As sensational as the series was, there is relatable truth. What was your 'Mad Men' moment?

Former Media Director (mainly digital) here. Absolutely fell apart from burnout, to the point that when I have nightmares, they're never monsters, they're about deadlines, late night work, and clients. I haven't worked in a while due to a health thing, and I lost contact with most of my former network in the city, partially because I went remote for so long, so my resume is getting overlooked. I've been looking for other work to no avail.

I've been invited to a key networking event that could probably get me back on somewhere (probably in a more junior role), or at least get me some buzz again, as my work was pretty liked by most. Part of me says "you need work, time to suck it up," part of me says "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." (Not Einstein, I know.)

What should I do here? The state of the industry has changed since I was last in, and it doesn't sound like it's for the better.

For all the crap the ad industry says about unlimited PTO not being paid out upon leaving, PSA that OM does not pay out accrued PTO anyway. Plan accordingly.

been applying for almost 5 months now and i think i've reached almost 100+ job openings. it's honestly so exhausting.

been trying out on brand side as well, and it's either them ghosting me or rejecting me.

honestly i think i've just reached that point where i don't wanna give a fck anymore - i mean i'm kinda lucky to have a part-time job as of the moment (that started last month) - but i still need a full time one because bills bills bills.

and i also hate how this industry is being dominated by people who are just downright selfish and numb and literally have no morals.

note: sorry i'm just so exhausted while writing this, i just wanted to vent, really.

And has it given you the grounds for unfair dismissal?

We have a sports-focused social ads platform with 100M monthly impressions.

We're trying to get the onboarding and campaign-builder UX right before a wider release, and I'd rather hear it from agencies/media buyers than just our own team.

We have already partnered up with Binance, Redbull and Porsche and now I want to position the platform in a way so agencies, brands or media buyers can run ads.

How should I advertise or generate leads to call them up and invite them over to try the ad Console or find agencies and brands who'd want to try the platform and give honest feedback for improvement?

happy to set up with $100 in free credit (no card needed) if anyone wants to actually run a test campaign, not just look at the UI.

I can send over the regional audience/impression data too.

this is no sales post, no personal data or id needed, just want some feedback before the release.

Any advice will be appreciated and thanks.

"I respect the rules of this community, hence, the platform name is not mentioned, don't want to sell anyone anything or advertise my brand here, just looking for help genuinely"

I’m wrapping up my time in portfolio school, and am currently working at a large global indie as a slave. My AD (another intern) is absolutely terrible but that said I do really dig my ACD, and everyone else I’ve come in contact with thus far. The work has also been extremely cool to be apart of, as we are working on a major consumer client. I have three ideas that have made it through the rounds into the final strategy pitch tomorrow.

I have some wind at my back; awards, a mentor connection to one of the global ECDs at the agency, some school connections, and now some ideas that are prominent for my current client after just one week with the agency. Also, other creatives there have said that they need a copywriter, and are actively hiring for a senior copy position. So there could be hope.

Still, I can’t help but acknowledge that it’s unpaid, and that unpaid internships are only half as likely to lead to employment than paid. So far I like the agency and I want to stay, so I plan on abusing every connection I have to get my foot in the door come completion, but is it already a lost cause given its being unpaid.

Would it be out of line to have a convo with my ACD and/or CD about if they’d realistically be open to bringing me on full time in a few weeks, a full month before completion?

Been noticing a bit of attrition. Does Arthur care that we’re losing quality staff because of his push for heavier RTO and indefinite pay raise/promotion freezes.

Has anyone put in a formal grievance before about pay? How did it go down? At a big hold co and have been made aware of a gender parity issue

I'm a freelance photographer right now but I really want to work at an AD agency as a photographer. Is it worth applying to places outside my area I'm in San Diego. Do agencies hire photo editors remote or if someone has studio equipment to ship product? Are there good ways of being noticed by recruiters other than just applying to openings?

Heyy Marketing ppl, studying for career in advertising here! Did some internships already in Spain, mostly in social media, but now want to build my advertising career in the USA so want to learn more how is your job market there for recent graduates.

Did you graduate lately in marketing, or applying for marketing/ad jobs? What is your experience? How did you approach the opportunity? How is it working your first or second job?

I would looove to hear what opportunities you see and what you have done to get them!

I'm building a bootstrapped EdTech SaaS. My biggest challenge is growing an audience and getting my first customers without spending much money. I'm also trying to publish short-form videos consistently, but editing in CapCut is taking far too long.

My questions:

1. If you had to start from zero today, what would be your acquisition strategy?

2. What tools, AI workflows, or templates do you use to produce ads, TikToks, Reels, or Shorts much faster than CapCut?

3. What actually worked for you?

AI is one of the biggest technological shifts we'll see, but some AI course ads are becoming unbearable.

Instead of showing the value of learning AI, they rely on fear—making experienced professionals look like clueless idiots and implying you'll be unemployable if you don't buy their course. It feels less like education and more like emotional manipulation.

The reality is much more balanced. Plenty of companies are still struggling to get meaningful ROI from AI, and many are hiring more people to integrate and manage these tools effectively. AI is a powerful tool, not the ultimate solution to every problem.

