marketing-with-steph

What I Check Before Any Ad Goes Live

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 19:49:28 GMT

A seven-point creative review that stops you paying for ads that don't convert.

Most ads that fail had a problem you could see before they launched. Here's the list I go through with every vendor before I approve creative.

Is the product shown correctly? Sounds obvious. You'd be surprised how often the wrong version, color, or part ends up in the final file. Customers notice, and it costs trust.
Does the ad match the landing page? If the ad promises one thing and the page leads with something else, people leave. The headline, image, and offer should carry straight through.
Is there one clear message? An ad trying to say four things says nothing. I look for one main point and one action.
Can you read it on a phone? Most people will see it on a small screen, scrolling fast. Text has to be big enough and short enough to read in a second or two.
Is the call to action specific? "Learn more" is fine. "Shop the kit" or "Get your free test" is better.
Will it pass platform review? Certain claims, before and after images, and some wording get flagged. Catching it early saves days.
Would the customer care? This is the big one. I'll ask the team something like, "Quick question, would our customer stop scrolling for this?" If no one is sure, it's not ready.

When I send feedback, it usually looks like this: a few things to review, and once they're fixed, the ads are approved to go. Short, specific, and easy for the vendor to act on.

A good review process doesn't slow things down. It's what keeps you from paying to learn the same lesson twice.

How I Get Clients to 3x Revenue

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 19:48:31 GMT

The process behind 3x revenue and 5x traffic growth. No tricks, just the same steps every time.

For almost all of my clients, I've delivered about 3x revenue and over 5x traffic growth. People ask what the trick is. There isn't one. It's a process, and it's the same one every time.

Start with where the money already comes from. Before anything new, I look at who's buying now, how they found you, and what they bought. Most businesses have one or two channels doing most of the work and don't realize it.
Fix the leaks before adding traffic. Sending more people to a website that doesn't convert just makes the problem more expensive. I look at the landing pages, the checkout, the offer, and the follow-up first.
Pick fewer channels and do them well. It's tempting to be everywhere. It's usually better to own two channels than to be average on six.
Make the creative match the customer. Good ads speak to a specific person with a specific problem. I build simple customer profiles and make sure every ad, page, and email is written for one of them.
Measure what matters weekly. Not every metric, just the few that tie to revenue. If something isn't working after a fair test, we move the budget.
Keep the team pointed in the same direction. This is the part that gets skipped. Growth comes from everyone (agency, freelancers, in-house) working the same plan.

None of this is complicated. The hard part is doing it consistently, month after month, and having someone whose job is to hold it together.

I've done this across ecommerce, services, and product brands, including TressAllure Wigs and ETR Labs. If you want to see what it could look like for your business, email me at marketingwithsteph@gmail.com.

Why Your Agency Needs Someone Above It

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 19:47:04 GMT

Agencies are great at execution. Growth needs someone connecting the plan to every channel.

I've worked with a lot of good agencies. Strong designers, sharp media buyers, solid copywriters. The problem usually isn't the talent. It's that no one is connecting their work to the business goal.

Here's what that looks like. The social team is posting about one product. The ads team is pushing another. The website is still talking about last year's offer. Each piece looks fine on its own, and none of it adds up.

Every specialist is optimizing for their own number. The ad buyer wants a lower cost per click. The SEO person wants more traffic. The email person wants a higher open rate. Those are all good things, but they aren't revenue.

That's the gap a CMO fills. My job sits above the execution teams. I set the priorities, decide what each channel is responsible for, and make sure the creative, the landing page, and the offer all say the same thing.

In practice that means a few things:

One plan everyone works from, with clear goals for each channel.
Reviewing creative before it goes out, so the message stays consistent.
Looking at results across channels, not one report at a time.
Telling the team when to stop doing something, which is just as important as starting.

You don't have to replace your agency to get this. In most cases, I make the team you already have more effective. They get clearer direction, fewer revisions, and work that actually connects to sales.

If your vendors are working hard but the numbers aren't moving, it might not be a vendor problem. It might be a leadership gap.

When to Hire a Fractional CMO (and When You Don't Need One)

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 19:46:02 GMT

Five signs you need senior marketing leadership, but not a full-time hire.

Most businesses don't need a full-time CMO. They need someone who can set the direction, hold the team to it, and know which numbers matter. That's what a fractional CMO does, for a part of the cost.

Here are the signs it's time.

You're spending on marketing but can't say what's working. You have an agency, maybe a freelancer or two, and a monthly report. But if someone asked which channel brings in your best customers, you'd have to guess.
Your team is busy but not moving. Posts go out, ads run, emails send. Revenue stays flat. That usually means the work is happening without a plan above it.
You're about to spend real money. A new website, a product launch, a paid ads push. These are the moments where a wrong call costs the most, and where a second set of senior eyes pays for itself.
You've outgrown doing it yourself. Plenty of founders run marketing in the early days. At some point it's taking time away from the parts of the business only you can do.
You're not ready for a $250K+ hire. A full-time CMO is a big commitment. A fractional CMO gives you the same level of thinking for a set number of hours each month, and you can scale up or down.

When you don't need one: if you're pre-revenue and still figuring out what you sell, or if you need someone to physically post your content and run ads every day, start with an execution person. A CMO is most useful once there's something to grow and a team (in-house or outside) to lead.

Quick question for you: if your marketing budget doubled tomorrow, would you know exactly where to put it? If the answer is no, that's usually the sign.

If you want to talk through where your business is, reach out at marketingwithsteph@gmail.com.