#355 - The Truth About Scaling on Facebook: Lessons from $150M in Ad Spend

Marin Ištvanić is a partner at Inspire Brands, a boutique agency focused on paid social ads, primarily on Facebook and Instagram. He has personally spent over $150 million on Facebook ads for clients and internal brands, successfully scaling Inspire's own brand to $30 million in revenue by their third year. In this episode of DTC Pod, Marin shares his insights on growing brands profitably through paid social. He discusses the importance of achieving product-market fit, crafting compelling offers, and understanding unit economics. Marin also details his agency's creative testing process and how to efficiently scale winning ad angles from static images to videos to landing pages. Interact with other DTC experts and access our monthly fireside chats with industry leaders on DTC Pod Slack. On this episode of DTC Pod, we cover: 1. Achieving Product-Market Fit 2. Scaling Brands through Facebook Ads 3. Product Differentiation 4. How to Craft a Compelling Offer 5. Subscription Products and Pricing Strategies 6. Landing Pages for Facebook Ads 7. Advertorials and Third-Party Content for Ads 8. Whitelisting and Leveraging External Trust in Ads 9. Ad Format Mix and Budget Allocation 10. Advantage+ Campaigns and AI 11. Scaling Ad Creative Production 12. Testing Ad Variations and Hooks Timestamps 00:00 Marin's background and joining Inspire Brands  04:48 Importance of product-market fit and differentiation  06:50 Creating demand vs picking an established market 10:34 What makes an effective offer and how to craft one 12:41 Subscription models and free trial strategies 16:59 $1K/day spend as indicator of product-market fit  18:36 Choosing the right landing page for your product  25:07 Whitelisting strategies and organic-looking content 27:48 Typical budget allocation across ad formats 30:29 Facebook's Advantage+ campaigns and AI features  33:23 Strategies for scaling ad creative 24:44 Final tips: know your numbers and when to spend Show notes powered by Castmagic Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.   Additional episodes you might like: • #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth • #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content • #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views • #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands • #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook • ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands ----- Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further? Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you. Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox? Check out our newsletter here. Projects the DTC Pod team is working on: DTCetc - all our favorite brands on the internet Olivea - the extra virgin olive oil & hydroxytyrosol supplement Castmagic - AI Workspace for Content Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates! DTCPod Instagram DTCPod Twitter DTCPod TikTok Marin Ištvanić - Partner at Inspire Brands Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Castmagic Ramon Berrios - Co-Founder of Castmagic