Scalability School

Question: What are category entry points, and how do you use them in Meta ads?Direct answer: Category entry points are the buying situations that make someone think of a category, like standing front row at a concert or lying awake next to a snoring partner, and the more of them a brand is linked to, the larger its share of mind and its share of sales. To use them, map situations across the whole category with the 7 W's rather than relying on your own customer surveys, score each one on size, frequency and brand fit, then launch ads that call out and show the situation. Tyson Drake recommends that situation-led ads carry more than half of ad account spend, ideally 60 to 80 percent, with roughly 80 percent of creative effort going into proven entry points and 20 percent into new ones.Category entry points are the buying situations that make someone think of yourcategory, and the more of them your brand owns in a customer's head, the more ofthe category's sales you take. Brad Ploch sits down with Tyson Drake, former CMOof The Oodie and now a fractional CMO for eight and nine figure DTC brands, toturn the Ehrenberg-Bass research into a tactical playbook for Meta ads. You'lllearn how to find category entry points with the 7 W's, how to prioritize themby size, frequency and brand fit, and how to launch, tag and scale the creative.We discuss:- What a category entry point is, and why nobody wakes up thinking "I need testosterone"- How mental availability works, and why brands thought of in more buying situations sell more- Category entry point examples, from front row at a Metallica show to a snoring partner- The difference between a persona and a category entry point- Why your own post-purchase surveys bias the research, and where to look instead- The 7 W's framework for mapping buying situations- How to prioritize entry points with ICE scoring, search data and frequency- Why situation-led ads should carry more than half of your ad spend- Statics vs video, and the naming conventions that make entry points trackable- The 80/20 explore vs exploit split, and how Loop grew beyond festivalsThis episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It’s a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they’re offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you!Follow Tyson Drake on X: https://x.com/tysondrakeGet the newsletter: https://www.scalabilityschool.com/scalability-newsletterLearn more: https://www.scalabilityschool.comScalability School is a weekly show from Andrew Foxwell, Brad Ploch, and ZachStuck about what is actually working right now in DTC growth. No theory, norecycled LinkedIn takes, just the numbers and decisions behind real brands andreal ad accounts.Chapters01:25 How Tyson Drake scaled The Oodie and taught himself marketing08:05 Mental availability: the research behind category entry points11:23 Category entry point examples: concerts, flights, snoring partners17:01 Category entry points vs personas: what's the difference?19:17 How to find category entry points with the 7 W's28:56 How to prioritize category entry points: ICE, size and frequency33:47 Why mental market share predicts sales market share38:36 How to launch entry point ads: statics, video and naming conventions47:07 Explore vs exploit: how to scale a winning entry point (01:25) - How Tyson Drake scaled The Oodie and taught himself marketing (08:05) - Mental availability: the research behind category entry points (11:23) - Category entry point examples: concerts, flights, snoring partners (17:01) - Category entry points vs personas: what's the difference? (19:17) - How to find category entry points with the 7 W's (28:56) - How to prioritize category entry points: ICE, size and frequency (33:47) - Why mental market share predicts sales market share (38:36) - How to launch entry point ads: statics, video and naming conventions (47:07) - Explore vs exploit: how to scale a winning entry point

