In the last few months, I’ve spent over $100,000 of my own money on ads.

In the last few months, I’ve spent over $100,000 of my own money on ads.

Not client budgets.

Not some experimental test.

My own cash.

And while our team manages millions in partners’ spend each year…

Spending my own money taught me a different level of discipline.

Here are a few lessons that hit hardest:

→ Creative is king.

You probably hear me say this all the time.

But after about $20,000 of spend, we finally found our winning ad creative.

That creative alone has now received $25,000 of spend.

Finding winners is vital.

→ Speed matters.

The faster you test, the faster you find a winner.

Waiting weeks to fix broken ads is death.

→ The funnel must be dialed.

Ads can only do so much.

If your landing page sucks or your offer isn’t clear, you’re burning cash.

→ Advertising is an investment, not an expense.

Even when you start testing and it seems cash is flying out the door-

Patience and relentless attention to detail is critical.

Once we found our winning ads-

It paid for our losing ads ten fold.

That’s the game.

You don’t need perfect ads out the gate.

You need the patience (and strategy) to find your winners, then scale what works.

The brands that win in 2025 aren’t the ones that never lose money on ads…

They’re the ones who know how to turn losses into learnings and scale fast once they hit.

And if you’re not willing to invest like that?

You’re not really playing to win.

Talk to you soon,

Patrick O’Driscoll

Founder @ TVG

Ready to scale your brand? Book a call with me here.