The Blog
Notes on inbound systems, ads, and growth for high-ticket service businesses.
Are Your B2B Buyers Actually on Facebook?
The most common reason B2B firms never try ads is "my clients aren't on Facebook." The data says most of them are, and it's cheaper to reach them there than on LinkedIn. Here's when that's true, and when it isn't.
Being the Best-Kept Secret in Your Industry Is Costing You Money
People who work with you rave about you. Nobody else has heard of you. B2B buyers pick their shortlist before they ever call anyone, and a secret doesn't make the list.
Do Ads Only Bring In Small Clients?
Big B2B clients rarely start big, whether they come from a referral or an ad. Here's why ads tend to bring in smaller first deals, and how to set them up so those deals grow.
How to Tell an Agency Will Waste Your Money Before You Sign
Most business owners who "tried ads" got burned by the agency, not the ads. Here are the warning signs I hear about on sales calls every week, and what to ask before you hand anyone a dollar.
How to Judge Ads When Your Deals Take Six Months to Close
If a new client takes six months to sign, you can't wait six months to find out whether your ads work. Here's what to measure in week one, month one and month three, so you know long before the revenue shows up.
How to Test a New Offer With Ads Before You Build It
B2B firms build the course, hire the team or record the program, then find out if anyone wants it. Run the ads first. A few hundred dollars will tell you what a year of building won't.
What to Do When Your Referrals Dry Up
Referrals built your firm. Then the big client scaled back and nothing replaced it. Cold email, LinkedIn and "brand" won't fix that. Paid traffic will, if you set it up the way referrals actually work.
Why B2B Sales Haven't Been the Same Since COVID
It isn't the economy. When everyone moved online in 2020, your buyers suddenly saw every competitor you have. The old way of getting clients assumed they didn't. Here's what changed, and what works now.
Will Advertising Cheapen Your Brand?
Premium B2B firms worry that running ads on Facebook makes them look desperate. The channel doesn't cheapen a brand. Bad ads do. Here's the difference.
Your Clients Already Referred Everyone They Know
The market grew your AUM last year. It didn't grow your client list. Referrals can't be turned up. Paid traffic can, and the industry's own data says it's cheaper than you think.
The Hook Everybody Agreed On Finished Last
Writing to seven buyer types instead of one is the right move. Then you run it, and the angle the whole room was confident about comes in dead last out of eighty.
Four Questions, One Email, No Chance
A stranger has to answer four separate questions before they buy from you. Most cold outreach tries to answer all four in six sentences, which is why it doesn't work.
Taste Is the Only Moat Left
AI made producing ads free. That made knowing which ad is good the most expensive skill in the building.
The Sales Call Was Lost Before It Was Booked
If your calls keep ending in "let me think about it," the close isn't the problem. The ad script that booked the call is.
Your Meta Ad Account Is Two Campaigns
The platform automated most of what media buyers used to charge for. What's left is the part nobody can automate: knowing what's worth testing in the first place.
Stop Treating Better Copy As the Fix for Underperforming Ads
If an offer only converts once the copy is perfect, that's not validation. Here's how to test offers fast and cheap before you spend real money convincing anyone.
Why We Test the Argument Before We Test the Ad
Most creative testing starts with production. It should start with the angle — here's how to find one, validate it, and only then test execution.
Welcome to the Motive Growth Agency Blog
Why we're starting a blog, and what you can expect us to write about.
Why Marketers "Win" a Test But Learn Nothing
Precision without volume is luck. Volume without precision is noise. Here's how we structure creative testing to get both.