run more ads
Successful advertising requires continuous creative testing to prevent performance stagnation. Businesses should aim to test a minimum of 20 creatives per week and allocate 10-20% of total ad spend to creative testing, accepting that winning ads will eventually lose effectiveness.
Summary
The speaker emphasizes that ad creative testing must be an ongoing, continuous process rather than a one-time activity. The core argument is that current winning ads will inevitably decline in performance over time, making it essential to have a pipeline of new creative assets ready before that happens. Without proper timing and a consistent testing regimen, businesses risk entering periods of significant revenue stagnation when their existing ads stop performing but replacement creatives haven't been identified yet. To operationalize this strategy, the speaker recommends establishing a minimum benchmark of 20 new creative variations tested per week. Additionally, the speaker addresses budget allocation, stating that winning ads must be sufficiently profitable to justify dedicating a meaningful portion of total advertising spend—specifically 10-20%—toward the creative testing campaign itself. This reframes creative testing not as an optional expense but as a necessary investment that profitable ads should be able to subsidize.
Key Insights
- The speaker claims that current winning ads will eventually decline in performance, creating the need for continuous replacement creatives to avoid business stagnation
- The speaker argues that poor timing in creative testing cycles creates massive periods of stagnation where businesses stop generating revenue
- The speaker recommends a minimum KPI of 20 new creatives tested per week as the baseline for ad testing programs
- The speaker states that winning ads should be profitable enough to justify allocating 10-20% of total ad spend back into creative testing
- The speaker frames creative testing as an ongoing, permanent business practice rather than a temporary or occasional activity
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] When should I test more creative? Always. Always run more ads. Always be testing creatives because your winner right now will die. And it takes time to find another one. If you don't time it right, there's going to be a massive period of stagnation in your business where you're just not making any money. Always be testing creative. The first KPI you should shoot for is a minimum of 20 creatives a week. The winning ads have to be so profitable that you're okay with having some spend, typically anywhere [music] from 10 to 20% of your total spend going to the ad creative testing campaign.
Full transcript available for MurmurCast members
Sign Up to AccessMore from Mark Builds Brands
Your funnel is a creative multiplier
A funnel acts as a creative multiplier that can dramatically improve the performance of the same creatives. By upgrading your funnel's conversion rate, average order value, or LTV, creatives that previously underperformed can become winners, making it easier to discover high-performing creative without necessarily creating better ads.
Don't split test the first page
Facebook penalizes split testing on landing pages after ad approval because it views post-approval changes as potential cloaking or non-compliance. The speaker demonstrates this through a failed listicle test that only succeeded when retested using new post IDs instead of modifying the original approved landing page.
Why winnings ads eventually die
Winning ads don't actually die; they hit a profitable spending cap that can be extended through strategic media buying, funnel testing, and improved unit economics. A creative is only truly dead after exhausting all optimization options within these levers.
Comparison is a net negative
The speaker argues that comparison is harmful before achieving initial success, but becomes motivating afterward. Social media distorts reality through lies and exaggeration, making premature self-comparison counterproductive and emotionally damaging.
funnel diversity - creative diversity
The speaker argues that funnel optimization matters more than creative diversity in advertising. A well-optimized funnel (high conversion rate, AOV, EPV) makes all creatives perform better, while a poor funnel makes even great creatives underperform—the metaphor being that the funnel is the ocean and creatives are boats that rise and fall with the sea level.