What I Learned Working at a Startup Spending $1M+ Per Month on Ads
And How You Can Use This Strategy Too
Imagine this: Every month, we poured $1 million into digital ads. That’s $33,333 a day, $1,389 an hour, and about $23 per minute.
The idea was simple: buy cheap traffic at $0.07 a click and sell ad space for way more – think $1.87 to $4 per user viewing the ads. It’s like buying cans of soda for $0.50 each and selling them to thirsty concert-goers for $5 a pop.
🤷♂️ Why You Should Care
Listen, not everyone has a million bucks lying around to throw at ads every month (and if you do, then that’s awesome!).
But here’s the thing: even if your ad budget is more in the $350/month range, there’s a ton you can learn from the big spenders. They’ve already made all the mistakes, so you don’t have to.
Today, I'm giving you a behind-the-scenes look at how startups like the one I worked at spent millions on ads – what worked, what flopped, and, most importantly, how you – the small business owner hustling to grow – can use these same strategies without needing a million-dollar budget.
What You’ll Learn in This Blog:
How we went from 0 to 250K Facebook followers and racked up millions of views using both organic and paid campaigns
The inside scoop on buying traffic across every major ad platform (and why it worked so well)
How we teamed up with celebrities like Lil Wayne to drive millions of visitors to our sites
The wild strategies we used to keep people clicking—and coming back for more
What it’s like to work in a startup that spends $1.5 million a month on ads—and how I kept up
When things go wrong… the losses can be jaw-dropping 🤯
How you can take the lessons I learned and use them to supercharge your own business
Let’s jump in...
The Early Days: Crafting BuzzFeed-Style Videos
When I first came on board, my mission was clear: crank out as many quick, scroll-stopping videos as possible. We were pumping out 30-40 videos every month for sites like Buzzlie.com and Detonate.com, all about celebrity gossip, fun facts, and pop culture. It was like running a content assembly line, high-speed and nonstop.
But here’s where things took a turn…
While most video creators focused on the what, I started digging into the why. These videos weren’t just for entertainment – they were calculated plays to keep people glued to our pages, rack up ad impressions, and bring in more dollars.
Pro Tip: Every extra second someone stays on your site? That’s more ads in front of their eyeballs. It’s not just about getting views – it's about keeping them hooked.
Check out a few examples of the videos we produced, featuring multiple hosts (yep, including me). 👇