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Index/Keep Optimising
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Customer Acquisition: Meta Ads for 2026 - with Elyse Collat

Keep Optimising · 30 min

0:00--:--

Key moments - from our scoring

Substance score

61 / 100

Five dimensions, 20 points each

Insight Density12 / 20
Originality11 / 20
Guest Caliber15 / 20
Specificity & Evidence10 / 20
Conversational Craft13 / 20

Elyse Collat, a digital growth leader with 15 years in e-commerce and triple-digit growth across brands like Frank Green, outlines a pragmatic approach to Meta ads scaling beyond one-off campaigns. The core insight is that creative now doubles as targeting - Meta's Andromeda update allows brands to run wildly different concepts (targeting horse people, dog people, bunny people) in a single campaign if each creative is hyper-specific about who it's for. Rather than creating 20 new videos, Elyse recommends recording 1-2 core videos with 8-10 different hooks per recording, then systematically filing and recombining them. This compounds creative output exponentially: brands should deploy 4-5 new concepts weekly (smaller) to 10-20 weekly (larger). The second pillar - constant testing - means allocating 20-30% of budget to challenge conventional tactics: testing Advantage+ without exclusions, hunting indirect interest groups (Taylor Swift audiences for female-skewing brands), running top-of-funnel campaigns both hands-off and prescriptive, and revisiting tests monthly to catch shifts. The advice suits six-to-seven-figure DTC brands focused on new customer acquisition through conversion ads, not those seeking quick fixes.

Key takeaways

  • →Record 1-2 core videos with 8-10 different hooks each, then chop and recombine them across new concepts - no need to shoot 20 videos from scratch.
  • →Meta's Andromeda update allows multiple customer segments (horse people, dog people, bunny people) in one campaign as long as each creative is hyper-specific about who it's for.
  • →Allocate 20-30% of budget to testing counterintuitive tactics like Advantage+ without exclusions, indirect interest groups, and monthly re-tests of previously failed strategies.
  • →Systematize your brief to creators with clear angles, messaging, and the requirement for 5-10 hooks per video to multiply content iterations without creating linear work growth.
  • →The three variables to isolate in testing are the hook, the overall concept/angle, and the creative type (POV, founder, warehouse), not micro-details like background color.

Guests

Elyse Collat

Topics in this episode

Lookalike audiencesUGC (user-generated content) creatorsMeta Advantage+ campaignsAndromeda updateCreative flywheel systemCustomer acquisition for e-commerceInterest-based targetingTop-of-funnel campaignsCost per acquisition (CPA) optimizationVideo hooks and concepts

Questions this episode answers

Can I run ads targeting completely different customer demographics in the same Meta campaign?

Yes - Meta's Andromeda update allows multiple entirely different creative targeting different audiences (e.g., horse owners, dog owners, bunny owners) in one campaign, as long as each creative is hyper-specific about who it's for. This often performs better than slight variations of a single concept across separate ad sets.

How often should I add new creative to my Meta ads account?

Smaller brands should deploy 4-5 new concepts weekly minimum; larger brands can handle 10-20 weekly. These don't need to be fully new productions - they can be recombined hooks, angles, and visual types from existing recorded content.

What should I brief to a UGC creator or influencer creating Meta ads for me?

Give them a strong brand brief on your angles, the customer segment they're targeting, and your messaging, then ask them to record 5-10 different hooks per video. This multiplies content iterations from one creator without requiring repeat shoots.

How much of my Meta budget should I reserve for testing and experimentation?

Allocate 20-30% to testing; a common rule is 80% on what's working and 20% on continuous testing, though Elyse tests even more aggressively to find counterintuitive wins in areas like Advantage+ settings and indirect interest groups.

What three things should I actually measure to determine if a piece of creative is successful?

The hook (the opening line), the concept/angle (the broader problem or brand positioning), and the creative type (POV video, static image, founder-led, warehouse footage). Don't get hung up on micro-details like background color.

What our scoring noted

Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.

