The StoryBrand Podcast

Episode #42: How to Create Facebook Ads That Beat the Competition Without a Big Budget

Release Date: October 20, 2025
Host: Donald Miller, Kyle Reed
Guest: Merab Reza (Facebook ads expert, StoryBrand agency owner)

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the evolving world of Facebook advertising, addressing why many brands' ads are failing to deliver results—especially as costs rise and attention becomes scarce. Donald Miller and Kyle Reed, joined by Facebook ads expert Merab Reza, break down what truly drives effective ads today and how even small teams can beat better-funded competitors by leveraging AI and focusing on foundational messaging principles. This episode is a must-listen for marketers looking to compete without a giant budget and who want practical strategies and prompts to create winning Facebook campaigns.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What’s Really Changing in Marketing—and What’s Not

• Merab Reza’s guiding quote sets the stage:

  “Today in marketing, everything and nothing is changing. The everything part is your AI, your tools, your attribution, your placements, your campaign types. But the part that’s more important, the part that’s not changing, is understanding who your customers are so that you can speak an emotional message that triggers a reaction inside of them. That is the part that’s never changing.” (00:00–00:30, 07:13–07:52)

• Key takeaway: While tools and tactics evolve, the need for deep customer understanding and emotionally resonant messaging remains constant.

2. Why Facebook Ads Fail—and the “Survival Sound Bite”

• Donald Miller breaks it down:

  “The point of a Facebook ad is to pique somebody’s curiosity... The way to pique a customer's curiosity so that they want to know more about your product is to use a survival sound bite. And a survival sound bite is a sound bite that you can use that piques your customer's interest in how you can help them survive. For instance: ‘Lose 30lbs in three months.’” (02:58–03:38)

• Messaging framework analogy:

  • Front steps: Survival sound bites—simple, curiosity-piquing statements
  • Front porch: Enlightenment documents (lead magnets, YouTube videos)
  • Front door: Commitments (sales pitches, proposals, CTAs)
  • Most businesses do well on the porch and door but “an F minus on the front steps.” (04:55)

• Practical advice: Focus most energy on clear, compelling, curiosity-driven “step” messaging.

3. The Rising Bar: Creative Is the New Targeting

• Kyle Reed and Merab Reza explore shifting strategies:
  • With AI and privacy shifts (less behavioral targeting), Meta itself says:

    “Your creative is your targeting.” (09:02)

  • It’s “the message in your creative” (not the format or type) that cuts through.
  • Confusion arises: people focus on formats (carousel, video, GIF) when they should focus on what the ad says. Only the right words/message compels action.

4. Producing Ads at Scale (Without a Big Team or Budget)

• Stats that shock:

  “On average, for every $1 million of ad spend on Meta, you need between 300 to 500 creatives, 300 to 500 ads... Only 20 to 30 of those ads are actually going to win.” (12:29–13:11)

  • Small brands can’t match this—so how do they compete?

• Enter AI:

  • Reduces the need for large teams—AI lets a “team of three compete fairly.”
  • But:

    “Someone with AI isn’t going to take your job. Someone who knows how to engineer prompts with AI is going to take your job.” (17:45–17:53)

  • The real unlock is using AI for research and creative brief drafting—gathering language from customer reviews, forums, comments, etc., in minutes, not weeks.

5. AI Workflow for Small Teams

• Instead of brute-forcing 500 ads, do better initial research using AI:
  • Use tools to analyze customer language and pain points fast.
  • Test ads more efficiently and iterate quickly.
  • The better your foundational messaging, the fewer total ads you’ll need.
  • Quote:

    “When you nail the beginning, you cut down on the having to create three to five hundred ads.” (23:12)

• Small teams can now win: “The playing field is being leveled..."

6. Attribution Models and the Real Measure of Success

• Common pitfalls:
  • Last-click, first-touch, multi-touch models are all imperfect as tracking gets harder.
  • People get hung up on “which ad made the sale” when reality is more complex.
  • Humans are not linear: touchpoints span online, offline, word-of-mouth, etc.
• Success metric:
  • Focus on new customer acquisition and the cost to acquire relative to customer value (CAC:AOV ratio).
  • Test one big variable at a time for clarity.
  • Use all attribution models for insight, not gospel.

