Stop running social ads before testing content organically

Executive overview

Most businesses waste money on social ads by promoting content that was never proven to work. Post every ad or promotional piece organically first — if it outperforms your usual content in views, that's the signal to put paid spend behind it.

The broader argument: attention has moved from social graphs (following people) to interest graphs (algorithmic feeds), AI is replacing Google Search as the discovery layer, and personal brand is now the only defensible asset. Act now, while organic reach is still free and AI indexing is still early.

Building a personal brand today is both a client acquisition engine and insurance against the AI-driven discovery shift.

Test before you spend on ads

• Post every ad or promotional creative organically first.
• If views outperform your baseline, that's your signal to run paid media behind it.
• If it doesn't get views organically, the creative isn't relevant — paid spend won't save it.
• This approach eliminates the most common cause of wasted social ad budget.

Interest media has replaced social media

• Five years ago, feeds showed content from people you followed. Now they show content aligned to your interests.
• This is an equaliser: a first-time creator with one great post can outperform a 15M-follower account with a mediocre one.
• A new TikTok account with zero followers posted a single video and got 8.2M organic views; the same video on a 15M-follower account got 300K.
• You don't need an existing audience — you need relevant content.

Volume and platform distribution

• Most people post too little and on too few platforms.
• One piece of content posted across YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X counts as five distribution points.
• Minimum viable effort: one post per day across seven platforms.
• Facebook and LinkedIn are high-value and widely ignored by this audience.
• The creative — thumbnail, first three seconds, copy — is the variable. Volume plus form, like reps in the gym.

Content mix: jabs and right hooks

• Posting only sales-oriented content ("I fix this, call me") trains the audience to ignore you.
• Mix value-giving content (jabs) with calls to action (right hooks).
• Jab content: teach people how to fix small problems themselves. Free value creates the trust that leads to sales.
• The pattern that built durable businesses: who is most committed to delivering value to the audience and letting the residual effects drive revenue?

Google is the yellow pages — AI is the new search

• Google AdWords costs are rising as usage declines; it is in the same position as the yellow pages in 2001.
• Search is migrating to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.
• Every piece of content you publish today is being indexed to surface in AI-driven recommendations within four years.
• Social content now serves dual purpose: immediate client acquisition and long-term AI discoverability.
• Brand is the only defensible asset in a world where AI commoditises information.

Re-engage former clients (the 1950s play)

• If you have 100+ former clients, you have an underused asset.
• Reach out by call, text, email, or letter — whichever fits the relationship.
• Goal: say hello, not close a sale. Let the chips fall.
• Being top of mind when someone's sister has a neck issue is the entire mechanism.
• Personalise where possible: reference something you know they care about (a sports team, a hobby).
• The world is a barbell: extreme technology on one end, extreme human touch on the other. Both work.

Substack for writers who hate video

• If video feels wrong, Substack (newsletter/subscription platform) is a high-leverage alternative.
• Paid subscriptions ($3.99–$9.99/month) are viable; connection to the writer matters more than the information itself.
• Use it as a lead-generation engine: tips, clinical observations, common mistakes clients make after stopping care.
• Start by prompting ChatGPT: "Gary Vee just mentioned Substack, I'm a chiropractor, what do I need to know?"

Using AI to run your business

• Audit every role in your team by prompting AI with a detailed description of your business and each person's responsibilities, then ask what AI tools they should be using.
• Use voice prompting for longer, more detailed inputs — six-minute voice prompts yield better outputs than short typed queries.
• You need to understand AI well enough to judge whether the people you hire to do it are actually good at it. Delegating without understanding it replicates the mistake people made with social media in 2010.
• Information is now a commodity. The competitive advantage is in acting on it.

The two paths forward

• Extreme technology: learn AI tools, use them to create leverage, build a personal brand that gets indexed.
• Extreme analog: scale personal relationships, handwritten letters, surprise-and-delight gestures, community.
• For anyone serious about doubling revenue: you have to do both.
• 2026 should be an action year, not a thinking year. The moment is here.