Hey legends! 👋
Most of the brands I work with don’t actually have a scaling problem. They have a creative output problem. We’ll optimise campaigns and bids all day, but if there are only a handful of new ads each month, nothing really changes.
Lately I’ve been pushing every client to ship more creative, faster, and let data decide (with a clear strategy ofcourse!). Studying how Ridge Wallet scales just reinforced it. They lean into the algorithm and outproduce everyone.
Hope you enjoy this teardown.
-Dev
THE GAMEPLAY
Once you fix creative velocity, you unlock scale.
Most brands only think about creative when performance drops. They panic, then suddenly decide to “invest in new ads” as a reaction.
I’ve noticed successful brands are doing the opposite and getting ahead by always testing. Ridge has a solid framework for this.
Ridge spends $100k+ daily on Meta alone, and has built a systematic testing framework that launches hundreds of ads weekly and kills underperformers within 48-hours. They run a creative production strategy like a well oiled conveyer belt where every ad is a hypothesis to validate or to remove from the workflow.
If there was one thing to take away from today’s newsletter is that creative velocity is the primary scaling constraint for Ridge. They solved for that and have been able to scale beyond nine figures in annual revenue, entirely bootstrapped without any outside funding!
THE DEEP DIVE
Ridge's Creative Volume System Tear Down
1. The volume math and where to find budget
Ridge calculates that winning ads cap out at a certain spend limit before fatiguing. At their scale ($100k/day), it means they need a winner daily. The ratio matters more than the absolute number, so roughly 1:50 ads become winners.
At smaller spend levels, ad fatigue is still real. Your best-performing ad won’t last forever; the algorithm exhausts the audience that responds to it. Without fresh creativity, performance declines and CPMs rise.
Scale the math to your level. If you're spending $3K/month on Meta and ads fatigue after $500-1K in spend, you need 3-6 winners monthly. At 1-in-20 odds (more realistic at lower spend), that's 60-120 ad variations per month—or roughly 15-30 per week. Start with 5-10 new variations weekly and increase as you learn what hits.
Testing is inevitable, and brands often struggle with figuring out how to actually fund it, let alone scale. Ridge had the same problem. This is what Ridge does:
Ran incrementality test, pausing spend in specific regions to measure true lift in new customers.
When they paused branded search on Google, revenue barely moved for them, meaning customers were already coming. They found the same with Google Shopping. It looks great on the platform, but it often captures intent that already exists rather than creating new demand.
They took budgets from those channels and reinvested in creating demand.
2. Testing framework that compounds learning
Volume without structure is expensive and will eat into your cash flow quickly. Even if you know Ad 1 beat Ad 2, for example, often people never truly understand why, preventing them from replicating the success of the winner.
Meta’s algorithm now recognises minor variations as the same ad. If you’re running the same concept but with different coloured backgrounds, it considers that as the same ad. Different music on the same video - still the same ad. That’s not true testing, it’s just wasting impressions and ad spend.
To avoid this, Ridge focused on getting their naming conventions right and making sure they follow some diversity rules.
Conventions - Every ad gets tagged before launch: concept (problem-solution, lifestyle, social proof), hook (first 3 seconds), thumb-stop (opening frame), body (middle section), CTA placement (middle, end, multiple). This lets you slice performance by any element.
Diversity - different talent (men vs women vs couples), different selling angles (problem-focused vs gift-giving vs lifestyle), different visual styles (polished vs UGC vs product demo), different formats (static vs video vs carousel).
When both systems run together, with high creative volume and strict tagging, Ridge stops guessing and starts learning.
They can see exactly what drives performance because every element is tracked and compared. The patterns become obvious. Hook A beats Hook B by 30% across channels. Mid-video CTAs pull more clicks, while end CTAs convert better. Fifteen-second cuts win on TikTok, and 30-second edits perform stronger on Meta.
Every upload becomes data, not just another ad.
3. The opportunity cost of slow decisions (Kill discipline)
Volume only works if you are 100% on top of your underperformers. Otherwise, average ads will take all your ad spend and budget while you continue waiting for “more data”.
The opportunity cost is not testing something that might exponentially drive your sales forward.
With hundreds of ads launching, Ridge maintains a weekly cadence for new creative launches. They have an aggressive 48-hour kill window to keep the budget flowing toward potential winners.
The math is simple: every dollar spent on a proven loser is a dollar not spent finding your next winner.
Evaluate within 48-72 hours on leading indicators:
Thumb-stop rate below account average
3-second view rate below 25-30%
CTR is significantly below baseline
CPC 2x+ higher than proven creative
Kill ads based on engagement signals because chances are, at lower volumes, you won’t get that in time and be left even more confused on what to do next.
Takeaway for smaller brands: At lower spends, you want to give ads slightly more runway (about 72 hours) and spend atleast $100-$200 before deciding. The principle of leading with early engagment still holds true; if signals are weak, there is a good chance your ads won’t magically improve.
THE FRAMEWORK
5-steps to get started this week:
Audit branded search this week. Pause for 2 weeks and watch revenue. If it holds, reallocate to creative testing.
Build your tagging/naming conventions spreadsheet. Hook type, format, body style, CTA placement. Review monthly for patterns.
Find your testing budget. Pause branded search for 2 weeks. If revenue holds, reallocate to creative testing.
Build the system before you scale. Tag every ad: hook type, format, body style, CTA placement. Create a 2x2 test matrix - two hooks × two visual styles = 4 genuinely different ads. Review monthly for patterns.
Kill weekly, reallocate immediately. Give ads 72 hours and a $50-100 spend. Cut anything with below-average engagement. Move that budget to new tests the same day.
Poll: What did you think of today's edition?
That’s all for today! Thanks for tuning in, and feel free to drop me a note with your thoughts!
-Dev
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