I spent my last month or so rethinking my entire offer stack and strategy.

I'm expanding.

Team Nick Tribe is adding people, and I'm all excited for what's coming next.

In doing my new strategy, I included a paid media plan.

In other words, I will spend money on ads.

In doing my paid strategy, I got reminded of a story about what people get wrong about advertising.

And why if you're reading this newsletter, you should know better.

Let me explain.

Not long ago, a DJ / Producer came to me with a budget.

He was ready to spend on ads to promote his music.

"Hey, Nick, I got $300 I want to spend on promoting each of my new releases. Probably adding more in the future. Can you help me?"

I asked why he wanted to do that in the first place.

Apparently, some “friend in the industry” told him this is something he "must" do.

Here’s his logic.

The more people know about your stuff, the higher the chances of getting fans.

On paper, nothing wrong with that.

However...

Here’s what I knew about this DJ.

He had put out 50-60 pieces of content for his first release.

He posted on Tik Tok, Instagram, as well as putting the song out on SoundCloud, Spotify, etc.

He even tried to pitch the track to some playlists.

The response?

Crickets.

No one cared. No comments. No shares. No buzz.

So I told him straight up....

Don’t advertise.

You’ll just burn money.

Unfortunately, I don't think he will listen to me.

He will likely just spend the money with anyone that's willing to take advantage of him.

But anyways, the point is the following.

Throwing money at something that's not validated won't magically fix it.

It will just guarantee that more people will see your stuff.

But if your stuff doesn't resonate...you'll just waste time, money, and energy.

Let's unpack this.

Most people get paid traffic wrong.

It’s not a magic bullet that can fix a weak offer, a boring product, or a song no one wants to hear.

It’s an amplifier on a certain message.

It takes what’s already working and pours gasoline on it.

If you’ve got a great offer that resonates, paid media can help you scale it to the moon.

But if what you’re promoting sucks?

It just helps you waste money faster.

This is why I tend to test everything organically first. Or at least, with a low budget.

Take my TikTok strategy for my music, for example.

Every time I have a new song, mashup, remix idea... I post it.

Some hit hard. Some fall flat.

But that’s the point.

If a song gets compliments, comments, and people asking where they can download it, that’s a green light.

That’s when you can (should?) spend on ads.

You don’t need a massive budget or a team of analysts to figure this out.

We live in a world where you can test your marketing messages virtually for free.

If the market responds to it, chances are they’ll like it when you scale it.

In other words, you might be onto something.

But if they don’t?

Move on.

Now, you might be tempted not to believe me.

I get that.

You might think that a massive media budget could save you.

You might be thinking that if you had millions to spend to let people know about your stuff...

All of your marketing problems would go away.

If that's you, let me prove you wrong.

How about...$500 million as a budget?

Big enough?

Ok.

Now let me tell you about the 2020 presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg.

The guy was a billionaire. So he had plenty of money to spend.

Bloomberg entered the Democratic primary race late.

He officially announced his candidacy in November 2019 - basically a year before the election.

To make up for his late entry, Bloomberg used his money to boost his name recognition.

His campaign spending was unprecedented in scale.

By February 2020, he had spent over $500 million on various forms of advertising.

A massive team. A massive budget. A massive operation.

Television, radio, and digital platforms.

He was everywhere.

Millions of people saw his ads.

To give you context, consider this.

His spending was higher than what all other candidates spent combined (!)

No one could match that purchasing power.

And yet...

The result?

Not a success.

Even with so many ads, they didn't connect with many Democratic voters.

So just after a few months, Bloomberg realized he likely wouldn't get the nomination.

He suspended his campaign and endorsed Joe Biden.

The lesson is that the fundamentals matter more than the promotion.

He wasn’t saying what people wanted to hear, or maybe he wasn’t the person that people wanted to vote, or whatever.

No amount of ad spend was going to change that.

In other words, paid media didn’t save him.

If anything, it just made him fail faster.

So here’s the point.

Paid media is a tool, not a savior.

If what you’re promoting is solid, ads can scale it fast.

If it’s weak, ads will just expose the flaws to a larger audience.

So test first.

See what resonates.

Then amplify what works.

That’s how you win with paid media.

Without burning cash for nothing.

Lessons from a billionaire.

Talk soon,

Nick