The Playbook | How To Launch A Simple Ad Campaign

Hello friend.

Welcome to The Playbook, a weekly letter designed to give you a competitive edge in content marketing.

Each week, I break down top 1% content and creator economy trends to help grow your business faster.

I also share the behind-the-scenes of building a content business with all my wins/failures.

If you’re new here, I’m Gianluca and I run Storyforma, a content studio in LA. You can always unsubscribe by clicking here.

My New Client Acquisition Campaign For Instagram

Last week, I shared that I’ve been reworking my marketing funnel. Over the weekend I launched its new iteration and I’m very excited for it.

One of my main goals? Keep it simple.

I’m convinced the “old way” of building marketing funnels—clunky softwares, endless setup times, and way too many moving parts—is outdated and inefficient. It’s messy, time-consuming, and hard to scale.

The new way focuses on automation and simplicity. We’ll generate leads from Instagram, qualify them in the DMs, and track everything from Notion.

First, I wanted to test a creative as minimal as possible to gather market feedback fast. I got some of our BTS footage and added some text using the Instagram Story editor–it took me 20 minutes at most. The goal is also to make it look organic rather than overproduced.

I then uploaded it and launched the ad. Here’s how it works:

• People express their interest by DMing a word

• I ask them a few questions about their business in the DMs

• if they’re a good fit, we schedule a discovery call

I like keeping the initial communication on Instagram–it reduces the friction for someone to reach out as they don’t have to leave their email or phone number.

How To Create Your B-Roll Ad

• Call out your target market. For this campaign, I wanted to target “Los Angeles business owners”.

• Tell them 3 things you would do to help them reach their most desired outcome. In my case, the outcome would be “grow predictably without overspending on marketing”.

• Add a call to action to DM a certain word if they want to learn more. I choose the word “story”.

• Optional: connect Manychat for automated replies and Notion to keep track of all leads.

The key here is to have a crystal clear understanding of your target market’s pain points and desires. Plus, of course, a proven process to help them go from A → B.

⏭︎ What I’m Doing Next

I’m working on two other creatives - a carousel and a video ad - to leverage all formats offered by the platform. I’ll also be sending personalized outbound messages to connect directly with my target audience.

Every Viral Video Has 3 Hooks

A very interesting observation I heard from Alex Garcia:

Most short-form videos that go viral have 3 hooks–not just one.

• The verbal hook = the words you open with.
  Outliers → subvert expectations, be polarizing.

• The visual hook = the first image or visuals shown.
  Outliers → dynamic, engaging (often an action or animated graphics).

• The title hook = the first text appearing on screen.
  Outliers → support and enhance the verbal hook (very important as many people scroll without audio on).

[My video about it]

How Tom Noske Built A $100k+/mo Education Business

I’ve been following Tom Noske since 2019. I’m so happy to see him win, he’s been so consistent and passionate about what he does.

Tom started as a videographer, later transitioned into being a creator, and launched his first digital product selling Lightroom presets.

Recently, he shifted into education, running a live coaching cohort that helped him scale to $100k/month—all built on his personal brand and content ecosystem.

What I admire most about Tom is how he broke the conventional rule of ‘niching down.’ Instead of trying to fit into a predefined niche, he focused on creating content he genuinely enjoyed and could sustain long-term.

By doing this, he became the niche—sharing his unique passions, skills, and interests. It’s a winning move we’ve seen with other top creators like Chris Do or Dan Koe, who have carved out their own ‘niche of one’.

[My video about it]

The Death of the Follower Count

One of the biggest trends I’ve seen over the last couple year is what Jack Conte calls “the death of the follower count”–followers just don’t matter like they used to.

In the 2010s, the formula was simple: more followers = more reach. But as ranking algorithms became more competitive, your content wasn’t just competing with other creators—it had to outperform everything your followers were seeing from everyone else they followed.

In the 2020s, we’re seeing a “TikTokification” of algorithms. Modern algorithms don’t care about your follower count; they’re focused on what performs best for the platform’s massive audience. This made things hyper-competitive: your content has to now outperform every other piece of content being published on the platform.

This does have some benefits. It’s easier than ever to go viral and reach new people quickly. Platforms make more money, creators enjoy easy virality, and people spend more time on the platform.

But there is a tradeoff. Quick virality doesn’t have the long-term value of relationship building and community. What’s the point of going viral if you can’t reach your viewers again?

That’s why I believe having a newsletter or email list is more important than ever. It’s the only reliable way to stay connected to your audience—without being at the mercy of an algorithm.

Things I Loved This Week

An old but absolute banger from Roberto Nickson - The Great Online Game

YouTube’s new TV app is looking more like Netflix - soon, Youtube might become the new TV.

Meanwhile, Spotify is trying to compete with Youtube.

This live dating show is taking over Instagram.

Great video by Oren on how to become excellent at focus.

Great video by Dickie Bush on the easiest framework to sell anything.

5 visual hooks you can use to start your videos with.

How to create a font from your handwriting.

I appreciate you reading. If you found this useful, drop a reply with your favorite part.

I read all your emails.