Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising?

[00:05.8]
All right, welcome back to "Is Anything Real? In Paid Advertising?" The show where agency founders unpack what's real and what's just noise. I'm your host, Adam W. Barney, and today's guest is one creator or one that creators turn to when they want to stop just posting and praying and actually move the needle.

[00:25.1]
So, Nuria, welcome. Let's start here. You know, with NBN marketing just in the framework with short form video everywhere and ad platforms flooded with content, are we reaching more people, or are we just throwing budget away?

[00:40.9]
From a paid ads perspective or marketing in general? Wow, that's a deep question, isn't it?

[00:51.0]
Start strong, right? Starting strong. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure the same way I do have a lot of thoughts. Everybody listening will have a lot of thoughts, right? I think it all depends how you do it. Because I have seen as a creator, per se, I work in the back end of all this paid advertising and I get to see all these people tell the creators, "hey, this is what you have to do." And then in my head I'm like, "okay, I know how your audience is going to react.

[01:21.7]
I know the people. Why do you want me to create this ad for you?" It's not going to be relatable. People are just going to scroll. It sounds too much of an ad. it just doesn't, ring the bell, you know, So I feel like there's a lot of ways to go at it, but personally, I have seen really great ones and really bad ones.

[01:45.3]
Awesome. So clearly, you know, it's clear that your work, Nuria, blends the creator mindset with production performance goals. When did you realize that most creators have no real plan for how their content leads to sales? Wow.

[02:01.5]
I think day one. day almost negative one. Right? Because that's probably how it actually. You started nbn. Right? Exactly, exactly. To be honest, I started as a creator, solo creator, just, just for fun when Instagram started.

[02:20.1]
And at that point there were no influencers. There were no paid advertising in the creator space. Right. There was, there was nothing around. You were just there for fun. Until all the influencing, the ugc, everything got started. So at the beginning, I was one of those that didn't have a strategy until you see all the avenues around.

[02:41.9]
And then you're like, okay, so what is my niche? What do they actually want to focus on? And when I see people come to me and be like, hey, which is one, you know, whatever you think it's going to work like you don't even know who your ICP is, you don't even know who we're talking to, which obviously we can do all that work.

[03:01.4]
But know your clients first, know who you're talking to, and then like get started with everything else. Know your customer. Right? So I guess kind of, you know, staying in that mindset, though, from your perspective, what do you see The biggest disconnect is between what I would consider organic storytelling and then how people use content in terms of paid ad strategy?

[03:26.7]
What's the difference? Because I think there's a perspective there where everybody from an organic perspective is trying to hit viral nature within either a broader market, or they're truly working towards that niche that you just mentioned. But where does that disconnect sit between how you position things that just can organically hit a viral nature versus a, paid content side that also could lead to that sort of return or that direction?

[03:56.6]
I think I'll have two different answers for that same line, but just for two different people. From the creator perspective, I think that if you build enough of a brand, it doesn't matter what you tell to your audience in those videos, that they are going to see your face and they are going to stop scrolling, right?

[04:18.1]
So that comes, all the work, all the consistency behind that will build that. And, you can keep them for three seconds so they don't scroll just because they see your face. Then you can sell them on something. So if you do know who your audience is and do you know a creator that have that audience go for them! they don't even have to post it on their page.

[04:38.8]
If I'm scrolling and I see your face, I'll be like, "I'm sure I like what he's gonna say." You know what I mean? Right? But like, it's, it's the human, it's the human nature that comes into it and how we connect it at a human nature. And I think that probably ties into maybe what's a hot take around some of what are the most overused lies about "building trust through content" that marketers still continually fall for.

[05:08.4]
Yeah, I completely agree. Everybody is trying to at least let's say LinkedIn as a platform, because maybe more professionals here on LinkedIn than any other platform. It's not all about just posting if your content is coming from ChatGPT, right? Because then I don't know anything about you.

[05:24.4]
Everybody could have wrote that. And even if you use ChatGPT, please change it a little bit, because then we go from there. Right, right. Yeah. that AI sort of lens is one that we're seeing so much more of. Right. And the impact there.

[05:39.5]
And you know, I have to. I like this idea of what gets. Comes out of ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, any of these AI platforms, That's what I equate to the vanilla ice cream that comes just straight out of the soft serve machine.

[05:58.3]
It's when you add the toppings, it's the sprinkles, it's the whipped cream, it's the cherry, it's, it's whatever else you want to put on top, That's the personality that needs to come in from AI created content. 100%. And I'm gonna even say something else.