How do you build a DTC offer that raises profit without hurting conversion rate? Simplify the offer so a shopper understands it in seconds, then raise MSRP so you can show a bigger discount at a higher final price. The offers scaling DTC brands run today are buy more save more, a discounted first subscription order, or tiered dollar-off bundles. Brian Ng of Digital Ride raised one brand's MSRP to $74.95 behind a 50% discount and saw conversion rate hold steady while the brand moved from a monthly loss to profit. In this episode, Andrew Foxwell, Brad Ploch and Zach Stuck talk DTC offer strategy with Brian Ng of Digital Ride, covering how to raise prices without losing conversions, the three offers scaling brands run right now, and how a $10M a month brand manages creative with outside agencies. You'll learn why raising MSRP behind a bigger discount can lift profit at the same conversion rate, how to test a new offer with a single URL parameter, and why more creative volume often makes performance worse. We discuss: What a bad DTC offer looks like, and why confusing offer pages lose the sale The three offer structures scaling DTC brands use: buy more save more, subscription-first, and tiered bundles How Brian raised MSRP to $74.95 behind a 50% discount and turned a monthly loss into profit How to test offers with Convert or Intelligems experiments versus sending ads to a new landing page How to forecast ecommerce revenue year over year and why you shouldn't scale before new customer ROAS is there Running a $10M a month brand's creative through three agencies with no in-house strategists Pricing psychology: why $39.99 beats $35.99, and a $30 price change that lifted profit per session 40% Get the newsletter: https://www.scalabilityschool.com/scalability-newsletter Learn more: https://www.scalabilityschool.com This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To connect with Brian Ng: https://x.com/briannjho To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn more about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com Learn more about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com Scalability School is the podcast for media buyers, agency owners and DTC operators who want to grow without guessing, hosted by Andrew Foxwell, Brad Ploch and Zach Stuck. Chapters 00:00 DTC offer strategy: why $39.99 beats $35.99 02:35 How Digital Ride grows DTC brands as a growth partner 05:27 How to forecast ecommerce revenue year over year 08:56 Can creative agencies replace an in-house creative team? 14:26 How much creative a $10M/month brand launches 22:29 The 3 offers scaling DTC brands run right now 23:55 How to test a new offer: Convert experiments vs new landing pages 25:29 How raising MSRP turned a monthly loss into profit 30:25 Pricing psychology: the $30 price change that lifted profit 40%

How much should you pay a DTC agency in 2026? For Meta ads management on its own, the market has settled between $2,500 and $5,000 a month, and paying above $5,000 only makes sense when the brand spends six figures a month or the scope adds creative, forecasting, and CRO. Creative is the one line item worth paying at the top of the market, because a single breakout ad can add $20,000 to $50,000 a month in profitable spend. Percentage-of-spend deals are fair when they carry a hard cap and a CPA or ROAS target attached, and they should never be charged against branded search. DTC agency pricing is all over the map, so Andrew Foxwell, Brad Ploch, and Zach Stuck break down what you should actually pay in 2026 using a Foxwell Founders survey of 200+ agencies. You'll learn the real retainer ranges for Meta ads management, when percentage of spend is fair and when it is a red flag, what a media buyer should be doing to earn the fee, and what creative, email, SMS, landing pages, and CRO cost right now. We discuss: What 200+ agencies reported charging, and why 4 out of 5 quote a flat retainer or a retainer plus a percentage of spend Why $2,500 to $5,000 a month has become the market rate for Meta ads management with no creative attached When to keep an agency, bring it in-house, or pay up for one exceptional freelancer Why percentage of spend only works with a hard cap and a CPA or ROAS target At what monthly spend incrementality testing starts to matter Why nobody should charge a percentage of spend on branded search Why creative is the one agency worth paying the most for What to pay content creators directly, with and without whitelisting Email and SMS pricing, and the attribution model that gets brands fleeced Landing page and CRO pricing per page and per month, plus five fixes that work on almost every store Get the newsletter: https://www.scalabilityschool.com/scalability-newsletter Full Episode and transcript: https://www.scalabilityschool.com/scalability-school-podcast/what-you-should-pay-a-dtc-agency-in-2026Learn more: https://www.scalabilityschool.com This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn more about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com Learn more about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com Scalability School is a weekly show from Andrew Foxwell, Brad Ploch, and Zach Stuck about what is actually working right now in DTC growth. No theory, no recycled LinkedIn takes, just the numbers and decisions behind real brands and real ad accounts. Chapters 00:00 What you should pay a DTC agency in 2026 01:58 What 200+ agencies told us about how they price 02:45 Meta ads management pricing: the floor, the market rate, the ceiling 04:42 Should the fee be flat, or tied to performance? 05:13 Why $3K to $5K became the market rate for ad management 07:36 When to use an agency, go in-house, or hire a freelancer 10:20 Why percentage of spend works when you cap it 11:01 What a media buyer should actually do to earn the fee 16:52 The gap between pressing buttons and real media buying 19:17 At what monthly spend does incrementality actually matter? 22:42 Google Ads agency pricing and the branded search problem 28:45 Creative agency pricing and why it is worth paying the most for 31:45 What to pay content creators directly 35:58 Email and SMS agency pricing without getting fleeced 39:42 Onshore vs offshore teams and what actually changes 43:20 Landing page and CRO pricing, per page and per month 48:15 How fast a landing page should go from idea to live 50:03 Five CRO fixes that work on almost every store