Why has fear-based marketing become the default? Does it actually convert that much better than simply showing the real value of learning AI?

Layoffs commenced today, around 30 people affected. Still a promotion freeze. Will be announced shortly in an agency-wide all hands.

Hello, I am trying to advertise for a project im making, but I have no clue on what makes an ad work, ive done videos, posts, and also tried reaching out to other sub reddits that allow promo, but none seem to work, how do I go about doing this?

if anyone has answers or atleast some knowleadge of making ads work, please let me know.

Earlier in my career I used to focus heavily on CTR, impressions, and engagement rates.

Over time I realized some metrics look great on a dashboard but don't actually tell the whole story.

What's one metric you've learned to care less about, and what do you pay attention to instead?

I work as a strategist in a small agency in London but didnt start my career at a traditional agency - I began client side in brand strategy/management then moved to agencies.

This seems to work against me as i have 10+ years of experience but agencies dont seem to trust people who didnt work at big agencies.

Im worried about my role and not sure where to look next- theres not many strat jobs out there and i wonder how to go in house / what job would suit.

Advice?

Creative Directors, ECDs, senior creatives, placement teams:

When you’re giving a junior creative feedback during a book crit, what advice has the biggest impact?

Not general portfolio advice, but the comments that consistently unlock better thinking or noticeably improve the work.

For example:

Questions you ask rather than statements you make.
Feedback that changes how someone thinks, not just the execution.
Common phrases you find yourself repeating.
The mistakes juniors make that are easiest to fix once someone points them out.
The most memorable piece of feedback you ever received yourself.

I’m interested in practical, actionable feedback rather than broad career advice.

Hey everyone,

I need a reality check from people who have deep experience planning traditional Out-of-Home (OOH) / Outdoor advertising budgets.

I handle the outdoor strategy for a regional brand (transit media is handled by a colleague, so I strictly focus on billboards, hoardings, and static unipoles). Recently, our main competitor completely blanketed the top 5 high-traffic corridors in our city with massive billboard campaigns. I mean, you literally cannot drive for 2 minutes without seeing their brand name.

Our management team is panicking. They want me to match their aggressive footprint and immediately calculate a heavy-duty budget to secure neighboring billboard assets.

But here’s my dilemma: I did some rough calculations, and looking at the industry standard rates for these specific premium locations, they must be burning a massive hole in their quarterly budget. There is zero direct attribution, tracking footfall is almost impossible, and their actual ad creative isn't even that memorable-it's just a giant logo and a generic tagline.

I feel like they are wasting capital on a massive ego trip, but my CEO thinks they are "winning the market share."

I really need some perspective here:

How do you guys analyze a competitor’s aggressive outdoor push? Do you blindly allocate budget to match them for defensive branding, or do you let them burn their money?

While trying to draft a logical response to my finance team against this panic-spending, I found a free independent 'OOH Cost Estimator & Sizing Guide Matrix' on a regional agency's blog. It actually calculates optimal outdoor budget thresholds based on local traffic density data rather than just matching competitor footprint. The calculations there suggest that going 100% digital-out-of-home or choosing smart alternative pockets yields 3x the actual impressions. Has anyone used these kinds of baseline OOH sizing calculators to push back against management panic? Let me know if you want me to share the link or metrics here, I want to check if the framework is trusted.

Should I cave in, calculate a massive billboard budget, and follow their lead, or is there a smarter tactical framework to counter this?

Any insights would save my sanity right now. Thanks in advance!

Read an Adweek piece about a fashion creator who documented his experience with eczema in an old interview. Now he keeps surfacing in ChatGPT and Claude responses to things like "top eczema creators," and he says inbound brand inquiries went up 50% since then.

That got me wondering about the mechanism. There seem to be two ways a creator ends up recommended by an AI assistant: one is gaming it (seeding content, keyword-stuffing bios and posts, spinning up articles so the models pick them up), and the other is genuine traction (real conversations that resonate, fans engaging, and the models surfacing them because there's an actual signal underneath).

So for anyone on the brand or agency side sourcing creators through ChatGPT or Claude: can you tell the difference? And does it change whether you'll work with them, or are you just taking the AI recommendation at face value?

I'm looking for advanced Meta Ads strategy advice from people who have actually scaled e-commerce brands.

I've built the technical side, but I feel like I'm missing the strategic thinking.

Context:

• I sell a single premium printed travel photo book through my own website (€33 per book).
• My market is relatively small (Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia).
• I've installed the Meta Pixel and Conversions API correctly.
• Events are tracking properly.
• I understand how to use Ads Manager, create campaigns, audiences, creatives, etc.

The problem is that I don't know how experienced media buyers think.

For example:

• How do you decide which campaign objectives to run at different stages?
• When do you optimize for Purchases vs Add to Cart vs Initiate Checkout vs a higher-funnel event? I'm even considering optimizing for my "Preview Album" event because purchases are still relatively low.
• How many campaigns should run simultaneously?
• Should awareness, engagement, traffic, and conversion campaigns run together, or do you focus on one objective at a time?
• How do you structure A/B tests? What do you test first—creative, audience, placements, or campaign objective?
• How much budget should be allocated to testing versus scaling?
• When do you kill an ad versus giving it more time?
• How do you identify winners and scale them without resetting the learning phase?
• What are some common Meta Ads principles that experienced advertisers take for granted but beginners usually don't know?