Insight Density

12 / 20

The episode delivers practical, actionable frameworks around creative flywheels and testing structures that would be useful to practitioners. However, significant portions are consumed by setup preamble, sponsor ads, and general motivational advice ('embrace growth mindset', 'stay consistent') that lacks novelty. The specific tactics - recording multiple hooks per video, organizing files systematically, maintaining 80/20 testing budgets - are concrete, but the density of truly non-obvious insights is moderate rather than exceptional.

the more specific you are in your creative and the more obvious it is who that product is for. You can actually put six or seven, you know, as many as you want, different target customers in the same campaign
record 8 to 10 hooks that they record per video that are all very strong and very different

Originality

11 / 20

The core frameworks presented (creative hooks, testing splits, the 80/20 rule, raw/authentic creative) are well-established best practices in performance marketing circles rather than contrarian or first-principles thinking. While Elyse mentions testing interest groups like 'Taylor Swift' and challenges conventional advice around Advantage+ settings, these feel like incremental tactical notes rather than original strategic insights. The 'creative flywheel' framing is presented as potentially non-original ('I'm sure I'm not the only one who calls it that').

Content is king right now
the uglier the better. The more raw the better. The less it looks like an ad, the better

Guest Caliber

15 / 20

Elyse Collat is a legitimate practitioner with 15 years of e-commerce experience, including work on brands that achieved 'triple digit growth' and handled budgets up to '$30 million months.' She demonstrates real operational fluency across account setup, creative production workflows, and team scaling. However, the transcript lacks specific named client case studies (Frank Green is mentioned once but not explored) and she presents herself primarily as a strategist/consultant rather than proving hands-on execution at scale in the current moment.

with over 15 years of experience helping purpose driven brands scale with impact including delivering triple digit growth for multiple global brands like Frank Green
worked a bunch of um, in house brands, agencies, startups, everything doing you know, zero dollar days all the way up to $30 million months

Specificity & Evidence

10 / 20

The episode is sparse on concrete metrics and named case studies. Elyse references broad ranges ('4-5 concepts per week for smaller brands, 10-20 for bigger') and testing budgets ('20-30%') but avoids specific ROAS targets, cost-per-acquisition benchmarks, or detailed examples of successful creative hooks. The Taylor Swift interest group example is mentioned but not explained with results. Most advice is framed in abstract systems rather than grounded in numbered evidence.

for a smaller brand, at minimum, I'm doing kind of four or five brand new concepts every single week
20% is probably a good rough indicator just because my rule of thumb is generally 80% what's working, 20%, keep testing

Conversational Craft

13 / 20

Host Chloe Thomas asks clarifying follow-ups and attempts to translate vague advice into numbers ('how often would you be making sure you are adding new creative', 'how much budget do you hold back for testing'). However, many of Elyse's responses are permitted to drift into general motivational talk without sharp pushback. When Elyse claims 'meta prefers' broad targeting with different demographics, the host doesn't push for evidence. The dialogue is pleasant but lacks the tension and skeptical probing that separates good interviews from exceptional ones.

So to try and put some numbers around that, which I know is gonna be really annoying. Cause this is definitely an it depends answer
I thought that was a really silly question. Clearly not a really Silly question, because that was a brilliant answer

Conversation analysis

Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.

Share of words spoken

  • Speaker A50%
  • Speaker C41%
  • Speaker D5%
  • Speaker B4%

Most-used words

creative36five34different31testing24keep19facebook19brand17commerce16episode16love16customer15acquisition14growth14content14test14brands12

Episode notes

Elyse Collat is a digital growth leader and eCommerce strategist with 15+ years of experience helping purpose-driven brands scale with impact. Including delivering triple-digital growth for multiple global brands like frank green, Thankyou, and STAAND. In this episode, she reveals what’s actually working right now in Meta ads, and how brands can combine smart testing with strategic creative to unlock real, sustainable customer acquisition. Dive in: [05:41] "Pragmatic Growth Through Testing" [07:28] "Effective Targeted Ad Campaigns" [11:37] Balancing Creator Freedom and Guidance [14:28] Creative Targeting Tips for Ads [18:12] Creative Testing for Growth [23:07] Insider Tips from Elyse! Creative is now the primary targeting engine Facebook’s algorithm has evolved, which means your creative is what now decides who your ads reach. When the message, tone, and visuals speak directly to a specific buyer, Meta will find those people for you. This makes generic, “one-size fits all” ads ineffective. eCommerce brands that speak clearly to a niche see lower CAC and higher conversion.

Full transcript

30 min

Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.

Speaker A: Literally the number one key to success in e commerce customer acquisition strategy, all of it is that you need to embrace a growth mindset. The concept is that you stay consistent, you keep testing and you fail as fast as you possibly can. And you embrace those failures. And if you can do that, you'll absolutely be successful.

Speaker B: You're listening to the Keep Optimizing podcast to increase your traffic, improve your conversion rates and grow your profits.