In this episode, Andrew Foxwell and Brad Ploch sit down with Hannah Houg and Matthew Gattozzi to answer the question every team is quietly avoiding: how do you use AI for creative strategy without losing the judgment that makes ads work? The short answer is that you bring AI a hypothesis instead of asking it for one. You'll learn which four parts of the process to protect from AI entirely, why the briefing stage is where ad quality actually degrades, and how to give your strategists room to think without torching your output. Hannah has built ads and campaigns for 300+ DTC brands. Matthew's studio has driven $100M+ in client revenue. Both use AI daily. Both have watched it quietly weaken the same muscle they get paid for. We discuss: Why every creative brief in the space suddenly looks the same The difference between AI helping your research and AI writing your hypothesis Why AI is good at following rules and bad at breaking them, and why that matters for scale How Hannah lost the ability to write a script after a few months of AI-first drafting What a genuinely good AI input looks like (and why it's built before you open the tool) The one-sentence goal every brief needs before anyone writes a word Why building 7 personas on a $10k/month budget is a math problem, not a strategy What "deep context" actually means, and why most teams don't have it Why the efficiency-vs-quality fight is a leadership conversation, not a tools conversation Join The Scalability School Newsletter: https://www.scalabilityschool.com/scalability-newsletter This episode is sponsored by Proppel, the hiring agency that has placed more than 75 employees for Foxwell Founders members. Get 10% off your first hire when you mention the Scalability School Podcast: https://www.weareproppel.com/foxwell-founders-proppel This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To connect with Hannah Houg send a DM at: https://x.com/hannahhoug To connect with Matthew Gattozzi send a DM at: https://x.com/MatthewGattozzi To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn more about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com Learn more about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com. Chapters 00:00 Intro: why AI creative strategy is producing the same ads everywhere 04:08 Why every creative brief suddenly looks the same 07:18 What makes a great ad, and why AI can't break rules 10:22 Is research or briefing where AI actually hurts ad quality? 12:26 Why AI can't come up with the big idea 14:33 The danger of letting AI write your hypothesis 16:39 How AI quietly degrades your copywriting muscle 19:45 How to find an insight before you open AI 25:55 Why hyper-specific creative is winning on Meta right now 29:57 Why your team needs space to think, not more output 30:58 Has any LLM actually cracked ad copywriting? 33:00 Why creator talent match beats a perfect script 37:07 What a good AI input actually looks like 40:10 The one-sentence goal every creative brief needs 44:14 The persona trap that sinks small ad budgets 47:21 What "deep context" actually means 50:24 Why strategists want to slow down while owners push efficiency 53:27 Why this is a leadership problem, not a tools problem 56:32 Break your margins today for performance later 57:32 Bonus: the Michigan method

