I’ve been nerding out lately on what all the Facebook/Meta advertisers are saying about what really works right now to grow with ads.
Here’s some of my casual morning reading (I prefer to print podcast and YouTube transcripts to learn faster):
One of my businesses spends about $1.3M/mo on marketing with 70%+ of that on paid ads (biggest channel is Meta), so I’m no newbie…but I wanted to sharpen the sword.
Here’s the most surprising advice from the agency owner, good media buyer, and 8-figure brand owner, Zach Stuck:
Only run static image ads until you’re at $100K+/mo in sales
We all think we need UGC, influencer videos, fancy sales videos, etc. just to start advertising on Meta/Facebook.
Not true.
Like the old copywriting rule…what matters most is the MESSAGE. The MEDIUM (image vs. video) is only 20% of the result.
First, figure out who is buying your product
Download a bunch of your reviews (or reviews of your competitors) and use this prompt to uncover WHO is buying your product and WHAT they care most about:
I’m going to paste a list of reviews for [YOUR PRODUCT NAME]: [YOUR PRODUCT URL]
Analyze the reviews I provide and give me:
1. Top 3–5 Buyer Personas, ranked by how commonly they appear in the reviews. Each persona should describe a type of person — not a benefit category. Think: life stage, daily routine, identity, or role (e.g., “retired woman in her 60s–70s,” “busy mom adding it to her morning coffee routine,” “middle-aged man who works out regularly”). Clues to look for in reviews: age mentioned, gender, life circumstances, daily habits, how they found the product, what else they take alongside it.
For each persona:
- A short label that describes who they are as a person (not what they want from the product)
- Who they are in 1–2 sentences — only using details explicitly stated in the reviews. No invented details.
- 5–7 reasons WHY this type of person is buying the product, in their own language
2. 10 Standout Customer Quotes verbatim from the reviews that reveal motivation, a specific benefit felt, or an objection overcome.
Ground rules:
- Personas must describe people, not benefits.
- Everything must come directly from the reviews. If it’s not stated, don’t say it.
- Rank by frequency — most common persona type first.
The reviews are in the attached uploaded files.
Second, create static image ads targeting those buyers
The first step gives you the right messaging (WHO + WHAT). Now, you just need to create a variety of static image ads that speak to those people in their own language.
Here are four of the most popular image formats you can use to create effective ads for ANY business or product:
- Them vs. us
- Before and after
- Infographic
- Testimonial
There are a bunch more. I created a quick tool to help you apply the 15 most common static image formats to your product.
Free gift: The Static Ads Prompt Generator
I created a tool to combine your product with 15 proven static image ad formats, so you get ready-to-use prompts to create ads with your favorite AI image generator (Nano Banana, GPT Image 2, Higgsfield.ai, Kreator.ai, etc.).
Get it free here (no optin required because I already GOT YO EMAIL) >>
Enjoy!
-Matt
P.S. Own a 7- or 8-figure business and want to scale with Shopify + paid ads? Apply to work with me here (I’m opening a new, highly limited cohort soon).