Speaker C: Hello and welcome. I'm Chloe Thomas, the host of this e commerce marketing focused podcast. If you're not familiar with the format, well, we release five episode miniseries that dive deep into one e commerce marketing topic. It could be channels like email or SEO or Facebook ads or a big topic like acquisition retention or analytics. In each of the episodes, new ones released every Wednesday, I interview a different expert to explore the latest advice on making it work for you. And then after each five episode miniseries, we take a week off. Yeah, we get lazy and we don't get lazy, but we don't put an episode out. And that gives you time to take action on what you've learned over the miniseries. At the moment, we are spending our five episodes exploring customer acquisition in order to set you up right for 2026. We could not do that without a session on Facebook ads or meta ads if you prefer. And we've got a corker of a guest for you. She's been named number 11 in the top e commerce people to watch list and her clients have called her everything from their digital fairy godmother to their business security blanket. She's not only great at meta ads, she understands the full e commerce growth engine. So she's giving us this advice. Within that context, we're going to be discussing what's working right now in meta ads, including going into the big topic that is creative. We'll be talking about creative, but she's gonna be drilling us into her two key things you need to do if you want Facebook ads that are going to scale your business in 20. Make sure you listen to the end of the episode because her, uh, insider tips are very good too. You don't want to miss those. And then I'll be sharing my take on it and outlining a couple of other ways we could help you even further with your customer acquisition. So stay tuned to the end.

Speaker D: Have you downloaded, uh, our ebook yet? To celebrate reaching episode 300, we created an epic e commerce success focused ebook packed with 118 top tips for e commerce growth featuring the advice of many, many past guests alongside industry experts and many from you our listeners as well. It's definitely one to dip in and out of and take inspiration from as and when you need it. This ebook needs to be sat on your desktop or even printed and sat on your desk. Download your free copy right now@keepopt.com growth ebook@cox.

Speaker B: Your Internet and mobile price won't change for five years. That's five New Year celebrations, five Valentine's Day, five Fourth of July's, five Halloweens, five Thanksgivings and five summers that go by too fast. Through it all, your price stays the same with our five year price lock guarantee. Cox a step ahead requires two gig speeds and gig unlimited mobile taxes and fees excluded from Pricelock mobile data speeds

Speaker C: reduced after 20 gigs in this episode I'm chatting with customer acquisition expert Elise Kallatt. Elise is a digital growth leader, uh, and e commerce strategist with over 15 years of experience helping purpose driven brands scale with impact including delivering triple digit growth for multiple global brands like Frank Green. Thank you and stand Hello Elise.

Speaker B: Hello.

Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker C: Awesome to have you on the show covering such a big topic in everyone's marketing budget planning which hopefully you've all already sorted for 2026. But I suspect there's still some budget shenanigans going on. So thank you much for being up, uh, for covering Facebook ads for us. Before we get into all of that though, how did you get into this world of e commerce and customer acquisition?

Speaker A: Oh my goodness. It was probably about 10 years ago. I can't believe it's actually been a decade already. But I started my first e commerce brand. It was actually a pet adventure gear brand dabbling with some drop shipping and then creating some products. And I was just doing everything myself out of my bedroom figuring it all out completely self taught following all the Shopify guides of here's how to build an ACTA brand brand in seven days and uh, reading everything I could get my hands on back when they were really big in their content marketing. Um, and since then I've worked a bunch of um, in house brands, agencies, startups, everything doing you know, zero dollar days all the way up to $30 million months. So I feel like I see that from all sides and obviously to be successful to grow you need to focus on getting new customers in and so that's been a uh, huge part of my growth strategies and something that I'm really really passionate about.

Speaker C: I laughed because uh, I think we can those of us who've been around for long enough. At the beginning Shopify was the Build a Matcha Tea site in three days. Company there seemed to be another, another one of those case studies coming out every week and it was mind blowing at the time. Uh, uh, so that's why I laughed, everybody.

Speaker A: I loved those. I was eating those up, I really was.

Speaker C: Oh yeah, I think, I think at the time I was living in Oxford and regularly going into London. So I think either I would have turned them into a PDF and sent them to my Kindle to read on the train, or I was carrying them around in paper version to read on the train. They were catnip though. Absolute catnip. Um, loved those. Anyway, we digress. We are not here to unpick Shopify's content strategy from 10 years ago. We're here to talk about what's working in Facebook ads. So set the scene for us. There's lots of different things we can do with Facebook ads. Lots of different things different size businesses do. So who's this advice specifically for?

