The Pubcast with Jon Loomer

Most advertisers obsess over targeting inputs that either do nothing or actively hurt results. Jon explains why he ignores audience suggestions, age restrictions, detailed targeting, and lookalikes entirely, how he uses value rules to handle demographic problems instead, and why the only inputs worth touching are locations and exclusions.

Today's question is about testing different customer personas using the creative testing tool. Advertisers used to create separate ad sets for each persona with adjusted targeting, but that's outdated now. Jon explains why all customer personas can exist in one ad set, how Meta finds the right audience for each ad combination through creative diversification, and when splitting by persona actually...

Audience suggestions cause confusion because advertisers think they're tight constraints when they're not. Jon proposes how Meta could eliminate suggestions entirely while keeping audience controls like location and exclusions. The result would strip away the illusion of control, prevent mistakes based on false assumptions, and force advertisers to focus on what actually matters without pretending...

Today's question is about determining what works from top performing ads to inform the next batch of creative. Creative testing used to isolate single elements, but now ads generate thousands of combinations through text options, placements, and enhancements. Jon explains why finding one winning combination isn't the goal anymore, how to use the creative testing tool to identify themes instead of...

Advertisers believe something works and only pay attention to evidence supporting it while ignoring contradictions. They blame Andromeda or the algorithm when strategies stop working instead of questioning their assumptions. Jon explains why confirmation bias makes experienced advertisers the worst offenders, how to test beliefs instead of confirming them, and why staying curious and open to being...

Today's question is about preventing customers from purchasing the same audiobook bundle twice through ads. Excluding customers is a balance of risks versus benefits, and no single custom audience catches everyone. Jon explains why you should exclude multiple custom audiences including website purchasers and email lists, how to improve match rates, and why keeping audiences dynamically updated lim...

Audience suggestions feel like control, but Meta ignores them constantly, especially for age and gender. There's no proof they impact detailed targeting or lookalikes, yet they cause confusion and wasted effort creating multiple ad sets. Jon explains why Meta should eliminate audience suggestions entirely, how the illusion of control hurts results, and why you'd be better off without them.

Today's question is whether you should remove email signup popups from landing pages when sending paid Meta traffic to them. Popups don't technically violate Meta's rules, but they can contribute to bad post-click experiences that drive up your costs if they hurt bounce rate or dwell time. Jon explains how Meta measures ad quality through landing page experiences, when popups become a problem vers...

Advertisers have a tendency to overcomplicate their campaigns with multiple ad sets, restricted targeting, removed placements, and turned-off enhancements, often without clear reasons for these decisions. Jon challenges you to audit your current campaigns and question every piece of complexity you've added by asking why you made each decision, what problem you were solving, and whether there was a...

Today's question is about campaign structure for seasonal products, specifically whether to split major holidays into separate ad sets with spending limits. Seasonal businesses face a unique challenge of running evergreen products year-round while also promoting holiday-specific items for limited periods. Jon explains how to structure a CBO campaign with multiple ad sets for different seasons, whe...

Advertisers blame Meta when their leads are low quality, pointing to the algorithm exploiting weaknesses like age range or placements to get cheap conversions. But the real problem with lead quality usually has nothing to do with Meta or your ads. Jon explains why your follow-up process, email deliverability, sales team, and automation are what actually determine lead quality, and the specific ste...

Today's question is why campaigns stop working after two or three weeks when the ads generated sales initially and there's no ad fatigue. Meta starts by showing ads to low hanging fruit, the people most likely to convert, which often includes your remarketing audience even with algorithmic targeting. Jon explains why this group gets exhausted quickly, how audience size and product niche affect the...

Creative diversification sounds great in theory, but most advertisers take Meta's recommendations too literally and waste time creating 20 ads at once that never get shown. There's a smarter way to approach creative diversity without overwhelming yourself or your budget. Jon explains how to stack creative diversity in phases using the creative testing tool, starting with one theme and learning wha...

Today's question is about when to use multiple campaigns instead of a single Advantage Plus campaign structure, especially when it comes to separating cold traffic and retargeting. Remarketing happens naturally through algorithmic targeting now, so splitting it out is usually unnecessary. Jon explains the specific situations where multiple campaigns or ad sets actually make sense, why budget split...

Meta spent years taking control away from advertisers, discouraging them from restricting targeting or removing placements, so launching Value Rules seemed like a confusing contradiction. But it actually makes perfect sense when you understand what the feature does. Jon explains why Value Rules are one of his favorite tools, how to use them to solve problems with age targeting, gender distribution...

Today's question is about the easiest and most cost-effective way to set up server-side tracking and the Conversions API. The website pixel alone isn't reliable anymore due to privacy laws and browser settings, which means incomplete data and bad optimization. Jon explains why you need the Conversions API, the simplest setup method using the Conversions API Gateway, and when you might need to tack...

Meta's creative testing tool launched in 2025, but most advertisers either aren't using it or completely misunderstand how it works. The old approach of creating separate campaigns and ad sets for testing has serious flaws that this tool solves. Jon explains why the creative testing tool should be part of your process, how to use it in stages instead of testing 20 ads at once, and why it gives you...

Meta introduced 83 changes to advertising in 2025, making it nearly impossible to keep up if you weren't paying close attention. Three updates stood out above the rest and completely changed how advertisers should approach their campaigns. Jon breaks down the year of Andromeda, the creative testing tool that finally makes testing useful, and value rules that give back control where you actually ne...

Today's question is whether you should use 7 day click, 1 day click, or 1 day view for attribution. The best attribution setting depends entirely on what you're promoting and who you're targeting. Jon explains when to stick with Meta's defaults, when to switch to 1 day click only, and the one specific scenario where view through conversions will make your results look way better than they actually...

Advertisers either oversimplify results by only looking at conversions and cost per conversion, or they get lost obsessing over secondary metrics like CPM and CTR that don't actually matter much. But conversion results have multiple layers that reveal what's really happening. Jon explains how to use attribution settings, breakdowns, and backend data to dig beyond surface-level metrics and understa...

Simplified campaign construction is the foundation of good Meta advertising, but there are legitimate exceptions where complexity is necessary. The problem is knowing when to add complexity versus when you're hurting your own results. Jon explains how to thread the needle between too simple and too complicated, and why you should start simple and only add layers when they solve actual problems.

Advertisers get stuck planning the perfect campaign with 20 or 30 ads across different personas, messaging angles, and formats, only to watch Meta spend most of the budget on one ad after weeks of preparation. But all that upfront planning wastes time you could spend learning from actual results. Jon explains why you should start small with one or two ads, hit publish quickly, and build based on w...

Advertisers blame Andromeda when their results tank, treating it like a boogeyman algorithm that destroyed their performance. But most don't even understand what Andromeda actually is or how it works. Jon explains what this ad retrieval engine really does, why creative diversification doesn't mean creating 50 ads, and how to use it without drowning in unnecessary work.

Conspiracy theories about Meta advertising spread because most advertisers don't understand how things actually work, making them vulnerable to believing anything. Jon challenges you to invest time learning Meta's actual mechanics, not theory or opinion, and explains why building this foundation of fact is the only way to cut through the noise and confusion.

Advertisers want clear rules, step-by-step checklists, and universal solutions they can apply to fix their campaigns. But Meta advertising doesn't work that way, and demanding certainty means missing where real solutions are found. Jon explains why "it depends" isn't a cop-out, why the best answers live in the grays, and how to get comfortable with the uncertainty that comes with actually understa...