative Testing Methodology ("Smoke Test")
- Start with simple image ads with clear value props (e.g., reduce anxiety, increase focus).
- Expand winning angles into video ads explaining the value deeper.
- Test gender representation subtly (e.g., hands/arms instead of faces) to avoid subconscious biases.
- Continuously iterate creative by rearranging narrative "bricks" (hook, problem, solution, benefits).
Creative as the New Targeting
- Meta’s evolving algorithm prioritizes storytelling and creative narratives over strict audience targeting.
- Media buyers must evolve into creative strategists, blending creative development with media buying.
- Creative localization (e.g., featuring people who look local) improves ad performance.
Ad Account Structure and Spend Allocation
- Shift from segmented funnel campaigns (top, middle, bottom) to organizing by creative assets and consistent storytelling.
- Ideal budget split: 70% on proven winners, 30% on new tests; in downturns, shift to 90-100% on winners.
- Dynamic budget adjustments based on real-time data and upcoming marketing events (e.g., product launches, emails).
Retention and Lifecycle Marketing
- Key retention metric: Revenue per recipient segmented by cohorts (subscribers, repeat buyers, one-time buyers).
- Churn reduction tactics include education, subscriber giveaways, and product usage guidance.
- Communication frequency and variety (founder notes, support messages, product tips) improve retention.
- Use of "wow budget" for surprise gifts or replacements to delight customers and encourage loyalty.
Product and Offer Strategy
- Focus on products with repeat purchase potential and efficient packaging for fulfillment cost savings.
- Offer creation based on channel, margin, and customer lifetime value.
- Use high perceived value, low-cost gifts-with-purchase (GWP) to reduce CAC and increase LTV.
- Bundle and upsell strategies based on customer purchase behavior (e.g., 6-pack vs. 12-pack).
Organic Content’s Impact on Paid Ads
- Organic posting positively affects ad account performance by building trust and brand familiarity.
- Posting consistently on social platforms (at least twice daily) recommended for brand growth.
Scaling Creative Production
- Volume of creative assets is crucial; a successful week might include 10 concepts with 20 total ads.
- Creative briefs should include clear product info, placement specs, examples of winning and losing content.
- Blend internal and external content creators with clear communication and iterative feedback.
Emerging Trends: Clipping Culture and Creator Marketplaces
- Use of marketplaces where creators produce content on demand, paid only upon approval, enabling scalable content creation.
- This "army" of creators can generate vast impressions without follower dependency, similar to TikTok Shop’s affiliate model.
- Expected to disrupt traditional media buying and content creation models.
Founder Involvement in Early Ad Management
- Founders should manage or deeply understand ads up to $10k-$30k monthly spend to ask better questions and reduce wasted budget.
Data-Driven Decision Making
- Real-time tracking of spend, CAC, email capture, CPM, and conversion metrics is essential.
- Coordination between marketing and finance teams for forecasting and dynamic budget allocation.
Brand Building and Transparency
- Building in public (sharing P&L, growth metrics) can create market signals, attract talent, partners, and tech opportunities but carries