Speaker A: Yeah, I think the foundations work across, you know, almost every business, but really honing in on those kind of six to seven figure brands who are focused on that new customer acquisition, that growth with their, I, uh, guess sales and conversion ads.

Speaker C: And would it be fair to say this is about not coming up with one awesome campaign? This is about building the system that will enable you to keep scaling in a sane and pragmatic way rather than that, oh God, what are we going to do? It's not working way.

Speaker A: Absolutely. I think sane and pragmatic is a really good way to put it. And I think a lot of people, especially as they start to hit that growth mark, that, that six to seven figure marks, things can start to feel quite messy. Um, especially depending on how rapid that growth has been and depending on how big of a team you have, how much expertise you have in the, the Facebook ads space. So I. Two things that are working the most that I see for the brands that feel like they've got it together and are feeling relatively sane is having not only a constant testing structure across that full funnel, because plenty of experts and even Meta will tell you simplify, just run one campaign, it's fine, we'll do the rest for you. Um, and while in some cases, you know, it is simpler than ever, um, I always love to keep testing that and you know, testing the theories that they say, um, but also having a really strong creative flywheel and I think the more systemized you can get that what I call a creative flywheel. And I think, um, I'm sure I'm not the only one who calls it that. Then things start to feel a lot smoother.

Speaker C: Are you happy if we dive into the creative bit first and then we'll go into the testing strategy that worked for you?

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker C: I think that the thing which, which has really struck me about the creative stuff as the uh, kind of the last 12, 18 months has progressed. And tell me if I'm way off mark on this because it's uh, been a while since I've even logged into a Facebook ads campaign. So I may be way off base, but it feels like you can absolutely screw it up if you just create any old creative. If you're not creating the creative that attracts the right buyer, you know, it's almost like the creative has become the targeting mechanism as well as being the call to action mechanism. Does that make sense?

Speaker A: Absolutely. You're exactly correct. I think you've hit the nail on the head. The, you know, according to the Andromeda update and all the technical, uh, side of things, the more specific you are in your creative and the more obvious it is who that product is for. You can actually put six or seven, you know, as many as you want, different target customers in the same campaign as long as that creative is really clear on who it's for. And Meta will actually, you know, send it out to those right people. But if the creative is too vague or too broad, speaking to too many people or not hitting on those pain points in a strong enough way, you're going to really struggle, you're going to flounder. So uh, the main thing m, even more than any kind of ad account structure or anything is being hyper focused on the, like you said, the call to action, but also the pain points, the emotional connection and making sure that that creative is just spot on, that someone feels really connected to it when they see it and that they um, you know, stop scrolling and actually click.

Speaker C: So how do we go about a, uh, creating the right creative in the first place, but then turning it into that repeatable flywheel system that just keeps delivering for us? Big question.

Speaker A: Yeah, this is a big question. I'll try not to ramble on here. You can cut me off if you need to. I think the main way. And we can unpack it further if you want. I've heard some really, um, and worked with some brands who are doing a really good job where they kind of go out and they have a really clear definition of the types of angles that work. And so then they just create several different ad concepts and scripts off of that and Then from there they actually have a list of 8 to 10 hooks that they record per video that are all very strong and very different. And then they from. So that's the organization on the front end and the back end. Every piece of video that they record, every piece of content they create is filed very systematically in their drives, whatever drive you use. And so that they can cut and paste and make, chop and change as often as they need, as many iterations as they need with all of that existing content. Because I actually speak to quite a lot of brands who say, oh, uh, we just need to do another photo shoot, we need to do another session, we gotta create more content. And if you look back at what they had, they have more than enough. It just needs to be cut together again in the right way or double down on. So I think the front end side is creating that series of angles and concepts. And again, it's usually can be as simple as a spreadsheet matrix. And then making sure you do enough variety when you're actually creating that content and then the back end filing it so that you can just chop and change and use it. And that creative can kind of compound for you in a bunch of different videos.

Speaker C: I suspect that will have been a light bulb moment for a lot of people listening. Oh, I don't need to go and record 20 videos. I can do one or two main videos and then change the hook, change the outro, change the length. I find that's the thing which people find most intimidating about this creative play, is that they feel like they have to create a brand new video every time rather than, you know, back in the days of AdWords and static Facebook ads, we'd have just been changing the picture or we'd have just been changing the copy. We wouldn't have been changing the whole thing every time.

Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. And I think some people even get stuck thinking they have to create it all themselves. Especially if you're one of those brands that has a much smaller team but is hitting some of these numbers, it can start to feel very, very overwhelming. And that's where, again, you can outsource to creators. Um, and some brands, again, find that really, really useful. And some have nailed it. And some find working with creators the bane of their existence. But outsourcing that and doing the exact same process, super clear on the angles, the customer that each creator is targeting, the messaging, and having Those creators record 5, 10 hooks for each video that they create. Now you've just gotten five or 10 pieces of content instead of, you know, two or three.

Speaker C: So this is literally making it now into, uh, the, the content creator space, the influencer space, UGC space. So the brief to a creator would now be, this is the video we want, and we want you to do at least five hooks that are probably going to pinpoint on X, Y and Z.

Speaker A: Absolutely. I think a lot of people have differing opinions on whether you should be super prescriptive to a creator or whether you should let them have creative freedom. I think that kind of depends on the level of creator. I personally love to give them a pretty, um, strong brand brief so that they can kind of become an expert on the brand with a whole bunch of suggestions. But then if they would prefer to, you know, provide their own angle, provide what makes them comfortable, what they're actually good at creating, that's absolutely fine. But just making sure that they're briefed about the brand and then again, giving them the opportunity to record several hooks so that if there is one that works way better than another. It didn't take us five different times of working with that creator to find that. It took us once with, you know, five different hooks.

Speaker C: And then presumably the hooks is the main thing we're then optimizing from then on out. So we're looking at, you know, which one in that, in that example, okay, this hook worked the best. How can we expand on that? You know, for a terrible example. But this was the hook that talked about free shipping. So how many other ways can we talk about free shipping? Is that the process we then go into?

Speaker A: Absolutely. I think there's kind of three main things that I filter in terms of defining what piece of creative is successful. And I think the first is it could be the hook. The second is it could be the overall concept is the angle, you know, that we're organic, homegrown, whatever those roots are. Um, or is the angle that we, the problem that we solve, that, you know, in seven days your acne is going to be gone, whatever that concept is, that's usually more, um, in depth than just the hook. The hook can often be a little hard to, um, repeat. But you can then test that hook across multiple concepts. Um, and you can now double down on that concept with multiple different hooks. And now you've just, you know, iterated exponentially. And then the third thing is the visual. So is there, you know, is it a pov, Is it a static? Is it, um, a certain type of creator that seems to capture everyone because they have a certain look, a certain, um, reputability, or is it something else? Entirely. It's a founder concept, it's a warehouse, whatever that might be. So the main things that I kind of look for is the hook, the concept and then the creative type.

Speaker C: Oh, that's ah, such a clear way of looking at it. I can see people getting hung up on, um, you know, oh, ah, the background's blue in this one. Maybe that's the thing. No, no, not relevant, not relevant. Um, because this is now doing our targeting. I know there's a lot of brands who go after different customer demographics. They may find one set of products resonates, uh, with an older demographic and one set resonates with the younger demographic. Is it possible to create undoubtedly in separate campaigns within Facebook, but to target different demographics and make that work for you, or does that just simply confuse the algorithm them?

Speaker A: Allegedly. And in my experience so far, you can actually put way different creative targeting totally different people into the same campaign. And meta, uh, you know, again, allegedly prefers that at the moment. So again, you could put in concepts targeting, you know, the horse people, the dog people, the bunny people for your pet brand all in to one campaign broad. And it should find again, as long as it's clear enough within those, those, those ad creatives and the imagery and the text that again, Andromeda is. It prefers that. And in fact, in uh, the research I've kind of been doing and the testing I've been doing, the more widely varied and the more different that that creative is, the better it performs versus just changing again, the hook slightly and having all of your, you know, horse creative. I'm just going to keep with that theme. M in one with slightly different headlines and then another ad set with all the bunny. Again, you might choose to do that just for product, um, collection. Like if you want to divide up your product collections or categories based on ad sets or campaigns, still something you can absolutely do. I'm not saying upend everything, dump it all together, but you certainly could, especially if you're a brand that has lower resources, less experience in ad buying or less time. Again, you actually can keep it pretty crazy simple and still see decent results. I'm sure there's people out there screaming, no, that doesn't work for me. It is very different for everyone. But again, since the Andromeda update, that's been what you're allowed. You know, you technically can do more than what you could have done, you know, even ten years ago, five years ago. Um, it's kind of changed the game.

