I need to tell you something that might sound backwards.
When your CPA starts climbing as you scale spend, your first instinct is probably to blame the algorithm.
"Meta's not finding the right people anymore."
"We've saturated the market."
"The traffic quality has gone to the dogs."
I get it. That's what it feels like.
But here's what the data actually shows: Meta is still finding new people. Lots of them. The problem isn't that the traffic is broken. The problem is that your message isn't speaking to them.
Let me explain.
There's a diagnostic report I create each month for most of the projects I work on called the Rolling Reach Report. It tracks how many net new people see your ads each month ... people who haven't seen your ads in the last 12 months.
If the "New Reach Increase Percentage" stays above 3%, the algorithm is doing its job. It's finding fresh prospects.
I pulled this report for an outdoor gear retailer who was convinced they'd hit a wall. They were spending $280K/month and their CPA had jumped 40% in six weeks.
The Rolling Reach Report showed they'd reached 487,000 net new people that month.
The traffic wasn't the problem. The traffic just wasn't convinced.
Here's the thing most founders miss: When you first launch ads, Meta shows them to your "core" audience ... the people most likely to buy. These are the low-hanging fruit. They convert easily because your message was built for them.
But as you scale, the algorithm has to go wider. It finds people who are adjacent to your core audience. They might need your product, but they need to hear a different message to understand why.
If you keep showing them the same ad that worked on your core audience, they scroll past.
That's not a traffic problem. That's a messaging opportunity.
Tomorrow I'm going to show you the three ways founders try to solve this problem ... and why two of them destroy your efficiency while one actually works.
Here's my question for you: When you scale spend and your CPA rises, what's the first thing you do? Do you kill ads? Raise budgets? Pause campaigns?
Hit reply and tell me. I'm curious what your instinct is.
See you tomorrow,
Jeremiah
P.S. If you want to learn how to build your own Rolling Reach Report to diagnose whether you have a traffic problem or a messaging problem, just reply and let me know. If it turns out that enough people are interested, I can probably put together a quick workshop …
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