Services · Paid social

Meta, TikTok and YouTube, run against margin

A paid social account is not a set of campaigns. It is a rate of learning. At $3,000 to $15,000 a month you cannot buy your way past a weak ad, so the accounts that keep improving are the ones that answer one creative question at a time, write the answer down, and act on it while it is still true.

Why small accounts stall around month four

Almost every account we inherit at this size has the same shape. The first two months look good, because the easiest audience was still unclaimed and the first few ads were genuinely new. By month four frequency has climbed, the winning ad is being shown to people who have already seen it nine times, and cost per purchase drifts back up about as fast as it came down. The usual response is to rebuild — new campaigns, new audiences, another learning phase — and on a budget this size each rebuild costs a week or two of unstable delivery the account cannot afford. Structure was rarely the constraint. The constraint is that one or two new ads a month cannot outrun the rate at which a small audience tires of them, and that nobody wrote down what the last round of ads actually proved.

What the work is

Paid social, in four parts.

A test cycle that actually concludes

Each test starts with the question written down before any money is spent: is it the hook, the format, the offer or the proof? On Starter, the four new ads a month run as one or two tests; on Growth and Scale, a new test goes live every week. At these budgets a test rarely collects enough purchases in seven days to be conclusive, so we read the early signals first — hook rate, click-through rate, cost per add-to-cart — and confirm on cost per purchase over the following two to three weeks. Ads that win are iterated into a family. Ads that lose are switched off, not left running quietly at low spend.

Account structure that stays still

We consolidate to as few campaigns as the budget supports — usually one or two per platform at this spend — because every rebuild throws away the learning that made the account work. Broad targeting, few ad sets, creative as the variable. We restructure when the business changes, such as a new product line, a new market or a new price point, not when one week goes badly.

Bidding against your real numbers

Target cost per purchase is set from your contribution margin and repeat rate, not from a number the platform is comfortable with. For a brand where most first-time buyers reorder, that can mean paying more for a first order than the last agency would; for a one-time purchase, considerably less. It needs your actual unit economics — price, cost of goods, shipping, returns and discounts — which is the first thing we ask for.

One named buyer, start to finish

The buyer who audits your account is the buyer who runs it and the person you email when spend moves. There is no account manager passing messages to someone you have never met. On Growth and Scale you review each month with that buyer on a call; on Starter, the monthly report explains every change we made and why we made it.

What you receive

Account management on one platform (Starter), two (Growth), or Meta, TikTok and YouTube (Scale)
A creative test plan, with every result written into the monthly report
A monthly performance report: spend, cost per purchase, blended return and test results
A monthly review call with your buyer on Growth and Scale

Timeline

Audit and account access in week one. First new ads live in week two. The account is usually on a steady test cycle by week four, and the first fair month-over-month comparison lands around day 60 — before that, the numbers mostly reflect the clean-up rather than the new work.

Who this is for

DTC brands spending roughly $1,000 to $15,000 a month on ads, with a gross margin high enough to pay for a first order — usually 50% or more. Below about $1,000 a month there is too little data for a test to say much, and the ads audit plus a few pay-as-you-go creatives is the better use of your money. Above $15,000 a month you will need more creative volume than our plans include.

What it costs

Priced on the pricing page — no quote needed to find out.

Questions

About this service.

Do you charge a percentage of spend?

No. A flat monthly fee inside a spend band: $250 for up to $3,000 a month in ad spend, $345 for up to $8,000, and $420 for up to $15,000. Our fee does not rise because your budget did, so we have no reason to talk you into spending more than the account can absorb. If you grow past your band, we tell you before the next invoice and you decide whether to move up.

Will you work inside our ad account or yours?

Yours, always. You own the ad account, the pixel, the history and every creative file. You pay the platforms directly; our fee covers our work only. If we part ways there is nothing to migrate.

Can we start on one platform and add another later?

Yes, and we usually recommend it. Most brands start on Meta, prove a creative angle there, then add TikTok when they move to Growth. Scale adds YouTube, which tends to earn its place once you have short-form video that already works. You can change plans at the start of any month.

All questions →

The rest of the account

Media, creative and measurement are one job.

Creative production

Ads built to be tested, not to be admired

Static and short-video ads made from your footage and product photos, briefed from what the account has already learned.

Measurement

Numbers you can make a budget decision on

A pixel and event check in every audit, Conversions API setup on Scale, and a monthly report that puts platform claims next to what your store actually took.

Send us your ad account

Start with the one-week ads audit. We will tell you what we would change in the first month, and the $160 is credited against it if you continue.

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