Speaker C: Wow, I thought that was a really silly question. Clearly not a really Silly question, because that was a brilliant answer. Um, so anything else we should say about on the creative side of things before I take you back to the constant testing of your structure?

Speaker A: I think with creative and I'm, you know, it's probably very annoying because a lot of people are saying it, but volume, you know, really keep pushing, stay consistent with it and get creative. Content is king right now. Um, and that's true, that's true for the ad. So keep that, what I call the flywheel going and stay consistent with it and test as much as you possibly can.

Speaker C: So to try and put some numbers around that, which I know is gonna be really annoying. Cause this is definitely an it depends answer. But how often would you be making sure you are adding new creative into the mix, which could be a different set of hooks on an existing concept, or it could be mix and matching some existing stuff you've got. But how often are you deploying what appears to be fresh creative into, uh, Facebook?

Speaker A: Yeah, it depends a little bit on your budget. But I, you know, for a smaller brand, at minimum, I'm doing kind of four or five brand new concepts every single week. Um, and that's evergreen. So sometimes if you've got campaigns and things, you can kind of tick that box. But generally try to have align with the team of this is what I need every single week. And that can be briefed on a monthly basis or a weekly basis. For bigger brands, that could easily be 10 or 20 pieces of creative a week. And again, ideally they're not just very, very small variations. Ideally they're pretty broad concepts. But, um, you can usually get away with again, between five to ten pieces of content, bad creative per week if you've got enough budget behind it.

Speaker C: Got it. Okay. Thank you for that.

Speaker A: Quite a lot.

Speaker C: So at the beginning you said there were two key things we have to get right. One is the creative flywheel that we've just gone through. The other one was the constant testing structure. Explain more.

Speaker A: I just like to challenge what everyone's saying, including meta itself.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker A: So I love to put up that Advantage plus plus broad, no exclusions, dump a bunch of different creative into it and see if it performs better than the, you know, exclusion Advantage plus or a top of funnel broad and turn off Advantage Plus. I still love to, um, test interest groups, particularly indirect interest groups. So, you know, a couple years ago, Taylor Swift was killing it for any brand that had a female audience. That that interest group is absolutely smashing. And so I love of finding those pockets and testing that and just seeing what actually works. Because often generally you find that most of the, um, advice is more or less correct. But I do find again, when you're scaling, when you're a big brand, you're trying, the difference between single, double or triple digit growth really is carving out some of this, um, testing and finding these little pockets, these, you know, incremental improvements in CRO or your cost per acquisition. And so you've gotta be testing to find that you can't sit back on your laurels. And so I personally do like to test out top of Funnel and do a couple different top of Funnel campaigns, as I just mentioned. You know, let meditate the reins, then be more prescriptive, see what works best. I also keep testing that every few months. If it didn't work a few months ago, let's double check it again. Has things shifted? Because it's always changing so much. I love lookalike audiences. I love, um, middle of Funnel with special offers. So kind of always tailoring it specifically to each brand and each customer journey, their lifecycle product drops, all that type of stuff. It's so bespoke for every company. But I just like to find things where I thought, oh, that's interesting, that's different than, you know, what this other brand did, or this is different than what I heard on that podcast the other day, um, or this is actually killing it. So I really like to just challenge, uh, that and I guess find counterintuitive, um, wins.

Speaker C: And how much budget do you hold back for those testings and those counterintuitive wins? Because I've heard some people say like 1%, 5%, 10%, 20%. Where do you, how much do you think is a reasonable amount for the experimentation and the trying to find those little nuggets of awesomeness?

Speaker A: That's a good question. I would say 20% is probably a good rough indicator just because my rule of thumb is generally 80% what's working, 20%, keep testing. Um, but in reality, I probably actually do test even 20 to 30% just because I get excited about it. So, um, again, if you're a ginormous brand, you could easily be spending a ton of money and it could only be 1%. But I tend to test a little bit more.

Speaker C: I get hung up on details sometimes. And testing is one of those places I get hung up on details, which is kind of like, once the test is working, does that still come out the testing budget or does that go into the main budget? So it's like, well, if you're testing successfully and it's producing a great roas and you're getting the sales you need, then surely that should mean you've got more money to spend on testing. You know, it's, it's that, ah, that when does testing become business as usual? But we do not need to go down, um, that rabbit hole. Right, Elise, this has been awesome. Anything, anything else you'd like to prime our audience with?

