Lenny's Podcast · May 7Mastering paid growth | Jonathan Becker (Thrive Digital)
Grew from a walk-in closet side business into a 130-person agency managing about $500 million a year in ad spend. Built in-house ThriveStack, found MMM showed some attributed campaigns did not work, and found polished brand assets underperformed UGC.
Tips
- Test ad creative by changing one variable between two near-identical ads▶ 37:43One copy test found a version converting 50% more often at a given funnel stage, which became the new base copy to beat.
- Score leads by downstream revenue instead of chasing the lowest cost per lead▶ 51:00This solves the slow payback problem when leads take 2, 6 or even 12 months to turn into revenue.
- Diversify channels so no single paid channel drives your whole business▶ 13:49Becker has seen brands scale on one platform loophole and crash when conditions changed.
- Treat attribution as an ongoing investigation with no single source of truth▶ 1:02:41Thrive has built sophisticated attribution models that MMM then validated as showing campaigns did not work, which let clients move budget out.
- Test user-generated, phone-shot creative against polished brand ads▶ 40:42Polished assets underperformed user-generated assets across Thrive's tests.
- Test small playful creative changes, like putting a dog in the shot▶ 41:40That one change doubled or tripled the ROAS on paid social channels.
- Build a creative testing process instead of relying on accidental discoveries▶ 36:00Airbnb found listing photos without people converted much better, a result a testing process surfaces on purpose.
- Match different creative to each funnel stage instead of one homogeneous message▶ 36:00Repeating one ad creates banner blindness and a total lack of efficiency.
- Use founder-led iPhone videos and influencer partnerships on TikTok▶ 47:13TikTok's ads platform resembles Facebook ads 6 to 7 years ago, with cheap CPCs but weaker attribution.
- Budget for heavy creative production before scaling spend on TikTok▶ 50:17Few clients spend $750,000 a month on TikTok yet, partly because of the creative load.
- Hire technical, problem-solving people for your first performance marketing role▶ 1:18:15Becker has seen 10-year veterans be mediocre and one-year people be phenomenal.
- Ask a how-many-windows-in-New-York question to test composure in interviews▶ 1:20:00
- Hire an in-house marketer first, then add an agency▶ 1:13:45Thrive has no projects without a professional marketing point of contact on the client side.
- Answer what the client needs rather than every question in the RFP▶ 1:26:05Snap called two hours later to say they were hired.
