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The Truth About "Good" Ads (And Why Most Brands Get It Wrong)

How Barry Hott makes ads that scale

In partnership with…

Hey everyone,

Welcome back for another bite to chew on.

As you know, we test a ton of ad creative at Obvi (about 2,000 last year alone). 

Some of it is polished and highly designed.

Some of it... not so much.

One thing we've noticed over the last little while is our great performers are in the "not polished" category, especially from our creators.

At first, we thought this was just us. Maybe our audience just happened to respond better to authentic content? But after talking to other brands in CPG and consumer, we've realized something bigger is going on.

We recently sat down with Barry Hott (the pioneer of “make ugly ads”) to dig into this phenomenon. 

Barry's spent years developing and refining a system for creating ads that actually work - the same system he's about to teach in his first live course Building Ads With Barry

Here’s what we learned from him and how it might change your perspective on how to advertise your brand…

On the Menu:

  • Why "good" ads are killing your performance

  • The metrics trap most DTC brands fall into

  • The real way to build ads that scale

Why "Good" Ads Are Killing Your Performance

It ain’t pretty…but it works

"People hate ads," Barry told us right off the bat. "But they don't hate all ads. They hate ads that…feel like ads."

After managing over $600M in social ad spend for brands like Harry's, AG1, and True Classic, Barry's become known as the "ugly ads guy." 

But that term doesn't tell the whole story. 

The approach isn't about making intentionally bad ads - it's about creating content that feels authentic and native to social platforms. 

In his upcoming course, Barry's breaking down the exact system he uses to create these high-performing ads. His most compelling insight, though, is that the best ad creators might already be on your payroll. 

While most brands default to agencies, graphic designers, and professional creators, he advocates for a more direct approach - encouraging employees at all levels to contribute authentic marketing materials.

It’s makes sense when you think about it… 

The people closest to your product can create the most genuine content. They understand the customer pain points, speak the right language, and can explain benefits in a way that feels natural rather than scripted.

Are you a founder with a phone? Good. You can start making high-performing ads for your brand.

This native-feeling content is what stops the scroll. And it doesn't require complex production. Using simple tools like CapCut, teams can create effective ads even while multitasking with other responsibilities.

His framework focuses on understanding and mirroring your audience:

  • Think how they think

  • Speak how they speak

  • Consume the social content they consume 

"When you do that," he insists, "the ads write themselves."

If you make your creative look, feel, and sound like the stuff they’re already watching, your ad will feel a lot less like some kind of nuisance or interruption. 

But, of course, advertising isn’t just about making ads…

The Metrics Trap

This is where Barry's unique perspective becomes particularly valuable. Having managed hundreds of millions in ad spend and audited billions more, he sees most marketers focusing on the wrong signals in their ad account. 

They obsess over CPAs, chase ROAS targets, and optimize for CTRs - but these metrics might actually be leading them astray.

When we asked Barry what metrics marketers should actually focus on, his answer was immediate: "Spend!"

This might seem counterintuitive. 

After all, isn't the goal to reduce spend and increase efficiency? But, as Barry explains, an ad's ability to spend is actually one of the clearest indicators of its potential to scale. 

If Meta's algorithm is willing to spend money on your ad, it means it's finding audiences who engage with and respond to that content. The platform is voting with its (your) wallet.

So here's where most marketers get it wrong: They over-attribute success to the last thing someone clicked. 

But that final click rarely tells the whole story. 

Think about your own buying behavior - by the time you actually click "buy," you've probably seen multiple ads, read reviews, visited the site a few times, and maybe even talked to friends about it.

But most metrics only really focus on that final interaction. 

They miss the vital parts of the journey that led to the purchase decision. This is why focusing too heavily on last-click metrics like CPA or “per ad attributed ROAS” can actually hurt your scaling potential - you might be killing ads that play a crucial role in that customer journey just because they're not driving that “1 day click” purchase.

This becomes clearer when you look at what standard performance metrics can't capture:

  • Off-platform user engagement with your brand

  • Quality of comments and social proof

  • Natural sharing and word-of-mouth

  • Brand awareness, perception, and consideration

"Media buying platforms aim to optimize overall ad set performance, not individual ad cost per acquisition," Barry explains. 

This misalignment between how brands measure success and how platforms actually work leads to a common trap: killing potentially scalable ads too early or over-investing in ads that won't actually scale.

Building Ads That Scale

So how do we put all this together? Barry's framework focuses on creating what he calls "ads people don't hate" - content that's authentic, relatable, and built for scale from the start.

His approach breaks down into three key components:

Strategy Without the BS 

It starts with real audience research. Not just demographics and data, but understanding how your customers actually think and talk. 

Barry's process includes mining customer reviews, analyzing past performance, and gathering insights from competitors - but through the lens of finding authentic stories and messages, not just data points.

Creating Ads That Convert 

Short vid of an order being packed with a voiceover…

The goal isn't to make "ugly" ads - it's to make ads that feel native to the platform. Barry advocates for a simple but powerful system:

  • Empower everyone to create content - from founders to warehouse staff

  • Encourage your team to share their authentic product knowledge

  • Get content directly from existing customers (often better and cheaper than creators)

  • Use basic tools like CapCut for editing

  • Focus on hooks and headlines that feel authentic

The key insight: The people who know your product best - your team - are often your best content creators. They understand the brand, speak the language, and can share authentic perspectives that resonate with customers.

Performance That Scales 

This is where Barry's media buying expertise shines. Instead of optimizing for individual ad metrics, he focuses on:

  • Creating simpler account structures

  • Running meaningful breakdown analyses

  • Understanding why things work (not just what works)

  • Building a variety of ads that can scale and work together

"Media buying success," Barry emphasizes, "isn't about hacks or quick fixes. It's about understanding how the system works and getting it to work better for you."

Sum It Up

The future of social advertising isn't about making "perfect" ads. It's about creating authentic content that:

  • Feels native to the platform

  • Resonates with real customer psychology

  • Is built for scale from the start

  • Works with (not against) platform algorithms

If you want to learn more about this approach, Barry's sharing his entire system in a live 4-week course starting February 3rd. 

It's his first time sharing these frameworks in a comprehensive format, and he's bringing in guest experts like Dara Denney to help teach it. 

The course kicks off tomorrow (Feb 3rd)! → Check it out!

All the best, 

Ron & Ash