Speaker D: Or have we covered all the key

Speaker C: stuff they need to know to make their Facebook ads successful in 2026?

Speaker A: I think the only thing that I'll add is that I might mention this, um, in our quickfire, but the creative doesn't have to be gorgeous and polished and hopefully everyone listening to this already knows that. But maybe it'll be a bit of an aha, especially for founders or marketing managers who are a bit more perfectionist or millennial like me. But the uglier the better. The more raw the better. The less it looks like an ad, the better. So don't hesitate. And I always joke, um, with some of my creative directors who are make beautiful content. I'm like, give me a beautiful one. Give me an ugly one. I always need an ugly version. I want you to cringe when you send it to me. And so, um, always keep that in mind. It doesn't have to. When I said, if you're cringing at how much testing, I said or how much volume of creative, I said, keep in mind it can feel ugly, authentic, raw. It doesn't have to be super polished.

Speaker C: Yeah, we're not looking for the, the TV ad you putting in the middle of the super bowl here, are we?

Speaker A: Not anymore, no.

Speaker C: Okay, Elise, it's been great picking your brains about all of this. Listeners. Remember, stay tuned right to the end so you don't miss out on Elise's insider tips on customer acquisition and my suggestions for more free resources to help you improve things even further in your business.

Speaker D: Have you downloaded our, uh, ebook yet? To celebrate reaching episode 300, we created an epic e commerce M success focus focused ebook packed with 118 top tips for e commerce growth. Featuring the advice of many, many past guests alongside industry experts and many from you, our listeners as well. It's definitely one to dip in and out of and take inspiration from as and when you need it. This ebook needs to be sat on your desktop or even printed and sat on your desk. Download your free copy right now@, uh, keepopt.com@cox.

Speaker B: Your Internet and mobile price won't change for five years. That's five New Year celebrations, five Valentine's Days, five Fourth of July's, five Halloweens, five Thanksgivings, and five summers that go by too fast through it all, your price stays the same with our five year price lock guarantee. Cox a step ahead requires two gig speeds and gig unlimited mobile. Taxes and fees excluded from Pricelock mobile data speeds reduced after 20 gigs.

Speaker C: Okay, Elise, so far we've gone deep into Facebook ads. Now you get to wow us with your insider knowledge about the whole of customer acquisition. Uh, so for the following questions, your answer can be anything to do with customer acquisition, which of course does include all the things we've already been talking about. Elise, are you ready for the insider tips? Yes. Okay, let's start with newbie advice. If we've inspired someone to take their first step, what do they need to know to give themselves the best chance of success?

Speaker A: This is the tip that I always give, and it's probably a little bit boring, but it's literally the number one key to success in e commerce customer acquisition strategy. All of it is that you need to embrace a growth mindset. There's a book on it, but the concept is that you stay consistent, you keep testing and you fail as fast as you possibly can, and you embrace those failures. And if you can do that, you'll absolutely be successful.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's the point we didn't make when we were talking about testing budgets earlier, which is if you, if you don't test it in ad account, it just slowly gets smaller and smaller and smaller, doesn't it? You've got a test to find the winners. I love, love that piece of advice. Okay, once you've started, of course you've got to keep optimizing. So what's your favorite way to improve performance?

Speaker A: Just AB testing and constantly challenging what you think you know. Um, because e commerce moves so fast, the tech platforms move so fast, consumer behavior shifts so rapidly, all three of those things compound to create a very volatile environment. So constantly a b test and challenge what you actually think. Create a hypothesis, but don't hesitate to, um, prove yourself wrong.

Speaker C: More Great advice. I think we're getting a very good, good insight to your values and your, your drivers here. I like this, Lee. Test, test, test, everyone. Challenge, challenge, challenge. Um, if someone listening wants to learn more, is there a cheap or free resource you would recommend?

Speaker A: I love, uh, a bunch of different YouTube channels and podcasts, but I don't listen to just one because I think it's really, really important to kind of synthesize all the different advice out there. So I Personally do love David Fogarty and chase Chappelle's YouTube channels. Those are totally free. They often give you very specific ideas on different hooks, different psychology met, and different, um, tools for customer acquisition as well. So they're a really good spot to start. Of course they're both selling mentorship programs, but they give a lot of really good free value that I highly Recommend.

Speaker C: Love those two. So two YouTube channels for you all to go and check out. Finally, crystal ball time. What's coming up in the next six to 12 months that we should be getting ready for?