[06:14.7]
Sometimes you don't need to put it in a cone. Doesn't have to be written content. Put it in a cup and make it a video. You know what I mean? Right. Or alternatively, with two young kids, it's about taking the cup and then you get the cone on top so that you don't drop the cone.

[06:31.7]
The cone doesn't break over time. You see, it's a matter of getting creative in that realm. Do you see Is there a sweet spot through NBN Marketing that you've identified between what I would call raw authenticity and polished scripting that actually builds trust?

[06:50.5]
Where does the balance sit and where is the sweet spot between that and that? Ties not only to AI-created content, of course, but also, how I think back to my marketing agency days of sitting in rooms where we're moodboarding or putting things up on the wall to consider.

[07:08.5]
But that boils it down almost to a level that it's not authentic, and it's not interesting. So where is that sweet spot? I love that question. I love that question Because sometimes, it's what I think it makes our clients different when they share their content.

[07:26.5]
Because I'm not gonna come in and tell you. Okay, tell me about this. Or this is how I want you to explain me something. But it's not easy for everybody to get in front of camera. So when you build that relationship, we get to talk a little bit. Like, you warm up the person, right?

[07:43.8]
And then you truly ask a question. It's not about how they answer, but how you redirect the question. I'm asking you something. You gave me a great answer, but I'm still missing a hook because I already know how I'm going to put the video together. I'm going to ask you something else again, so you give me that energy, that hook, that beginning that I'm just going to crop and paste at the beginning of the video so you can still be scripted.

[08:10.5]
Because in my head, I know exactly the videos I want from them and I know which questions we need to answer to be successful in this situation. But they don't need to know because I want them to explain their story with their words and like everything real.

[08:28.6]
coming from the paid ad side, I know you focus on a broader aspect there through what you do with NBN marketing, but from your perspective or your clients and obviously you don't have to share anything that's confidential. Exactly.

[08:44.2]
What do you think makes a Scroll stopper, actually stop the scroll. Is it just that face and voice? Is it that three seconds? And then from your perspective of scripting content that converts, not just content that gets likes.

[08:59.5]
How do you know when the script is actually doing its job and the creative that you're building is doing its job? That's again a great question because it's something that we work with a lot. It's not just about having a script, but it's about having a script that keeps you listening and listening and listening and hoping that by the time you got to a minute of the video, listening to that person that's giving you so much value actually drops what you're there to listen to.

[09:30.1]
And that's when they say, go to the link in my bio and you can download it for free. Boom. You're already God. It's the storytelling aspect of it that Humans work back to in the primal human brain. You mentioned the hook earlier.

[09:46.2]
How do you hook people in early? How do you then lead up and build? Storytelling is a missing aspect, I think of a lot of how paid marketing comes to the marketplace actually. Yeah. And then, and then so much of what we talk about in my realm of paid media is about what we call reach.

[10:08.0]
But reach without results is just really expensive noise. Right. So what metrics do you see creators and marketers that, what are the ones they should actually obsess over that actually lead to conversion or to revenue? Yeah.

[10:23.8]
So there's a completely different thing between getting those views. Right. And actually moving the needle, as we said before. And you can get. I got a video viral a couple of weeks ago. It got like 3 million views. Wow. Okay, cool. But it Was it was just a personal video, like a quote that I liked.

[10:41.7]
Really nice background, everything. I was not selling anything on the video. The only way that moved the needle for me was getting new followers because people like my vibe. Right. But at the same time, if you're actually selling something, where you want to see if the needle has moved is okay.

[11:00.3]
So from those 3 million views, how many people did go to your profile? And if you're selling me something on that video, how many people click on the link in the bio that you're saying? And there are metrics for all of this, so we can see it. How many people have you been losing over the funnel So you can understand eventually if it's about the content if it's about the link that's hidden, or nobody knows where the link is, or if once they are inside the link, the thing they have to find is like really down when you have to scroll or.

[11:32.5]
Or alternatively, you hit a 404 page. Right. I've experienced recently actually, where, you know, that's what happens. What was the topic of that. That viral. Just to. I'm happy to link it in the episode as well if. If more eyeballs you'd like to get on it.

[11:47.9]
But you dove into there that hit that. That realm of virality. It was, I would say, a relatable video. Right. It was a really motivational quote of like, just keep going type of thing. It's this thing where Which is not even true And everybody knows that.

