Chain Pod

Creative is more than half the outcome on Meta, and in November every feed looks the same. Adele runs through the Black Friday creative types that keep winning: simple offer statics with your logo on them (yes, your logo), cart screenshots showing the savings, text message exchanges, founder and employee content, pack an order with me, and creator content like unboxings, try-ons and demos. Meta is pushing paid partnership ads harder than ever, so if they're not in your mix, you'll fall behind. We also get into refreshing last year's winners with a sale banner or a green screen founder callout, why only 1 in 10 creatives will be a winner, and why 30% of your creative should be outside the box. Plus scroll-stopping hooks that still fit your brand, sale-specific brand kits, and why urgency matters now that shoppers are holding out for the final offer. Our biggest rule: don't cheapen what you've built for a short-term win. No more Microsoft Paint scribble ads, unless that's genuinely your brand. 💌: Links & resources 🔗 Want this taught properly, in a room, with your own account open? Final Meta Masterclass of the year is almost sold out for Brisbane: ⁠JOIN HERE⁠ https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/1989065789320?aff=oddtdtcreator Connect With Us: Instagram: ⁠@chainsocial⁠ Instagram: ⁠@chainpod⁠ Web: ⁠www.chainsocial.com.au⁠ Training: ⁠www.chainacademy.com.au

If your Black Friday strategy starts in November, you're already behind. Adele breaks down the runway that actually decides your sale. September is for testing creative motivators, targeting, campaign types and bidding strategies. October is for building a high-quality audience while shoppers hold out, and November is your Super Bowl, where you stop testing and scale. We get into why you need to relax your efficiencies across September and October, why your conversion rate will dip in October and why that's normal, and swapping purchase objectives for add to cart to get up to four times the traffic for the same budget. Adele also shares her biggest BFCM tip: launching VIP early access to your email list before going out on Meta, so you're not paying for customers who would have bought anyway. Plus reminder ads, keeping your BAU campaigns simmering, and how we scale with a cost per result bid strategy (not one for beginners). Next up: Black Friday creative. Start early, or pay for it later. 💌: Links & resources 🔗 Want this taught properly, in a room, with your own account open? Final Meta Masterclass of the year is almost sold out for Brisbane: ⁠JOIN HERE⁠ https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/1989065789320?aff=oddtdtcreator Connect With Us: Instagram: @chainsocial Instagram: @chainpod Web: www.chainsocial.com.au Training: www.chainacademy.com.au

Episode ten and we're going straight to the thing that decides your November — the offer. Adele spitfires every offer type we've seen work (and flop) across our client base: sitewide percentages, gift with purchase, spend and save, BOGO, the hidden collection play, and why free shipping alone will get you unsubscribed. We get into share of wallet and why shoppers pre-plan their November spend, whether it's even worth partaking if you can't beat 10%, auto-applied discounts vs codes, using subscriptions to rescue an expensive November CPA, and the tip we run for every client — testing your offer on a small Klaviyo segment in October so you're not guessing on Black Friday. First of four from the Meta Marketing Summit run. Keep your offer simple, or lose. 💌: Links & resources 🔗 Want this taught properly, in a room, with your own account open? Final Meta Masterclass of the year is almost sold out for Brisbane: ⁠JOIN HERE⁠ Connect With Us: Instagram: @chainsocial Instagram: @chainpod Web: ⁠⁠www.chainsocial.com.au⁠⁠ Training: ⁠⁠www.chainacademy.com.au

So with peak season coming, Adele's in the hot seat for a mini episode. We reveal the winning creative on Meta, how many new ads you actually need each week, the 70/20/20 split and how to preheat creative so you're not gambling in your purchase campaigns come Black Friday. Short, sharp and straight into the nitty gritty so you can be prepared for a record-breaking BFCM this year. 💌: Links & resources 🔗 The Motion creative benchmark report — the table we referenced, broken down by industry and spend, with how many new creatives you should be testing each week: DOWNLOAD🔗 Want this taught properly, in a room, with your own account open? Final Meta Masterclass of the year is almost sold out for Brisbane: JOIN HERE Connect With Us: Instagram: @chainsocial Instagram: @chainpod Web: ⁠www.chainsocial.com.au⁠ Training: ⁠www.chainacademy.com.au

We sat down with Steff Anderson of Pinnacle Road, Chain Social's accountant of ten years, and the woman we send our clients to when they need someone realistic in the room. 🤎 This one's for every e-comm founder heading into BFCM on vibes. Steff joins Shelby and Adele to pull apart the numbers behind the biggest sales period of the year. What your margin actually needs to be before you can discount, why in-platform ROAS isn't telling you the truth and the bills that land in your inbox long after the sale ends. Warning: you may want a spreadsheet open. In this episode: 💸 Why MER beats in-platform ROAS as a measure of business health 💸 The 80% margin benchmark, why it's near impossible to move once you've set your RRP, and what wholesale really takes 💸 Where shipping actually sits in your numbers (and why minimum spend thresholds are non-negotiable on lower-priced products) 💸 The case for treating ad spend as a fixed cost, not a variable one 💸 Steff's red flag: never let 50% of every dollar go out the door on ads in your first six months 💸 Why 70% margins and 40% off sitewide don't mix and what a discount does to your perceived value forever 💸 If you can't go big at BFCM, don't go. The birthday sale and January alternatives our clients run instead 💸 The post-BFCM bill nobody forecasts: BAS, quarterly GST landing end of Feb, replenishment stock, returns, peak pick-and-pack, packaging 💸 Why Steff would talk you out of a Shopify loan almost every time 💸 Cash flow buckets, 12–16 week forecasting, and why conservative always wins 💸 What Steff's most successful e-comm clients have in common 💸 How to tell if your accountant actually understands e-comm and the first question to ask them Plus: build awareness in September and October so you're not being discovered for the first time on November 1st, and the very real difference between a healthy P&L and cash in the bank. Links 🔗 Steff's BFCM profit impact calculator https://pinnacleroad.com.au/free-bfcm-margin-worksheet/ 🔗 Pinnacle Road — pinnacleroad.com.au Steff is Melbourne-based and works with brands Australia-wide. One-off financial health checks available. Loved this episode? Send it to the founder friend who's about to go 40% off sitewide 🤎 Connect With Us: Instagram: @chainsocial Instagram: @chainpod Web: www.chainsocial.com.au Training: www.chainacademy.com.au