How a screenshot became their best ad

Yesterday, I told you about the "twitch metric"—CTR (All)—and why it's the clearest signal that your product-market fit is dialed in.

Today, I want to show you what happens when you actually use that insight.

A few months ago, we were working with an ecom that was stuck.

Their ads weren't scaling. Meta couldn't find enough people who wanted to buy.

So we ran a PMF test to figure out who they should be talking to and what those people actually cared about.

After testing multiple segments, we found a clear winner: A specific hobbyist community that was obsessed with their niche.

Their core pain? They wanted great results without spending hours on upkeep every weekend.

Once we knew the winning segment, we rewrote all the messaging to speak directly to them.

And here's where it gets interesting.

One of the best-performing ads was just a screenshot of the product page buy box.

That's it. No fancy video. No lifestyle shots. Just a screenshot.

Why did it work?

Perfect congruence.

The ad copy explained the introductory offer and all the bonuses they'd get. The "creative" (the screenshot) showed them exactly what they were going to receive.

There was zero confusion. Zero friction.

And the CTR (All)? It climbed immediately.

Meta saw that people were engaging, so it started showing the ad to more and more of the right audience. The brand scaled profitably for the first time in months.

Another brand we worked with sold personal care products.

During PMF testing, we ran 30 different hooks to see which one made people stop and engage.

The winner addressed a specific frustration their audience didn't even realize they had … the idea that their current approach was actually making their problem worse.

That hook had the highest CTR (All) by far.

Why? Because it named the exact frustration their audience was feeling. It made them think, "Wait, that's me."

Once we found that hook, we rebuilt the entire funnel around it. The long-form ad copy. The landing page. Everything.

And the results? Meta could finally scale the campaign because the message was resonating.

In both cases, the breakthrough didn't come from better creatives or a new landing page.

It came from finding the message that made people twitch.

The one that made them stop scrolling, read the ad, and engage.

That's what CTR (All) measures. And that's why it's the most important metric to optimize before you worry about conversion rates.

Tomorrow, I'll walk you through the exact process we use to find that winning message … so you can do this for your own brand.

Quick question: Have you ever tested your messaging systematically, or are you mostly guessing based on what "sounds good"? Hit reply and let me know … I'm curious where most founders are starting from.

See you tomorrow,

Jeremiah

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