Your message worked ... until it didn't

Yesterday I told you about the founder who scaled to $15K/day and watched everything break.

Here's what we found when we looked under the hood.

Their ads weren't bad. In fact, some of them were really good … sharp hooks, solid proof, clear CTAs.

The problem? Every ad was saying something slightly different.

One ad talked about "clean energy for busy professionals."
Another focused on "afternoon focus without the crash."
A third promised "natural stamina for parents."

At low spend, this didn't matter. The platform found little pockets of people who resonated with that combination of angles, and performance looked fine.

But when they scaled, the algorithm couldn't figure out who the product was actually for.

So it started guessing.

And guessing is expensive.

This is the most common place acquisition breaks: message drift.

Here's how it happens:

You start with a message that works (often something the founder said naturally). Then you hire a team. Or an agency. Or you just try to "professionalize" the copy.

Slowly, the message gets softer. More polished. More "inclusive."

You go from:
"For parents who hit a 2pm wall and want to feel present for their kids"

To:
"Clean, sustained energy for everyone."

The second version sounds better. It feels more "brand-like."

But it's also generic. And generic doesn't self-select.

Here's the thing most founders miss:

At scale, your message has to do two jobs:

When your message is too broad, the algorithm can't tell who to show it to. So it shows it to everyone. And your CAC goes up because you're paying to reach people who were never going to buy.

The fix isn't more creative. It's not more angles.

It's one clear truth, said in multiple ways.

Same core message. Same "who it's for." Same outcome. Just different executions.

Because platforms don't reward novelty. They reward clarity that holds under repetition.

If your message needs constant novelty to perform, it's not finished yet.

The moral: Message drift is expensive. Clarity compounds.

Tomorrow I'll show you the second place this breaks (and it's the one that kills conversion even when your ads are getting clicks).

See you tomorrow,

Jeremiah

P.S. Quick test: Can you say who your product is for in one sentence without changing it depending on the channel? If not, the platform is guessing. And you're paying for it.

100% Typo Guarantee … This message was hand-crafted by a human being … me. While I use AI heavily for my research and the work I do, I respect you too much to automate my email content creation.

There was no review queue, no editorial process, no post-facto revisions. I just wrote it and sent it … therefore, I can pretty much guarantee some sort of typo or grammatical error that would make all my past english teachers cringe.

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