[12:06.2]
But NASA has a sentence in their In their offices that says that these bumblebees are technically not allowed to fly based on like, their weight and, and everything, but they don't know it, so they still fly.

[12:23.7]
Wow. Oh. So it's motivational for people And I love it. The background was like a video from Spain, That's where I'm from, And it was really nice to be honest. So I guess everybody. Everything together got. Oh, that's fantastic. to think about the clients you've worked with.

[12:42.0]
Have you ever had to tell a client straight up and with full honesty, this isn't a content problem, it's a funnel problem? And then how do you coach them to solve that aspect of a problem? That's a tough question.

[13:00.6]
But yes, yes, I had to. Do you refer them out to someone else to fix that funnel problem? There's that affiliate nature that comes into play when you face challenges like that. But I'm sure that actually builds the trust with those clients.

[13:17.5]
When you tell them, you can work with me, you can spend the money to do this, it's fantastic. But it goes back to that metric conversation. It's not going to convert, it's not leading to the right place. Your call to action is wrong, your landing page is not right.

[13:36.6]
Then you have to coach them in the direction to solve for that first. Because anyone could go and build this fantastic content. But if you don't have a place for it to actually achieve what you're looking to achieve through your KPIs, it's going to fall flat. 100%.

[13:52.1]
And that all comes out to numbers because if I'm showing you that, hey, inside of the social media space, that I'll do it. If it's LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, whatever platform, we're doing Pinterest, if people are clicking on the link, but then we lose them there, it's an easy conversation to be like, hey, the problem is not the content.

[14:12.4]
Like we nail the content. What is the next step? Who do I have to talk to? You know, and now it's when they see that I'm not just there. We just don't want to give them the content and like get paid and leave. We want them to get truly good results, not just for the content when those results to fully end up converting.

[14:31.3]
And I think that's when you can like see the true colors of somebody because some people just like, "hey, I made my content, bye." I think there's also an aspect of eventually this probably goes against the ethos, I believe, of what NBN is built on, but sometimes you have to let go of your pre-realized notions. Right.

[14:56.6]
And just kind of trust your gut and run with it. And that's probably a lot of what you talk about. So in that realm I'd love to understand from your perspective what's one video format or hook that is working right now but most people haven't caught on to yet? because I think everyone's worn out with things like sales video letters, number one, that run eight minutes long and they have impactful graphics and call to actions.

[15:25.3]
But that's not how it works. So what do you see as the next wave coming might be in terms of viral format or hook style that's really going to engage people and I assume it probably leans into more of that human element actually more than anything else? Yes, 100%.

[15:41.1]
It can definitely depend on many things. Because I'VE seen people get hooks in the way they edit just because of the vision that they give you in the first three seconds or the noise, like the sound that they use. Like, there are many things, but they're always like a few sentences that will always work because we're humans and we relate and we want to, like, listen to others.

[16:03.9]
It's like something nobody's talking about. And you're like, oh, what is it? Because I remember, you know, that you, Adam, talk about paid advertising. Like, oh, I'm sure, like, he's gonna give me some like, juicy stuff about paid advertising. But at the same time, making sure you keep them completely through the video is important.

[16:22.8]
And sometimes the video doesn't have even to be long. I've seen seven second videos with a lot of text that make you read the text during those seven seconds, but you're still not done. So the video starts over while you finish reading.

[16:38.5]
That shows the algorithm that your video is doing great because people stay until the end and watch it again. And, then it promotes it to more people. Right. So it all depends on your content style and what you're actually sharing. So.

[16:54.0]
And I think you've probably seen a lot of this pop up through not the tools like Claude and ChatGPT, but more of the tools that are out there, say VEED or quso, that take videos that are longer format and they use that AI magic, they sprinkle it on to bring those viral clips out of a longer form piece of content.

[17:16.4]
I don't believe that's the number one silver bullet, That's not a real thing in the world. I don't think that's a silver bullet necessarily, but do you have a favorite AI tool that you secretly love but you never would recommend openly?

[17:36.7]
This might make me sound too old school, but since I work on all the strategy before I create the content, before we jump on a call, before we record, before anything. There's no actual AI tool that can do better than the brains that thought about the idea at the beginning.

[17:56.5]
Because let's say I already asked you the right questions and I already know how I want them organized. I'm gonna go to the AI tool, they're gonna sprinkle the imagination and it's going to turn out completely different. And maybe the message is not exactly what you want to share. I love that.

