After years at Hyros with Alex Becker (which scaled to $100M+ in 2.5 years), speaking to over 3,000 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners and media buyers that print money with paid ads, there’s a a fundamental flywheel behind their success.

Here’s the deal: your ads should be a force multiplier, NOT a life support system.

I’ve seen it all – from scrappy startups to blue-chip giants – and the businesses that truly scale? They’ve all cracked this code. At MediaBuyer.com, where we work with high-level companies and some of the best media buyers on the web, this FUNDAMENTAL principle is the secret sauce behind their growth.

It’s actually very simple: ads should amplify your company’s growth, not sustain its survival.

Think about it. If your business flatlines the moment you pause your ads, you’re not running a business – you’re renting one from Facebook/Meta or Google.

In the next few minutes, I’m going to break down why this principle is crucial, how to implement it, and the massive impact it can have on your bottom line. Buckle up, because by the end of this post, you’ll be looking at your ad strategy in a whole new light.

Let’s dive in.

An Unhealthy Dependancy on Ads

Let’s get real for a second. How many of you break into a cold sweat at the thought of pausing your ad campaigns? If that’s you, congratulations – you’re stuck in the dependency trap. And trust me, it’s a nasty place to be.

Here’s what the dependency trap looks like:

1. Your business growth flatlines or declines when ads are off.
2. You’re constantly chasing lower CPMs and higher ROAS, but it feels like running on a treadmill.
3. Your ad costs keep creeping up, but your revenue isn’t keeping pace.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone. I’ve seen countless businesses fall into this pit, and it’s like quicksand – the more you struggle, the deeper you sink.

Let me paint you a picture. I once worked with a SaaS company that was spending $50K a month on ads. Impressive, right? Wrong. The moment we paused their campaigns for an audit, their new sign-ups dropped by 90%. That’s not a business strategy; that’s a hostage situation.

But here’s the kicker: businesses in this trap often think the solution is to double down on ads. More spend, more channels, more complexity. It’s like trying to fix a leaky boat by drilling more holes.

The hard truth? If your business can’t survive without constant ad spend, you don’t have a scaling problem – you have a fundamentals problem.

So, how do you break free? It starts with building a solid foundation of organic growth. And that’s exactly what we’re diving into next.

Organic Growth: The Foundation of Scaling Paid Ads

Alright, let’s talk about the unsexy but absolutely crucial part of your business: organic growth. It’s like the roots of a tree – not as flashy as the leaves and flowers, but without it, you’re just a tumbleweed waiting for the next gust of wind.

Organic growth is your business’s ability to attract and retain customers without paid advertising. It’s the holy grail of sustainability, and it’s built on three key pillars:

1. Customer Satisfaction: Happy customers are your best marketers. They stick around, they upsell easily, and they sing your praises to others
2. Natural Referrals: When your product or service is so good that people can’t help but talk about it, you’ve struck gold
3. Product-Market Fit: If you’re solving a real problem in a way that resonates with your audience, growth becomes infinitely easier.

Let me give you a real-world example. We had a client in the B2B software space who was struggling to scale their ads profitably. Their solution? They paused all ad spend for three months and focused entirely on improving their product and customer experience.

The result? When they turned their ads back on, their customer acquisition cost dropped by 40%, and their lifetime value skyrocketed. Why? Because now they had a product people actually wanted to use and recommend.

Here’s the thing: organic growth isn’t just about saving money on ads. It’s about creating a flywheel effect where every new customer makes it easier to acquire the next one.

So before you even think about scaling your ad spend, ask yourself:

• Are your customers raving about you?
• Is your churn rate under control?
• Do you have case studies and testimonials that make selling a breeze?

If the answer to any of these is no, that’s where you need to focus first. Because once you have this foundation in place, your ads won’t just be effective – they’ll be unstoppable.

The Media Buying Flywheel

Now that we’ve got the foundation sorted, let’s talk about the real magic: the Media Buying Flywheel. This is where things get exciting, folks.

The Media Buying Flywheel is all about using ads to amplify your existing growth, not to artificially prop up a stagnant business. It’s the difference between using a megaphone in an empty room and using one in a packed stadium.

Here’s how it works:

1. Start with organic growth (remember those happy customers and natural referrals?)
2. Use ads to reach a wider audience that looks like your best customers
3. These new customers feed back into your organic growth engine
4. Rinse and repeat, with each cycle amplifying the last

The key here is that your ads aren’t creating demand from scratch – they’re tapping into existing demand and directing it your way. It’s like surfing; you’re not creating the wave, you’re just positioning yourself to ride it.

Let me break it down with a real example from our work at Hyros. We had an e-commerce client who was doing about $100K a month in sales, mostly through word-of-mouth and a small email list. Their ads were break-even at best.

We helped them implement the flywheel approach. First, we focused on turning their existing customers into raving fans with an improved post-purchase experience. Then, we created lookalike audiences based on these high-value customers and targeted them with ads showcasing user-generated content and testimonials.