7. Who Is Doing This Well?

• Scrappy e-commerce brands (meal prep, DTC), not the big-budget giants.
  • Small, nimble companies can test fast and iterate without red tape.

8. Merab’s Framework for Clients

• Audit: What’s been tried, what’s worked, what hasn’t.
• Research: Deep dive into customer language and behavior (now fast with AI).
• Lean in: Find messaging angles that work (“not just on this body part...”).
• Create & test: Use new insights to design creative, then pit them against each other for winners.

9. AI Prompt Sharing and Leveling the Field

• Merab generously offers to share his favorite research prompts for AI in the show notes, so anyone can start using these tools to uncover customer language and pain points immediately.

  "Let’s share these prompts so that everybody can use it and create better ads, not just for the brands, but for people.” (38:58–40:50)

10. The Human Element Is Still Everything

• Don’t believe that AI or Meta’s tools alone will make you win—human strategy and customer empathy are irreplaceable.

  “You can’t remove the nothing part... You need to use AI to help you get to your customers faster, to help you get better insights faster so you can do more creative strategy.” (41:06–42:53)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Donald Miller on messaging clarity:

  "The number one reason that Facebook marketing isn’t working is because you aren’t using survival sound bites that get people to come up and want to know more." (05:22)

• Merab Reza on research and testing:

  "What used to take weeks and a lot of people, now one creative strategist can do in 15, 20, 30 minutes max [using AI]." (19:54)

• On AI’s limits (Merab):

  "[Meta] has always tried to remove the human element... And that has never worked. You can’t remove the human element. You can’t remove your customers... You need to use AI to help you get to your customers faster." (41:06)

• On actionable strategy (Kyle Reed):

  “As a listener and myself listening to our conversation, I’m just drawn back to what is working with ads. It’s getting that foundational principle right of your marketing.” (36:29)

Practical Takeaways

• Focus your effort on clear, emotionally resonant messaging—not clever formats.
• Use AI for customer research: mine forums, reviews, and comment sections for real insights.
• Start ‘small but smart’ with ad testing: quality beats quantity if research is solid.
• Iterate quickly: small teams can win against “the Fords and the Four Seasons” using speed and insight.
• Don’t obsess over attribution models—focus on acquiring new customers at a healthy CAC:AOV ratio.
• Use actual customer language in your ads—AI can help surface this at scale.
• Grab Merab’s AI prompts from the show notes to jumpstart your own process.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00] – What’s changing and what’s not in marketing (Merab’s quote)
• [02:58] – Why Facebook ads are failing: curiosity and survival sound bites (Donald)
• [06:58] – Macro vs. micro: marketers skip foundational messaging (Merab and Kyle)
• [09:02] – “Your creative is your targeting” discussion
• [13:09] – Stats on ad quantity and efficiency; AI’s impact
• [17:53] – “Prompt engineering” and how it changes the game
• [19:54] – AI’s speed in research
• [20:57] – Small team advantage grows with AI
• [24:47] – Attribution models and measurement pitfalls
• [32:03] – Who’s winning at Facebook ads? Scrappy brands
• [34:17] – Merab’s agency framework for clients
• [38:58] – AI prompt sharing and ethical ad creation
• [41:06] – The irreplaceable value of the human element

Where to Find Merab Reza & Resources

• Website: atlantica.com
• LinkedIn: Search "Merab Reza"
• Show Notes: Get Merab’s “ultimate AI research prompts” for crafting high-converting Facebook ads

Final Word

Don’t let Facebook ads—or their rising costs—intimidate you. If you begin with strategic, message-focused research and leverage AI as a co-pilot (not a replacement for human creativity and empathy), you can create winning ads on a budget, outsmart bigger competitors, and acquire customers more efficiently than ever before.

Listen to this episode, grab the prompts from the show notes, and start building your front steps.