Good News Isn’t Always True News
🤨The dashboard is green. The client is thrilled. But you should be sweating.
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🤨Good News Isn’t Always True News
The dashboard is green. The client is thrilled. But you should be sweating.
There’s nothing more dangerous than a padded ROAS report. You celebrate too early, and suddenly you’re scaling a channel that isn’t acquiring.
If 80% of your conversions are coming from branded search, you’re not marketing. You’re intercepting. You’re paying to catch the people who were already going to type your name in.
This is the Google Ads trap:
- Broad match terms leak brand keywords
- PMax floods budget into branded queries
- Misspellings and existing demand pad the averages
But when you strip out all the brand-related conversions? That 5× drops to 0.8 real fast.
What Real Acquisition Looks Like
You’re not in business to protect demand. You’re in business to create it.
That means:
- Cold Meta campaigns that pull 2× on $25K spend = real growth
- Non-brand search that converts = real intent capture
- Retargeting flows that rebuild demand = real lifecycle leverage
If your paid media engine can’t survive without your name in the query, it’s not an engine, it’s a toll booth on your brand equity.
How to Fix the Fantasy Metrics
- Break out branded vs. non-branded spend in every reporting template.
- Exclude brand keywords in cold acquisition campaigns; religiously.
- Normalize for funnel stage; compare warm retargeting vs. cold separately.
- Score campaigns on new user %, not just ROAS.
- Don’t let CPM envy mislead you; high volume without lift is still wasted spend.
Smart marketers don’t just chase results; they audit the source of those results. Because surface-level success is the most expensive kind of failure.
The numbers may look nice, but if they’re built on brand leakage, you’re not scaling. You’re shadowboxing. Want to see real performance?
Kill the comfort metrics. Follow the cold ones.
Together with Eko
🧩 The Clues You Need Are Already on Your PDP
You’ve optimized headlines, tested CTAs, and updated copy. But if you’re not analyzing product gallery behavior, you’re missing the most revealing layer of customer intent.
This is where real purchasing behavior lives: pausing on an image, zooming in, or skipping a photo altogether.
This guide from Eko reveals how these micro-interactions predict conversions (or dropoffs) better than heatmaps ever could.
Here’s what you’ll unlock:
- Which gallery zones cause hesitation before abandonment
- How high-scroll but low-click patterns signal decision fatigue
- Learn how to spot the “bounce pattern” before it happens
- What photo sequence best drives click-to-cart behavior
- How to segment by scroll depth and tap speed
It’s not about starting over. It’s about finally seeing what your customer sees, and how they interact when no one’s watching.
Download the free guide and start optimizing where it counts most!
📽️ Reel of the Day
What Works:
1. Reverse Reveal: Sitting Before We Know It’s a Bag - The reel opens mid-action, he’s already sitting comfortably. Viewers assume it’s a chair, until he suddenly stands, folds it, and turns it into a bag. This reverse reveal structure flips expectation, creating a satisfying twist that surprises without editing tricks.
2. POV Caption + Action = Relatable Micro-Drama - “POV: your birth year starts with 19” is a punchy callback to ‘90s kids’ who now crave comfort on-the-go. The real joke lands when he stands up, as if to say: I know I’ll need to sit again in 10 minutes, so I’m packing my seat with me. That physical punchline makes the POV caption hit harder in retrospect.
3. Unspoken POV Cinematography - The camera doesn’t break. There are no cuts. The still frame with movement inside it builds realism and trust, we’re not being “shown” a demo, we’re just watching someone exist. This “documentary” feel boosts believability and makes the twist feel even more impressive.
Broader Insights:
This reel doesn’t start with the product. It starts with identity, a wink at anyone feeling “kinda old” but still a little playful. It sneaks function into a joke, and ends with a product that just makes sense. In an era where people want products that multitask (but not look like it), this chair-bag hybrid hits the sweet spot between “smart buy” and “internet-worthy.”
Thanks for reading this edition! Keep pushing boundaries, testing ideas, and staying inspired. See you in the next edition with more ways to ignite your marketing success. 🥰