This episode is a tactical deep dive into two of the biggest measurement questions in DTC right now, capped off with Zach Stuck joining to break down how MarsMen sets ad budgets off forecasted recurring revenue. The first half is a real client case study on Meta's Incremental Attribution (IA). Brad walks us through an apparel brand, with an AOV just over $100, strong organic and influencer traffic, and $150-200K per month in spend. A conversion lift study at the start of the year showed their one-day click ROAS almost perfectly matched their true incremental number, so 1DC became the account's benchmark. When they tested IA head-to-head against one-day click (each with its own holdout), IA looked terrible in week one, then dramatically better in weeks two and three, and the lift study combined with Triple Whale MTA data validated the win. Then Meta changed its click attribution definition in March (only outbound clicks now count as clicks, with profile clicks and comments moved to "engaged"), and IA performance deviated hard from one-day click, Triple Whale, and product-level MER. IA also stopped responding to bid adjustments. The takeaway: they reverted to one-day click, with a plan to retest IA in three to six months as Meta feeds the model more conversion lift data. The second segment covers creative cohort spend analysis: breaking down each month's spend by the month the ads were launched. If most of May's spend is running through ads launched last year, your new creative isn't earning spend and something is broken in the pipeline. If nearly all spend is from ads launched in the last 30 days, you are over-reliant on a few recent outliers. Splitting the view by evergreen versus promo ads shows whether new creative is compounding month over month, which is what actually earns the right to scale spend. Zach adds Homestead's layer on top: tracking "breakthrough" ads ($2K spend in 7 days at target) versus scaled ads every month. The final segment is Zach on how MarsMen scales: if you can forecast next month's recurring revenue, you can spend into that full amount, as long as your blended MER covers OPEX and your new-customer ROAS holds at target. He walks through the cash-flow traps (90-day subscriptions deferring revenue, promos shifting cohort behavior), MarsMen's rebuilt forecast model that applies retention curves at the individual customer level, daily new-customer targets by channel, and a reactivation play: offering discounted one-time purchases to list subscribers who never converted because they didn't want a subscription, which he estimates is worth hundreds of thousands per month. Key Takeaways Why Meta's Incremental Attribution passed a conversion lift test, only to then fall apart three weeks later. How you can REALLY spend 100% of next month's forecasted MRR on ads this month, and when that math breaks. The one thing that might be the real reason as to to why your account performance suddenly shifted after March 2026. The percentage of this month's ad spend that should come from ads you launched this month, and what it means if the answer is almost none. Is your "dead" email list quietly hiding hundreds of thousands in monthly revenue? Why one-day click beats seven-day click for brands with heavy organic traffic, and how to know which one your account should trust. What a "breakthrough ad" actually is and why your creative team should be measured on them every month. Caution: How adding a 90-day subscription offer can put your cash flow at risk 60 days later. Should subscription brands hold email, SMS, and organic to daily new-customer quotas the same way they do paid? Is the creative volume game dead, or are the people abandoning it just measuring hit rates wrong? Chapters 02:32 — Should you test Meta's Incremental Attribution in your account? 07:30 — How do you design a fair test of one-day click vs. Incremental Attribution? 11:32 — What did Meta's new click attribution definition change, and why did it break results? 14:02 — When should you turn Incremental Attribution off and go back to one-day click? 26:30 — How do you run a creative cohort analysis to see if your new ads are earning spend? 35:31 — How does a subscription brand use next month's MRR to set this month's ad budget? 46:02 — How do you turn a "dead" email list into six figures of monthly revenue? This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To con...

Harry Delmege, co-founder of Roly Poly Digital, joins Scalability School for a tactical conversation about what actually separates an ad spending $500 a day from one spending $10K a day. Harry's agency, named by Andrew's daughter Nora, has rapidly become one of the most respected creative shops in DTC by pushing back on a lot of what the industry is currently selling: high-volume AI-generated workflows, format obsession, and the relentless push to do more without slowing down to do it well. The conversation digs into Harry's creative philosophy, which he distills into three things he checks every ad against: promise, proof, and (workshopped live on the episode) puzzling (big thanks to Brad). They cover his preference for long-form "yapper" ads, why he insists on manual research over AI-assisted research, how he hires creative strategists from non-media-buying backgrounds, and why he thinks the closest thing to a real "hack" in the current environment is just relentlessly studying organic content and ripping off what's already working. Harry also shares his real take on the volume-versus-quality debate, including a pointed observation that brand-side complaints about agency performance have spiked at exactly the same time the industry adopted AI and started preaching volume. Key Takeaways What actually separates an ad that spends $500 a day from one that spends $10k a day How AI-assisted creative research is actually hurting your hit rate What is a "yapper ad" and why are most agencies/ brands not running them? Why Harry believes a U-turn on creative volume is on the horizon Where true creative innovation actually comes from and is it what you actually need for success. Why "open loops" is the most misunderstood term in creative strategy This 1 thing is the entire secret of high-performing creative. This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To connect with Harry Delmege, send him a DM at https://x.com/harrydelmege_ To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn more about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com Learn more about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com

