We told a Client to spend less on Ads.
They wanted to go all in on Rakhi ads.
Last year July. Founder is pumped. Rakhi is three weeks out. Wants to 3x the budget and go hard.
We said spend less. Not more.
Their best performing creatives were already fatigued. We could see it in the numbers — CTR dropping week on week, cost per purchase creeping up. And they had maybe 4 new creatives in the pipeline. For the most expensive ad period of the year.
Here's the thing about Festives on Meta that nobody talks about — CPMs go through the roof. Every brand in India is running ads at the same time. If your creative isn't strong enough to perform in a normal month it has zero chance in that environment. You're just paying more to lose.
We told them this. Recommended cutting spend for 1 week, using that time to build a proper creative bank, then going in sharp.
We built 18 new creatives. We tested fast, found what was working, scaled into the peak window with winners already proven.
Best Rakhi they'd had. By a lot.
The right time to scale is when the creative is ready. Not when the calendar says so. Rakhi or any Festive will come every year. A blown budget on tired ads won't come back.
— Arlox