It is difficult to keep up with all of the changes and conflicting recommendations related to Meta advertising. There is no single source of truth that is easy to consume or consistently reliable. So where do you turn?
Whenever an advertiser comes to me looking for a solution to this struggle, I refer them to my podcast. Yes, my blog and videos are helpful, too. But The Pubcast is best at condensing problems, solutions, and best practices into six to eight-minute bursts.
I published an episode every week in 2025, following this simplified format. I went through the playlist to isolate those that I’d recommend to give you the best grasp of Meta advertising today.
Listen to the eight episodes below to improve your knowledge of how things work and establish a confident approach to Meta advertising going forward.
1. Abandon Complexity and Strategy Myths
Advertisers remain obsessed with secret strategies and complex structures that promise certainty. These episodes explain why complexity is often the problem, not the solution.
Stop Searching for the Magical Ad Strategy (June 4, 2025)
There’s a reason that complex, branded strategies with cool names are popular. Advertisers, in search of a solution to their bad results, assume there’s some secret solution. And those complicated strategies seem sophisticated, so they’re convincing.
More often than not, the implementation of these strategies only leads to disappointment. Not only do the great results not follow that were promised, but performance may suffer more due to the segmentation and watered-down budgets inherent in complex strategies.
The Case for Simple Meta Ad Campaigns (March 12, 2025)
When you’re not getting the results you want, the best first step is to strip away unnecessary complexity. Not only may you be getting in your own way, but a simplified approach helps better isolate what does and doesn’t work.
Too many campaigns and ad sets fragment budget and results. It prevents Meta from spending your budget optimally, and puts you in a position of attempting to compete against yourself.
Most advertisers can succeed with a single conversion-focused campaign and ad set. Simplicity shifts focus back to ads, offers, landing pages, and attribution.
It doesn’t mean that you should only create one campaign with one ad set. There are always exceptions. But a simplified approach means starting simple and adding complexity only to solve a problem.
2. Stop Fighting the Platform
Success is increasingly less dependent on advertiser control. These episodes challenge conspiracy thinking and resistance to automation, replacing frustration with clarity. Once you understand how Meta actually works and how literal the algorithm is, many perceived problems make more sense.
Embrace Your Lack of Control (October 22, 2025)
Meta has increasingly prioritized a streamlined, automated, and templated approach over the past few years. Advertisers have fought these changes every step of the way.
And that creates problems. Most advertiser frustrations come from a desire to control everything, including the things they can’t control now. Automation is often rejected because it threatens traditional perceptions of advertiser value.
As much as advertisers may want to reject automation, Meta has a business incentive for your ads to succeed, not fail. So there’s no good reason to force you to get worse results.
Resisting automation limits performance and long-term relevance. So instead, embrace it.
Understand How Meta Advertising Actually Works (November 26, 2025)
Conspiracy theories thrive without a foundation in how things work. Advertisers will believe every explanation for their bad performance that removes the blame from themselves.
That changes when you understand what is and isn’t possible. Meta’s Help Center documents provable facts about the mechanics of advertising. Prioritize understanding these things.
Understanding how things work will lead to clearer analysis and better, more confident decisions. And these decisions are based in fact, not theory.
3. Focus on What Makes a Difference
When ads don’t work, the instinct is to blame Meta or change structure. These episodes bring the focus back to responsibility, fundamentals, and execution. The biggest gains still come from better ads, better offers, better understanding, and better decisions.
Why Aren’t People Acting on Your Ads? (August 27, 2025)
When ads aren’t working, advertisers are quick to consider the various levers they can pull. They start tweaking targeting, bidding, placements, and campaign construction in the hope of improving performance. They’re focusing on all of the wrong things.
It’s not that these levers never make an impact. But changing them isn’t nearly as dependable as focusing on your ads. Because your ads can always be better, the time spent on improving them is worthwhile.
When you’re not getting good results, the key question to answer is why people aren’t acting on the ads. Weak performance is usually an ad, offer, or landing page problem. Focus on the psychological levers of your ads, rather than the structural levers that may not make a difference.
The Four Traits of Successful Advertisers (April 23, 2025)
The most successful Meta advertisers share a small set of consistent traits.
They prioritize simplicity and avoid unnecessary complexity, knowing that complicated isn’t necessarily better. In fact, it’s often the opposite.
They are willing to change as the platform evolves. We’ve seen so many changes to Meta advertising during the past decade, and the instinct is to resist. This resistance is rarely a path to long-term success.
They learn primarily from doing, not from chasing gurus. They know that their brand, website, product, and problems are unique to them. There’s no better teacher than their own experimentation.
And they take responsibility for results instead of blaming Meta. While Meta isn’t perfect, blaming the platform isn’t productive. By focusing on yourself, you have more control.
These traits create clarity, confidence, and better decisions.
4. Fix How You Think About Results
A common advertising mistake is making confident decisions based on weak or misleading information. These episodes reinforce that interpreting performance matters as much as performance itself. If you don’t understand what results actually mean, every optimization decision that follows is at risk.
Correlation, Causation, and Meta Ads Mistakes (June 25, 2025)
What actually caused your shift in performance? Was it the change you made? Or was it an external factor you aren’t considering?
Advertisers are quick to put far too much value on correlation. But small sample sizes, randomness, and factors outside of our control often have far more impact on results than we recognize. The result is that we make bad decisions based on unreliable information.
The ability to decipher the difference between causation and mere correlation is the sign of a sophisticated advertiser.
Let Results Be Your Guide (May 14, 2025)
Avoid rigid rules and universal best practices. They rarely apply cleanly across ad accounts and industries. Decisions like creative cadence and targeting restrictions depend entirely on context.
Meaningful trends that are unique to your situation are far more useful than another advertiser’s strategy. When deciding how to adjust, let your results be your guide.
Subscribe to The Pubcast
I will be expanding The Pubcast in 2026, moving from one to two weekly episodes:
1. Pubcast Shots (Tuesdays)
These follow the format of the episodes above. Short (6-8 minutes), power-packed episodes on a single topic that quickly describe a problem and outline a solution.
2. Pubcast Questions (Thursdays)
New for 2026, these will be 4-5 minute episodes that answer listener questions. You can listen to the first episode for an example and submit your own question here. Who knows? Maybe your question will be answered on a future episode!
You can listen to The Pubcast on my website and from your favorite podcast platform (such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify). You can also subscribe to Podcast Alerts and you’ll be notified whenever I’ve published a new episode.