Marin Istvanic joins Scalability School for a deep tactical session on what it actually takes to scale e-commerce brands to nine figures with paid media on Meta. Marin is one of the most hands-on media buyers in the DTC space, managing upwards of 5 to 7 million dollars a month in ad spend across his agency clients and his own internal brand (and this episode reflects that). The conversation launches right into the hard hitting questions with the debate around ABO versus CBO and when each actually makes sense. Marin's full whitelisting flywheel (300+ influencer profiles, authority pages, dark posts running through multiple handles in the same session), cost cap weekend scaling and what he calls the "gladiators arena" ad set, how he uses different attribution settings as a signal to Meta that a campaign is structurally different, and why he still manually picks every thumbnail across all his accounts. He also shares how he used AI to synthesize his full YouTube library into a 50-page media buying philosophy document and then how he fed his top-spending ads into a landing page template that outperformed the control by 10%. Key Takeaways ABO vs. CBO - is the debate actually settled, or does the right answer depend on something most people never measure? Is whitelisting dead - or are you just running it wrong? What does a "cost cap weekend scaling" actually look like in practice — and how to spend $25K on a Saturday without blowing up your CPA? How changing this window actually tells Meta this is a different campaign. Why Marin still manually picks every thumbnail - If the "hacks" everyone is chasing are mostly noise, this is what actually moves the needle at scale. This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To connect with Marin, send him a DM at https://x.com/IstvanicMarin To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn More about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com/ Learn More about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com

Host Brad flies solo to walk through exactly how his team structures Meta creative testing across eight figures a year in ad spend. The episode is a tactical follow-up to a previous episode with Phil, prompted by a viral Twitter thread Brad posted on the same topic. The core philosophy: stop trying to outthink Meta's algorithm on budget allocation. Instead, run a single CBO campaign per product or offer, treat ad sets as simple folders (not audience segments), and let Meta decide where the money goes. Brad backs this up with real ad account screenshots, shows why a higher-spending campaign with a lower ROAS can actually be healthier than it looks, and closes out with answers to the most common follow-up questions he received from the community. Key Takeaways Why Meta's algorithm is smarter than you at deciding which of your ads deserves more budget and what that means for how you should structure your campaigns. The single reason you need to stop creating more ad sets and start stacking all your ads in one. Your top-spending ad set has a lower ROAS than the one barely getting any spend, does that mean you're burning money, or is Meta showing you something you're missing? The truth behind what actually happens when you pull it into an ABO to force-test it. How do you build a creative testing system that generates consistent weekly output without needing a huge production budget or team. What "spend is a signal" actually means for your creatives and how you should decide when to turn an ad off (You might actually be turning them off too early) Is splitting your account into a testing campaign and a scaling campaign helping you, or just adding complexity that slows down Meta's learning? How new visitor percentage and frequency metrics should change the way you interpret your campaign's ROAS. The actual risk of running ads to two completely different customer personas inside the same ad set on broad targeting. How to tell when it's time to question your creative quality versus just staying patient with your launch cadence. This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality , they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn More about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com/ Learn More about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com

Andrew Foxwell (Foxwell Founders / Scalability School) sits down with Andrew Faris (AJF Growth / The Andrew Faris Podcast) for a joint co-release episode to break down the findings from the Foxwell Founders x Motion 2026 State of Agencies Report. A data-rich survey of hundreds of agency owners and in-house operators across 30 countries. The conversation covers AI's dual role as the #1 growth opportunity and the #1 threat for agencies, why only 11% of agencies have produced clear top-performing AI-generated ad winners, the reality behind agency margins (42% running net margins above 30% while many founders still struggle), why in-housing is the #1 reason agencies lose clients — and why it usually backfires — and the uncomfortable truth that many agency founders grow for ego rather than strategy. Along the way, Faris offers a sharp framework on how brands should think about paying their agencies, and Foxwell shares candid coaching insights on what separates agencies that thrive from those that stall out. Key Takeaways: Why 26% of agencies say AI-powered services are their biggest growth opportunity — yet privately admit they're terrified of it? Is AI actually working for creatives or is just generating slop? (Only 11% of agencies have produced a clear top-performing AI-generated ad winner.) 42% of agencies report net margins above 30%. So why are so many agency founders telling Andrew Foxwell they're broke? Is in-housing the worst move most brands make? The gross margin range your agency should be sitting between. Are agency founders growing because they have a strategy or because they want to sit at the big [kid] agency table? When the average tenure of an in-house growth director might only be ~18 months, is there a fundamental misalignment between founders and the people they hire? If AI amplifies slop just as well as it amplifies great ideas, why do so many agencies think volume is the play? Should more brands be firing their CRO agency and building more with Claude Code? This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to www.northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To learn more about Andrew Faris, The Andrew Faris Podcast and AJF Growth you can follow him on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/andrewjfaris Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@andrewfarispodcast Email: [email protected] Work With AJF Growth: https://ajfgrowth.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn More about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com/ Learn More about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com

