Jess tells Josh that she's keen to start running ads. After all, you can't pivot to being an ad tech company without actually running ads yourself.

All she needs is a designer, someone to launch the ads, and a budget of tens of thousands of dollars. Nothing huge. Okay, maybe a few heart palpitations from Josh.

In this episode, Jess takes us through her advertising journey—from the creative side of marketing to hitting the big green launch button for paid ads. And what's all of this got to do with Josh pretending to be in the gym? You'll just have to listen to find out.

Get to the good stuff:

[00:00] Vector's an ad tech company now…so shouldn't we be running ads?

[01:02] Jess reminisces about her B2C advertising days with a flashback to a Roomba-riding cat (naturally).

[02:36] Moving into ads when it isn't your area of expertise? And when your customers are looking to you for marketing inspiration? Absolutely no pressure there, Jess.

[05:35] A key lesson in ads—take what's working organically and put money behind it. Pretty safe bet.

[06:04] What do ghosts and knock-knock jokes have in common with great ads?

[07:25] Be brave. Be bold. Bring back mascots to stop the scroll.

[08:37] Josh with the mic drop—ad creative matters more than the offering. Safe = snoozefest. Think outside the box.

[09:59] How did ghosts getting less pale by the pool make LinkedIn stop doomscrolling?

[11:33] Jess wanted to start using Vector for Vector, so she brought in reinforcements. Shout-out to Isaac Ware and Sara McNamara, the real MVPs.

[14:27] Jess shares an insider trick—use ads to test new messaging first. Josh definitely already knew this.

[17:13] Jess and Josh stress the importance of testing—no room for assumptions in advertising.

[18:32] Jess uses some hauntingly good messaging to boost newsletter sign-ups. The pipeline generator. Don't sleep on top-of-funnel content. Or, as Josh puts it, don't be a putz.

[21:59] Turn off any ad that doesn't work—apart from Josh's gym post. He's jacked.

[25:13] Dear marketer…email inbox or tiger attack? Affirmations to save your soul.

[26:48] The best ad campaigns don't always need changing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if you're Chick-fil-A, don't replace the cows.

[30:45] Jess reminds us that sometimes the media is the message. When everyone else is doing the same thing, do something different.

[34:06] Cost per ICP click is the new KPI—light bulb moment for Vector. Best news? We're releasing a new campaign reporting feature for cost per ICP click (included in the basic plan, yay!)

[36:00] Jess's top takeaways for starting an ad program: use broad awareness to gather information, create variance, give it time to see if it works, figure things out in one channel first, and if you really don't know where to start, start with what you already have.

[38:52] PSA: anyone want to join the team as a demand gen marketer?

This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.

Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.

Editing by Handy Man Edit.

Music by Peter McIsaac Music.