The result? Within three months, they were at $500K a month, with ad costs actually decreasing as a percentage of revenue. The ads amplified their existing momentum, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of growth.

Here’s the beautiful part: because the business wasn’t dependent on ads to survive, we could be much more aggressive with our bidding and creative testing. We weren’t operating from a place of fear, but from a position of strength.

This is the power of the Media Buying Flywheel. It turns your ads from a necessary evil into a growth accelerator. And once you get it spinning, it becomes almost impossible for your competition to keep up.

Pouring Fuel on the Fire

Alright, you’ve got your organic growth engine purring, and you understand the Media Buying Flywheel. Now it’s time to talk strategy. How do you know when and how to pour fuel on this fire?

First things first: timing is everything. You don’t start a bonfire with a flamethrower. You start with kindling, then add larger logs, and only when it’s roaring do you break out the kerosene.

Here are the key metrics I look at before recommending a client scales their ad spend:

1. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio: Aim for 3:1 or higher.
2. Organic growth rate: Should be positive month-over-month without ads.
3. Net Promoter Score (NPS): Shoot for 50+. Happy customers make your ads work harder.
4. Cash reserves: You need runway to weather fluctuations and tests.

But here’s where it gets really interesting: the Organic Growth Multiplier. This is a metric we’ve developed at MediaBuyer.com that measures how much your organic growth amplifies your ad spend.

Here’s a simplified version of how to calculate it:

(Total Revenue Growth – Ad-Attributed Revenue) / Ad Spend

If this number is above 1, it means your ads are creating a multiplier effect, driving growth beyond just the direct attribution. This is when you know you’ve got a real flywheel spinning.

Let me give you a real-world example. We worked with a SaaS company that had a solid product but was gun-shy about scaling ad spend due to past failures. Their Organic Growth Multiplier was 1.5 – for every dollar of ad-attributed revenue, they were seeing an additional $0.50 in organic growth.

We helped them develop a phased scaling plan:

1. Week 1-2: Increase spend by 20%, focus on retargeting and high-intent keywords.
2. Week 3-4: Another 30% increase, expand to lookalike audiences and broader keywords.
3. Week 5-6: 50% increase, start testing new channels (YouTube, LinkedIn).

By the end of this 6-week period, their ad spend had doubled, but their revenue had tripled. Why? Because the ads weren’t just driving direct sales, they were feeding the organic growth engine.

The key takeaway? When you have a strong foundation and a spinning flywheel, scaling ad spend becomes an opportunity, not a necessity. You’re not buying growth; you’re investing in acceleration.

Remember, in the world of media buying, the bold moves are often the safest – but only when you’ve got the fundamentals in place. So build that foundation, get your flywheel spinning, and then pour on the fuel. That’s how you create sustainable, scalable growth that leaves your competition in the dust.

Lessons from HYROS

Now, let’s zoom out and look at this from the 30,000-foot view. During my experience working at Hyros, we’ve had the privilege of peering under the hood of some seriously big companies. I’m talking household names, blue-chip brands, the kinds of businesses that make your local successes look like lemonade stands.

And you know what? Even these giants struggle with the same fundamental issues we’ve been discussing. The scale might be different, but the principles are the same.

Here are some key lessons we’ve learned:

1. Size doesn’t equal sophistication. We’ve seen billion-dollar companies with shockingly primitive ad strategies.
2. Data is king, but insight is emperor. Many big brands are drowning in data but starving for actionable insights.
3. The bigger they are, the harder they pivot. Large companies often struggle to adapt quickly, making the organic growth foundation even more crucial.

Let me give you a specific example (with names changed to protect the guilty, of course). We worked with a major e-commerce player – let’s call them MegaShop. They were spending millions per month on ads across every platform you can imagine.

Their problem? They had no idea which half of their ad spend was working. They were addicted to top-line revenue growth but couldn’t tell you if they were actually profitable on a per-customer basis.

We helped them implement Hyros’ tracking and optimization system, and the results were eye-opening. Turns out, 70% of their ad spend was going to channels and campaigns that were net negative when you factored in customer lifetime value.

By reallocating that spend to their most effective channels and doubling down on customer experience improvements, we helped them increase profitability by 200% while actually reducing overall ad spend.

The lesson? Even the big boys can fall into the trap of using ads as a crutch rather than a rocket booster.

But here’s the exciting part: once we helped them build that organic growth foundation and implement the Media Buying Flywheel, their growth became unstoppable. They went from fighting for every customer to having customers fight to buy from them.

This is the power of combining big-brand resources with a lean, data-driven strategy. It’s not about outspending your competition; it’s about outsmarting them.

So whether you’re a scrappy startup or a corporate behemoth, the principles remain the same:

1. Build a strong organic growth foundation
2. Implement the Media Buying Flywheel
3. Use data to inform strategy, not just report results
4. Always, always focus on customer lifetime value

Do this, and you’ll not just survive in the cutthroat world of digital marketing – you’ll thrive. And isn’t that why we’re all here?