In this episode of Scalability School, host Andrew Foxwell is joined by Phil Kiel of Taikun Digital and co-host Brad Ploch to tackle the single most-asked question in the Foxwell Founders community: how do you actually test creative on Meta in 2026? The question was asked over 160 times in just 45 days, making it the undisputed #1 topic among media buyers and brand operators in the community. The conversation digs into two distinct camps of creative testing, forced spend (ABO) versus letting ads earn spend (CBO) and unpacks the real-world pros, cons, and trade-offs of each. Phil, who runs accounts at significant scale, makes a compelling case for the CBO-first, content-centric approach, arguing that the role of Meta's algorithm is to allocate spend to the best creative, not for buyers to manually dictate it. The episode also confronts the volume trap: the pressure media buyers feel to launch massive quantities of ads every month. Phil's take is refreshing and practical, 8 to 10 solid concepts per month (roughly 40–50 assets) is a solid starting point for most brands, built around strong creative briefs rather than raw volume. The hosts challenge the Twitter/X culture of flex-posting ad launch numbers, arguing the real metric that matters is creative quality and concept diversity. Key Takeaways: Are you forcing spend into creative tests and accidentally funding your worst ads? Is the ad set structure in your Meta account actually doing anything, or is it just an expensive folder? How many new creative concepts should you be launching per month? CBO vs. ABO for creative testing: which one is actually right for your account right now? Why launching too many ads may be training your account to spend on losers. What does it actually mean to 'let ads earn spend' and how to know when a creative concept has really failed versus just not getting a fair shot. Why creative volume is the wrong metric to optimize and what you should be tracking instead. What's the difference between a creative concept and an ad asset? The one thing you should do today if you're a brand owner paralyzed by creative output pressure. This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To learn more about Phil Kiel and the Taikun Digital team you can follow him on X https://x.com/PhilKiel or head to https://www.taikundigital.com/ To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn More about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com/ Learn More about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com

In this episode of Scalability School, Andrew and Brad are joined by Daniel Okon, CEO of ACTIV, a growing digital first agency that has also moved to incubating/growing multiple 7 figure brands in the health & wellness space, to decode Meta's "Andromeda" update. Andromeda has created a huge shift in the ad ecosystem where the algorithm (via systems like GEM and Lattice) now aggressively favor true creative diversity over simple iterations. Daniel breaks down why old scaling methods like duplicating winners or making minor tweaks are yielding diminishing returns. Instead, he introduces a research heavy framework focused on identifying "sub-avatars" (specific customer behaviors or pain points, like "bloating after pizza") rather than broad demographics. The conversation covers the tactical "pull forward" method for extending winning angles into new formats, how to conduct manual research that AI can't replicate, and why your creator briefs should focus on trust and niche authority over brand aesthetics. If you've been stumped by Andromeda, Daniel and the Scalability team do a great job sucinctly explaining the changes and what advertisers need to do to be successful on the platform once again. Key Takeaways: Is your ad account suffering because you're confusing "creative volume" with actual "creative diversity"? Why Meta's new "GEM" system penalizes ads that look different but mean the same thing. How most advertisers are capping their own scale by targeting broad demographics over specific "sub-avatars". How the "Spray and Pray" testing method has all but ran out of ink and the "Exploration vs. Expansion" framework that is replacing it? How a simple "Q&A" static image can easily outperform a high-production video ad in the new world of Andromeda. This episode of the Scalability School podcast is sponsored by NorthBeam and they just launched Northbeam Incrementality. Northbeam Incrementality gives you easy, automated, self-service incrementality tests, while protecting you from the major mistakes so many people make while running incrementality tests. Your MTA handles the daily tactics, your MMM guides the long-term planning, and Incrementality provides the causal truth. It's a closed loop that allows you to scale what works and cut what doesn't. Right now when you head over to northbeam.io/incrementality, they're offering Scalability School listeners 50% off unlimited tests for a year when you join. Just tell them we sent you! To learn more about Daniel Okon and his team you can follow him on X https://x.com/thedanielokon or head to www.weareactiv.com To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn More about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com/ Learn More about the The Hive Haus Creators Community at http://HiveHausUGC.com