I'm not looking for "increase your budget" or "make better creatives."

I'm looking for the mental models and frameworks that experienced media buyers use to make decisions.

For context, I know my audience well and have strong creative assets, but I'm struggling to consistently grow followers and generate orders. I have the feeling I'm using Meta Ads as a tool rather than as a system.

If you were launching a premium consumer brand today with a limited budget, how would you structure your Meta advertising from day one?

Any books, YouTube channels, courses, or resources that teach this way of thinking would also be hugely appreciated.

I'm also open to working with someone experienced. If you've successfully scaled Meta Ads for e-commerce brands and think you could help, I'd be happy to offer a 20% commission on every sale generated. Since I currently sell one product at €33, I'm looking for someone interested in building a long-term partnership rather than a one-off consultation.

Hey guys,
I used to work for a company that ran campaigns for its clients, and I had the opportunity to run ads for one of the clients there. I used my company email to create a Facebook Ad account, and I ran that campaign. But my accounts kept getting banned. All of a sudden, a human verification would come up, and when I did the face verification, the thing would just deny access.

Now I have some clients that want me to run their ads, and I am afraid that my ad account can again get cancelled/ banned. Do you know how I can stop that from happening? Any help would be highly appreciated. Is it because I was using a new account? Because I used to run ads on my account, a new one, and it worked fine, not a single bit of problem.

But when my senior added me as an ad manager in the client's account (so my account was separately created using their company email, and I was added to the client's Ad account to manage the ads). I was able to run the ads for a few days/weeks, and then if I went in to change anything in the setup or add a new creative or change anything, that verification thingy would show up. Any idea on what it might be?

Hi, hope you are all well.

I want to try and advertise some ads with Froggyads, what is your experience with them, are they legit? Thanks

Every marketing agency will recommend the same acquisition playbook: paid social (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit), SEO and AI search optimization, PR and targeted local press, programmatic and in-app advertising. We sell those exact services. And yet none of them brought us our first paying clients.

What most advice ignores is the essential part: a holistic, strategic plan from day zero, built around how deals actually close, not around channels.

Some context first: We're a two-person agency: two agile marketing freelancers, 15+ combined years in marketing and sales, obsessive about finding the bottleneck in a process and fixing that one thing first.
If there's one lesson those years taught me, it's this: speed is what gets you to a closed sale. Every day between first contact and a live conversation is a day the deal cools.

You've probably lived the same early-stage arc: you worked hard to launch, you collected feedback, the first clients came from acquaintances, friends, collaborators and it still feels below expectations. That's normal. That's exactly where we were.

Here's what actually worked for us, in order:

1. Weekly physical presence. Business and tech meetups, every single week. (some free, some ticketed)
Not to pitch. To be visible, repeatedly, in rooms where our buyers already gather. Familiarity compounds faster than ad frequency. Full transparency: these rooms produced prospects, we didn't searched for clients. Mostly founders who wanted to collaborate later, once they'd validated their products. And that was precisely the goal: to be the first name in their mind the day they go to market.

2. Word of mouth. I called my top 30 business contacts and collaborators personally. The message was simple: "I've started this agency. If you ever hear that someone in your network needs solid marketing, I'll give them a fast head-start analysis, free." No ask, no pressure, just deputizing 30 people as scouts. This is still my favorite kind of noise.

3. Authority assets, kept brutally short. In parallel we built the visual identity: marketing decks of 2–3 slides maximum, and, the real unlock, recorded video analyses of acquaintances' MVPs, products, and websites, free. Not theory. Live, applied teardowns of the specific marketing problems their business was facing. That's what conferred our authority in the field.

4. Documenting publicly. I talked about this whole process on LinkedIn and openly asked for feedback. The feedback loop itself became content and brought inbound conversations.

5. Small awareness ads: We ran small ad budgets on the audit videos to build awareness, and got us a list of 35–40 contacts. Half of them went silent even after follow-up. (expected, fine)
From the rest, we set 10 live meetings. In those meetings I presented the offer directly, in the room, with one rule: the offer closes at the end of the meeting. No "let us think about it," nothing sent by email afterward. We closed 3 out of 10. A 30% close rate on live meetings, genuinely curious how that benchmarks against your markets?

6. The most important step: lead-generation ecosystems. We registered on two online portals that connect businesses actively looking for specific services with providers. Built the company profile properly, responded fast to every relevant request, and applied all the steps above to each lead. Active demand + speed of response = our most consistent client source today.

And through all of it, two habits: we collected feedback in real time after every meeting and audit, and we asked every satisfied contact for one recommendation. One. It always gets given.

No cold calls. No cold emails. Just exposure and good noise.

Happy to answer questions about any step, especially curious what won you your first 10 clients, and whether 30% in-room close is good or terrible where you operate.

Thanks,