Implementation: Building Your Media Buying Flywheel

Alright, we’ve covered the theory, we’ve looked at the big picture, now let’s get down to brass tacks. How do you actually implement this Media Buying Flywheel in your business?

Here’s your step-by-step playbook:

1. Audit Your Current Growth Sources
   • Break down your revenue by source (organic, paid, referral, etc.)
   • Calculate your customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV) for each channel
   • Identify your best-performing customer segments
2. Strengthen Your Organic Growth Channels
   • Implement a systematic approach to gathering and acting on customer feedback
   • Create a referral program that incentivizes your best customers to spread the word
   • Optimize your onboarding and customer success processes to improve retention
3. Develop a Strategic Ad Scaling Plan
   • Start with retargeting campaigns to capture low-hanging fruit
   • Create lookalike audiences based on your best customer segments
   • Test different ad platforms, starting with the ones most relevant to your audience
4. Monitor and Adjust Your Flywheel
   • Track your Organic Growth Multiplier (remember that formula?)
   • Regularly review and optimize your customer journey
   • Continuously test and refine your ad creative and targeting

Now, let me give you a real-world example of how this plays out. We had a client in the B2B software space who was struggling to scale beyond $500K monthly recurring revenue (MRR). They were spending about $50K a month on ads, but growth had plateaued.

Here’s how we implemented the flywheel:

1. Audit: We found that their highest LTV customers came from referrals, but they had no formal referral program.
2. Strengthen Organic Growth: We implemented a tiered referral program, offering escalating rewards for multiple referrals. We also overhauled their onboarding process, adding personalized check-ins and success milestones.
3. Strategic Ad Scaling: We created lookalike audiences based on their highest LTV customers and focused initial ad spend on LinkedIn, where their ideal customers spent most of their time.
4. Monitor and Adjust: We set up weekly review sessions to analyze the Organic Growth Multiplier and customer feedback. This led to continuous refinement of both the product and the ad strategy.

The result? Within 6 months, they hit $1M MRR, with ad spend only increasing to $75K per month. The flywheel effect meant that each new customer acquired through ads was more likely to refer others, creating a self-reinforcing growth cycle.

Key Takeaway: Implementation is where the rubber meets the road. You need to be systematic, data-driven, and patient. The flywheel takes time to build momentum, but once it’s spinning, it’s nearly unstoppable.

Remember, this isn’t about quick wins or growth hacks. It’s about building a sustainable, scalable system for growth. It’s not always sexy, but it’s incredibly powerful. And in a world where most businesses are still playing checkers, this approach lets you play chess.

So, what are you waiting for? Start building your flywheel today. Your future self (and your bank account) will thank you.

Conclusion: The Sustainable Path to Scaling

Alright, let’s bring this home. We’ve covered a lot of ground, from the dangers of ad dependency to the power of the Media Buying Flywheel. But what does it all mean for you and your business?

Here’s the TL;DR version:

1. Ads should amplify your growth, not sustain it.
2. Build a strong organic growth foundation before scaling ad spend.
3. Use the Media Buying Flywheel to create a self-reinforcing growth cycle.
4. Always focus on customer lifetime value and the Organic Growth Multiplier.
5. Implement systematically, measure religiously, and adjust constantly.

Now, I want you to do something for me. Take a hard look at your business. Are you using ads as a crutch or a turbocharger? If you’re not sure, here’s a quick litmus test:

• If you turned off all ads tomorrow, would your business grow, flatline, or tank?
• Do you know your Organic Growth Multiplier? (If you’re not calculating this, start now)
• Are your best customers coming from ads or organic channels?

Your answers to these questions will tell you exactly where you stand.

Here’s the brutal truth: in today’s market, being ad-dependent isn’t just risky – it’s a death sentence. The companies that will dominate in the coming years are those that use ads as a turbocharger for their already-growing business, not as a life support system.

So, what’s your next move? If you’re not where you want to be, start with your organic growth. Focus on creating a product or service so good that it sells itself. Build a customer experience that turns buyers into evangelists. Only then, when you’ve got that flywheel starting to spin, do you hit the ads turbocharger.

Remember, this isn’t about quick wins or growth hacks. It’s about building a sustainable, scalable system for growth. It’s not always sexy, but it’s incredibly powerful. And in a world where most businesses are still playing checkers, this approach lets you play chess.

The path is clear. The strategy is proven. The only question left is: are you ready to build a business that doesn’t just survive, but thrives in the face of any market condition?

The choice is yours. But if you’re ready to turn your ads from a necessary evil into a growth multiplication machine, you know what to do. Start building that flywheel today, and watch your business take off.

P.S. Want to dive deeper into advanced media buying strategies and connect with ‘Michael Jordan’ level media buyers who live and breathe this stuff? Check out MediaBuyer.com. We believe when you bring together a great company with a great media buyer, you can quite literally print money out of thin air, and maximize your reach, revenue, and impact.

Click HERE to apply to join Mediabuyer.com today to browse our marketplace and discover the perfect media buyer for your business.

-Matteo