This episode is a tactical breakdown of AppLovin as a scaled acquisition channel—what's actually different vs Meta, what you should change in creative + campaign structure, and how to think about incrementality + reporting so you don't judge it with the wrong yardstick. Miranda Pettinger, Performance Marketing Manager at 365 Holdings explains how they onboarded to the platform when Meta was underperforming and AppLovin started popping off in buyer circles. They used a Triple Whale onboarding credit to test with low risk, and at the time it wasn't even self-serve (you had to Slack the rep for changes). The short on "why AppLovin works" is AppLovin's rewarded inventory creates an opt-in attention trade ("watch this 30s ad, get coins"), which changes the psychology from "I'm annoyed by ads" to "I'm choosing to watch this." That makes the creative game feel closer to a 30-second TV spot: you've got time to explain, objection-handle, and sell in one sitting. From there it turns into a playbook with these Keytakeaways: 18:30 Bidding / structure: ROAS vs cost-per-purchase, why value doesn't work for some catalogs and how to structure campaigns 19:40 DPAs + catalog control: Why DPAs can help if you've got lots of variants and the importance of controlling what products show up. 25:50 Measurement reality: AppLovin tends to under-report purchases, especially at scale, so you want to validate with post-purchase survey, MER/traffic lift and/or a 3rd party data tool. 29:30 Incrementality / overlap: The Meta+AppLovin overlap and how Meta+Google overlap is likely way bigger. 33:55 Creative testing: unlike Meta where "testing vs scaling" can feel walled off, AppLovin can allow new winners to climb fast inside the same campaign, without dumping spend on junk. 38:30 End cards: offers matter a lot. How animation helps, and showing variants (colors/metal types) can lift clicks To connect with Miranda, you can follow her on x at https://x.com/mirandpettinger To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn More about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com/

*]:pointer-events-auto [content-visibility:auto] supports-[content-visibility:auto]:[contain-intrinsic-size:auto_100lvh] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" tabindex="-1" data-turn-id= "039e736c-4eb5-4502-a0c0-eae8ef56dab4" data-testid= "conversation-turn-4" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn= "assistant"> This bonus BFCM episode is a full debrief on what actually worked over Black Friday/Cyber Monday with real numbers, not theory. Zach Stuck comes out of paternity leave to break down his most recent Twitter "Beef" on why most Google agencies have their incentives completely misaligned (especially when they're charging % of spend on branded search). He also goes over how his team engineered a BFCM weekend that drove huge revenue without torching margin. We walk through this offer that took hourly revenue from ~$50k to $142k and then again to $172k while still holding around 9x MER. We cover the exact structure of the offer, how it affected AOV, and why time-boxing the offer beat running a gift-with-purchase the entire weekend. You'll also hear how they built daily and hourly pacing models out of Shopify and ad platform data so they knew by midday whether they were ahead, behind, or needed to push harder. From there, we get into the channel and creative side: how much budget actually went into BFCM-specific ads vs evergreen, the retention structure that printed 10x+ ROAS and the specific ad concepts that spent over Black Friday and held strong through Cyber Monday. We even talk about total amount of emails and sms messages that went out on Black Friday alone, and why the list didn't revolt. If you're a media buyer or e-com operator looking to turn BFCM from "hope and vibes" into a repeatable system, this episode is basically the playbook you'd normally only get inside a private Slack group (like the Foxwell Founders Community). Key Takeaways: What actually happens when you time-box an offer to a single hour on Black Friday. How many emails and texts you can really send on Black Friday before you burn your list The importance of building a BFCM pacing sheet to know if you're behind and need to push. How much budget actually went into BFCM-specific creative vs evergreen ads. What a "creative diversity" roadmap for BFCM actually looks like in practice. How you can structure a Meta retention campaign that prints a 10x+ ROAS without lying to yourself (or clients) about incrementality. How to let creative do the targeting and still keep accounts manageable through the BFCM chaos The specific BFCM ad concepts that actually spent $90k+ and worked. To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [email protected] To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck Learn More about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com/ Learn more about Andromeda and GEM as Andrew breaks them down on the Perpetual Traffic Podcast. https://www.foxwelldigital.com/blog/the-new-meta-gem-era-how-andromeda-creative-diversification-amp-organic-signals-are-reshaping-performance-marketing