How Meta Picks Which Ad You See, According to Meta
Meta just explained how it picks which ad you see. Here's the plain-English version and what it means for your ad creative.
I run paid media for CPG, DTC and lead generation companies, mostly on Meta, and I write about the parts the dashboards leave out. Over $100M in ad spend so far, for brands including Purina and Mars Wrigley. Before this I was a VP at the Boston Celtics and then at UFC, and I worked at Meta.
Recent
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2026
Oct 20AI broke your ads? It’s a nice day to start again.
More brands are coming to me after running their Meta Ads through Claude and watching performance tank. The AI isn’t the problem. They didn’t know what context to give it, or what good looks like.
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2026
Oct 17Your Fake 5-Star Reviews Are Obviously Fake (And Definitely Illegal)
I keep finding fake reviews on startup DTC stores. Shoppers spot them instantly, and the FTC can fine you for them.
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2026
Sep 17A Real Message From a Fake Person
My apartment complex's AI assistant introduced herself as Bridget, a two-year resident. The disclosure would have been free. The pretense cost them.
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2026
Sep 10Everything Is Downstream of Conversion Rate
The Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark dug with a full crew and heavy machinery, in the wrong place, because they only ever saw one face of the headpiece. Most founders hunting a lost CAC are doing the same thing, and the instruction that would move the whole excavation is on the side nobody turned over.
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2026
Aug 28It’s Never Been Easier to Launch a Bullshit Company. Except for the Money Part
The discovery call lasted four minutes and forty-one seconds, and the prospect never turned his camera on. He was working outside, he said. Fine. I've taken calls from…
90 posts going back to 2009, written while the whole business was being invented. The early ones are from my years running social media for the Boston Celtics.