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🔥 why 90% of your “ad testing” isn’t testing at all

🔥 why 90% of your “ad testing” isn’t testing at all

You don’t need more ads. You need more ideas.

Toby Waller
October 24, 2025

Welcome back to The Brick-by-Brick Newsletter - where 7-8 figure brands learn how to scale efficiently.

If you’re serious about growth and our content resonates, grab a free audit - we’ll pinpoint where revenue is leaking and map out exactly how to scale your brand.

Before we dive in, a quick shoutout to our video partner, Vidful - they’re the team we trust to turn raw footage and UGC into high-converting ad creatives at scale. They’re fast, cost-effective, and seriously good at what they do. You’ll find more about them at the end of this edition.

This week’s issue tackles one of the most damaging misconceptions we see inside high-spend ad accounts:

Most brands think they’re testing aggressively, when they’re actually testing the same idea over and over again.

Let’s break down what real creative testing looks like - and how to build a system that actually finds new winners. 👇

1. The Problem: Volume ≠ Variety

Every week, we audit accounts spending $100K–$500K/month on Meta.

They’re “testing aggressively.”

But here’s what that actually means in practice:

→ 5 UGC creators saying the same hook in different kitchens
→ 3 versions of the founder story with new B-roll
→ 4 testimonial cuts with the same message
→ 6 statics with one value prop in different colours

18 ads launched.
3 concepts tested.

This is the illusion of testing - tons of output, zero hypothesis diversity.

💡 Takeaway: More ads don’t equal more insights. Without angle diversity, you’re just repeating yourself louder.

2. The Root Cause: Confusing Production With Strategy

Production = output.
Strategy = insight.

Production answers:
“How many ads did we make?”

Strategy answers:
“What are we learning about why people buy?”

When brands don’t have a clear testing taxonomy, they end up re-skinning the same message instead of exploring new ones.

To scale sustainably, you need a creative system built on hypothesis testing, not asset volume.

💡 Takeaway: Treat every new concept like a science experiment. Change one variable (hook, pain point, or outcome) and measure its impact.

3. The Fix: Build a Creative Concept Taxonomy

Here’s the framework we use inside Brick to guarantee creative variety across every brand we scale:

Concept Type	Example	Why It Works
Outcome-Driven	“Get clearer skin in 14 days.”	Sets a measurable promise.
Problem-Agitation	“Tired of probiotics that make you more bloated?”	Speaks to lived frustration.
Education / Mechanism	“Why gut health affects your energy.”	Builds credibility & curiosity.
Social Proof	“I’ve tried 6 probiotics. This is the only one that worked.”	Borrowed belief via validation.
Contrarian	“Most probiotics are a waste of money. Here’s why.”	Pattern-breaks & earns attention.
Lifestyle / Aspiration	“What high performers do for gut health.”	Sells identity, not product.
Comparison	“We’re not like other probiotics.”	Clarifies differentiation fast.

Most brands live in the first two rows.

The winners?

They cycle through all seven.

💡 Takeaway: Map every new creative brief to one of these categories - if you’re duplicating angles, your test matrix isn’t diverse enough.

4. Why It Matters: The Algorithm Rewards Angle Diversity

When you spend $10K+/day, you’re not fighting competitors, you’re fighting audience fatigue.

Meta quickly finds everyone who responds to your main message (“reduces bloating”).
Once it exhausts that segment, performance flatlines.

New angles introduce new audiences.

And new audiences unlock new scale ceilings.

💡 Takeaway: Think of each creative concept as an entry point to a different buyer mindset. Every angle you test expands your total addressable audience.

5. How to Apply This Next Week

Here’s how to turn this framework into an actual testing rhythm:

Audit your last 20 ads.
Label each one by concept type (Outcome, Problem, Education, etc).
→ If 70%+ sit in one bucket, you’re angle-starved.
Rebuild your testing calendar.
Each week, launch at least one new concept type.
Example: swap an Outcome-led UGC ad for an Education-based one explaining why the mechanism works.
Run a 3-angle test.
Test 3 completely different hypotheses, each with 2-3 creative variations.
→ You’ll find insights 3x faster and scale with less fatigue.

💡 Takeaway: Creative diversity is the ultimate hedge against performance decay. It’s how you keep growth compounding when most brands plateau.

The Bottom Line

Creative testing isn’t about “making more ads.”
It’s about testing different ideas that reveal why people convert.

At scale, concept diversity is what unlocks new markets, prevents fatigue, and keeps your CPA stable while spend climbs.

🚀 If you’re spending $50K–$500K/month and feel capped out, let’s fix that.

👉 Book a free Brick-by-Brick Audit - we’ll show you exactly how to diversify your creative system, identify new audiences, and unlock fresh scale.

Partner Of The Week:

Struggling with high CAC and weak ROAS?

Vidful delivers a weekly batch of TikTok and Meta ads done for you.

They repurpose your UGC and old content into high-converting creatives that cut costs and scale results. Brands have seen $50K GMV in 30 days and 13x ROAS.

You can check out their work here: https://vidful.co/
Or book your free Dust-to-Gold Audit » https://vidful.co/call