[18:11.8]
I'm taking that, Nuria, almost as the answer of the AI tool that you secretly love is just the human that's inside each of us. Right? Exactly. That's a fascinating way to think about it. That's the inside piece that really makes the difference.

[18:28.8]
I mean don't take me wrong to start with the script and thinking the questions and what's people relating with and like and the creator search insights on TikTok like there are so many things that you can look into but afterwards the only one that's going to understand the message you actually want to share is yourself. So great point.

[18:46.7]
shifting gears back to virality, you know, with a quick gut check sort of How do you from your perspective know a piece of content is about to pop? Do you have that spidey sense, live inside?

[19:02.7]
And how did you, for instance with that video that got 3 million views, at what point did you realize that that was going to elevate, and how do you know with your clients that you work with that something Maybe it's not when you're creating it even not when you're doing that pre scripting work, when you're thinking about the strategy, when you're building the content, but you start to see the first 10% of the results and you know, wow, this hit a thread that it's going to blow up and explode.

[19:33.9]
That's a good question because definitely you cannot know before, but once you've posted the first thing is how many people have had stayed for longer than three seconds. And all the platforms give you the average of how many people had stayed for more than three seconds.

[19:53.3]
And you're like, okay, people are getting caught, right? And then definitely numbers of like, did people share it or not? Is it arriving to like new audience? Am I getting likes of people that are like not my regulars? And are people commenting?

[20:10.1]
Because if people are commenting and they are engaged and you want to go right away and answer those comments, doesn't matter what platform it is because then the algorithm thinks that you're also getting more comments. So it's pushing it a little bit more because there's engagement there. So there's these couple of things that you want to look into to make sure that you do your best at that moment.

[20:32.1]
But at the same time you can suppose that on the first hour they get no views, no likes and you already want to delete it and you're like, but then it just goes crazy because it hit the right audience. So I would not go too crazy with all of those.

[20:48.6]
It's fascinating though when you think about that, because so many creators out there also talk about how you repurpose things that you've done in the past. So I think one aspect that you probably think about in the way that you build with NBN marketing and work on that strategy and creating this kind of, on behalf of your clients, you think about not just the initial, but the long term value that these things can provide.

[21:13.7]
So if it doesn't reach its maximum velocity now, patience is okay. I think I like to talk in this realm of progress is slow, slow, slow before it gets faster than ever. So it's keeping a balanced sense of that return and that there's a long term value there that's, that's critical.

[21:32.2]
Agreed And I'll add a little bit more into it. If you don't just have good content, but you also have a good caption that gives you good SEO results, it doesn't matter how long ago you posted that video, that if I'm looking into paid advertisement from, a content creator perspective, this podcast is going to show up, right?

[21:54.9]
And people are going to be like, oh, cool. They are talking about the exact thing I'm thinking of. And it doesn't matter how long ago you did it. And the platform that's the best for that is Pinterest, because pins keep getting going and going for like six months. Interesting.

[22:10.5]
There's your, there's that nugget on that undervalued tool that I asked about before. Wow, Amazing. All right, Nuria, where can people learn more about your work and connect with NBN Marketing? Yeah, we'd love to connect with everybody on LinkedIn.

[22:26.4]
Nuria Garcia Nogiron. You'll see the one you don't know how to pronounce because it's Spanish, that one. And from there you'll see all my content. Instagram, same name, and, even TikTok, I guess. Fantastic. All right, so if you're a creator or an agency founder that's stuck on content that isn't converting, and a lot of those are listening today Nuria, what's your real talk advice to stop spinning their wheels and start turning strategy into cash flow?

[22:55.1]
I would go and look first of all into what it worked in the past. And if none of those had worked in the past, to start over, you might not need a completely new profile, but look into other inspiration. I'm not saying you copy somebody else, but get out of that creator block, just trying something different that you never thought you would try getting on video.

[23:18.4]
If you always show your team and not yourself, like all this, talk on the video, instead of just posting pictures, just, truly try the thing that you're uncomfortable with. I love it. Get uncomfortable. That's critical.

[23:34.1]
All right, Nuria, thank you very much. That's a wrap on this episode of "Is Anything Real in paid advertising?" Huge thanks to you for keeping it honest, sharp, and actionable. If you've gotten value from this conversation, give Nuria, give NBN a follow. Make sure you hit follow wherever you're listening, and leave a quick review if you're feeling generous.

[23:53.5]
It helps more. folks find the real ones in this space. So thank you again, Nuria. Thank you.