Your goal with paid traffic is simple:

You want to put a dollar into an ad platform and generate a profit...

And then repeat with bigger budgets and, in turn, bigger profits.

Unfortunately, you've seen this isn't reality.

You've found there's a point of diminishing returns (we call it a "Scaling Plateau").

When you crossed $X in spend, you stopped seeing the ROI you wanted.

So you questioned what broke:

It’s not you...eventually, EVERYONE runs into a Scaling Plateau.

And rather than feeling frustrated by this, you should be celebrating!

Hitting a Scaling Plateau means you've completed a level of The Scaling Game.

But before you can move to the next level, you need to learn the rules of this game.

Because The Scaling Game is inherently rigged...

Why Scaling Doesn't Work The Way You Want It To

The definition of "scaling a business" is:

Increasing revenue while maintaining or improving profitability.

In paid traffic terms, scaling is about increasing your ad spend while maintaining your cost to acquire a customer (CPA).

Here's a visual representation of that goal:

But what you probably don't realize is that this goal DOES NOT happen naturally.

There are forces at play that make this goal nearly impossible.

And it's all because of the First Rule Of Paid Traffic.

Rule #1: As Spend Increases, So Does CPA

If you compare the image below with the one above, you'll see they are in direct contrast.

This contrast exists because of "Paid Traffic's Reverse Economies Of Scale."

Unlike other things in business where you get better economics as you spend more, paid traffic economics get worse as you spend more.

This dynamic exists because of the #1 priority of online advertising platform:

Relevance.

Platforms want to serve relevant content to their users so they stay on the platform longer so they can be monetized more.

And this obsession with relevance by the platforms is both a positive and a negative for you.

Why Relevance Is Both Your Friend And Your Enemy

In the days before online advertising, advertisers had to commit to big ad buys just to see if their messages would work.

But online advertising's ability to target by relevance flipped the script on its head...

With online ads, your ads are immediately served to people who will find your ads the most relevant and are the most likely to take the actions you want (e.g. leads, sales) which leads to amazing results with small budgets.

But as you increase your ad budgets, one of two things happens:

• Frequency Increases: the platform serves your ads to the same people more frequently
• Audience Expands: the platform serves your ads to people who will find the ad less relevant

Both actions cause your relevance to drop which increases your CPAs (which means your margins shrink).

This Is Why The Scaling Game Is Rigged

The system is rigged so it's faster and cheaper to sell through these platforms than other channels (so you can't leave them)...but it's also impossible to maintain margin as you spend more.

So what do you do?

Step 1: You understand the game is rigged.

Step 2: You learn how to scale within the rules of their rigged game.

There IS a way for you to fight back and maintain your margins while increasing your ad spend.

But it has NOTHING to do with media buying or pixels or algorithms.

The first step to learning how to do this is, learning the Second Rule Of Paid Traffic.

Rule #2: If You Want To Increase Spend, You Must Decrease CPAs

The reason you get stuck in "Scaling Plateaus" is because you've reached a point where your CPA = the Maximum Allowable CPA you can afford to hit your ROI goals.

If you want to increase your spend, you MUST reduce your CPA below your Maximum Allowable CPA.

We call this creating "room in the math."

Every time you do this, you give yourself the ability to pour more into ad spend because you can now afford the rising costs.

But eventually, you'll increase your spend to the point where you eat up all the "room in the math" thanks to Rule #1 (when spend increases, CPAs increases).

This puts you back at a Scaling Plateau where you'll need another win to be able to afford spending more.

This back-and-forth dynamic is the reason the Third Rule Of Paid Traffic exists.

Rule #3: Scaling Is A Series Of Plateaus

The scaling process doesn't look like the "hockey stick" growth you've seen in the movies...it looks more like a series of plateaus.

In order to continue scaling with paid traffic, you'll be engaged in a never-ending battle to find CPA wins so you can afford to increase your ad spend while maintaining your margin.

There's no hack, tactic, or software that will allow you to "scale forever."

Once you accept this is reality, you'll understand that THIS is where The Scaling Game is won and lost.

The Scaling Game Is Won / Lost In The Plateaus

There isn't one tactic that will allow you to consistently win at The Scaling Game.

The key is figuring out the "right next step" every time you hit a Scaling Plateau.

And the "right next step" changes every time:

• Sometimes it's about ads
• Sometimes it's about funnels
• Sometimes it's about platforms 
• Sometimes it's about something entirely different

What separates the best advertisers from the rest is their ability to figure out what they need to focus on to break through to their next level of scale.

And that's what do here at Decyphered.

We help direct response advertisers find and fix what's keeping them from scaling with paid traffic.

And here's the secret to our success.

The 3 Phase Process That Helps Us Beat This Rigged Game (Consistently)

Over the last decade, we've managed more than $150M across 21 ad platforms scaling offers in tons of industries and verticals.

But the secret to our success is NOT that we are media buying wizards.

It's NOT that we know more about ad algorithms than you.

And it's NOT because we have a bunch of fancy tactics / hacks.

The reason we consistently we win at The Scaling Game is because our process helps figure out how to unlock our next level of scale.

We use the math inside the customer acquisition process to tell us which actions will create the most "room in the math" to allow us to scale RIGHT NOW.

If you'd like to learn how it works, click here to keep learning.