Speaker A: Absolutely. I think this is a double sided coin which is that, ah, AI of course is going to continue to change the game. So I highly recommend testing it, leveraging it, embracing it. Embracing it. Having said that though, I haven't seen AI ads necessarily taking over and in fact consumers are actually looking for more real, raw, authentic connections, particularly in their advertising. So embrace the ugc, the partnerships, the founder content, the behind the scenes and keep being as raw and authentic as possible while also still keeping an eye on how you can actually leverage AI, uh, to make your, uh, your life easier.

Speaker C: I love that. A couple of cool little ideas in there as well. Thank you, Elise. Now we're very nearly at the end of the show, so could you please let the listeners know where they can find you and your business?

Speaker A: Absolutely. Please come connect with me on Instagram. I'm healisecolatz. That's T H E L Y S e C O double L A T and I offer free one on one strategy sessions and my DMs are just always open so I'd love to connect if you liked the episode or want to learn more.

Speaker C: Awesome. Thank you so much for that, Lisa. And I'm sure you'll get several people getting in contact for one of those one on ones. Um, thank you so much for being on the Keep Optimizing podcast and for giving us such a straightforward, if hard work, um, approach to our Facebook ads in 2026. I know it's going to make a lot of people's businesses more successful, so thank you so much for being here.

Speaker A: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Speaker C: Love the clarity and depth that um, Elise gave us there on how to make your Facebook ads ads really perform now and into 2026. Two key things to get right. One, have some of that budget for testing your crazy zany ideas for things you hear other brands doing you see on YouTube channels, you read about in blogs, hear about on, um, podcasts to try those little ideas and to find those little nuggets of places that really deliver for you. And then secondly, build that creative flywheel. And it clearly starts with some some really good foundations of having the discipline for every time you're doing recordings, recording multiple hooks so you can create those different videos. When you're working with your content creators, getting them to do the same thing, then filing it all in a way that makes sense. I know it sounds dull, but a whole load of files called IM_ or vid_123456789 with the date is not going to help you. You need decent file names, decent foldering systems so you know what you've got and so then you can splice it all together and then make sure you've got that freshness of content coming in regularly. And I love the the point about even if you're targeting different demographics, you can put all of those into the same campaign and it should still perform because the Facebook Andromeda Update should be able to handle that. Maybe that's one of the things you're going to test. Well, you can get the links to all those things. We discussed the full transcript of the episode, Important Notes and more@keepoptimizing.com you can also use our special direct episode short links. Just put keepopt.com the number of this episode into the URL bar and you will be redirected straight to the right page of the site. When you get there, why not add yourself to our email list? Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Keep Optimizing Podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, then do check out episode 284 where we're talking about performance PR in the affiliate space because it's another key way to grow your sales with advertising. Spend next year and it's a It's a bit of a blue ocean. Not a lot of people are doing it yet, so there's a lot of potential there. And if you want more on Facebook ads, then either scroll up your feedback to the episodes that start with either Facebook ads or Meta ads. We pick and choose which keyword we go with on a regular basis or use the short link keepopt.com meta that will take you to a page on the website that has all our, uh, episodes about Facebook ads in the same place. And there's plenty in there about creative as well. Uh, finally, please do tell your fellow marketers about the show because I want to help as many of you as possible to improve the performance of your E Commerce marketing. Join us next time for another take on customer acquisition. We'll be going into a totally different space in the next episode. Have a great week and make sure you listen to us next time so we can help you to keep optimizing your marketing

Speaker B: access. Everything. Keep optimizing@keepoptimizing.com that's with an S not a Z.

Speaker D: Have you downloaded, uh, our ebook yet? To celebrate reaching episode 300, we created an epic ecommerce success focused ebook packed with 118 top tips for e commerce growth. Featuring the advice of many, many past guests alongside industry experts and many from you our listeners as well. It's definitely one to dip in and out of and take inspiration from as and when you need it. It this ebook needs to be sat on your desktop or even printed and sat on your desk. Download your free copy right now@, uh, keepopt.com growthebook@cox.

Speaker B: Your Internet and mobile price won't change for five years. That's five New Year celebrations, five Valentine's Days, five Fourth of July's, five Halloweens, five Thanksgiving and five summers that go by too fast. Through it all, your price stays the same with our five year price lock guarantee. Cox a step ahead requires two gig speeds and gig unlimited mobile taxes and fees excluded from price Lock Mobile data speeds reduced after 20 gigs.

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