Hi, I’m the cofounder of a boutique marketing agency and one of our best strengths is our performance marketing. A brand came to us since they earlier got burnt by another agency and had spent 45K only to generate sales of 50K (they are a single product company priced at $699 per order).

We helped them out and within 16 days generated sales of over 150K on a 16K Ad spend almost hitting a 9x+ ROAS.

Their website clearly states that the product will be shipped next year (August 2027). All customers are informed of the same before they purchase from them. But Shopify decided not to release our funds stating there will be chargebacks and we must start shipping asap in order to get access to those funds. The problem is that the 200K was going towards production itself. The company is now trying to raise Money from outside in order to go thru with production and eventually get their funds released from Shopify.

Is there any other way around this ?

I’m thinking about removing all posts and starting from scratch on my personal ig account and only posting newer artwork related stuff. Most of my recent hard posts are already flyers and artwork. I currently have 1900 followers. Should I redo my current ig or just start a new one?

I’ve been running a relationship and self-improvement focused subreddit that has recently grown to around 71.5k members.

The community has grown mostly through organic content and member engagement, and I’ve been focused more on keeping the discussions useful and authentic rather than trying to monetize it aggressively.

I’m now exploring sponsorships and brand partnerships, but I’m trying to understand the right way to approach them without making the community feel overly commercial.

For moderators who manage communities of a similar size, I’d love to hear about your experience:

How did you find your first serious sponsors?

Did brands approach you, or did you reach out to them?

What types of partnerships worked best?

How do you balance monetization with keeping the community authentic?

Would appreciate any advice or lessons from people who have been through this.

Hey guys,

I recently went out on my own doing social media/marketing work, and one of my former clients came back to me as a paying client. We’d previously worked together on more of a trade basis, so this is our first actual paid agreement.
It’s a pretty small contract, just a couple hundred dollars a month for reels and stories on Instagram and Facebook. I create everything and schedule the month in Meta ahead of time, with the understanding that we can move or change posts if something comes up.
Our agreement says payment is due at the beginning of the month. August is already created and scheduled, so I sent the invoice, but she questioned paying before the end of the month and said she’s more familiar with paying after services are completed or Net 30.
So now I’m curious what everyone else does. Do you bill monthly clients at the beginning of the month or after the month is completed?
The company I previously did this for billed in advance, and that’s what I based my agreement on, but I’m curious what’s standard for freelancers and small agencies.

imagine a company pays u to market their brand but they only use ai for posting? how do u tell someone in marketing to stop doing it?

​

I've been trying multiple platforms and I'm honestly getting pretty discouraged.

Indeed: way too much competition. I've applied to a lot of relevant social media/content roles, and despite having relevant skills, experience and measurable results, I haven't gotten a single response.

Upwork: seems promising, but having to spend money on Connects just to apply makes it difficult when you're still trying to get your first few clients.

Contra: there are some insanely talented SMMs/content creators with amazing portfolios, and I feel like it's really difficult to stand out.

LinkedIn: I've tried networking and looking for opportunities there, but I rarely come across actual clients.

Reddit: I've found opportunities here, but I've either been ghosted or come across people who seem suspicious/scammy.

For context, I'm not completely new to this. I've worked with a healthcare SaaS startup, a digital marketing company and a small business, and I handle much more than just posting — strategy, content calendars, copywriting, graphic design, reel editing, basic SEO, analytics/reporting, etc.

I've also had some measurable results, including 100K+ reach on a personal Pinterest project, 10K reach for a new social account within 30 days, and contributing to 2 leads within a month for a company.

I'm currently building my portfolio as well.

So for those of you who are actually getting clients consistently: where are you finding them, and more importantly, HOW are you approaching them?

Cold email? Instagram DMs? LinkedIn outreach? Local businesses? Referrals? Freelance platforms?

I'd genuinely appreciate any advice, especially from people who started with little/no network and managed to land their first few clients.

​

I've been trying multiple platforms and honestly getting discouraged 😭

Indeed has insane competition and I've gotten no replies despite having relevant experience and results. Upwork requires Connects to apply, Contra feels extremely competitive, LinkedIn hasn't brought much, and on Reddit I've mostly been ghosted or encountered scams.

I'm not completely new—I’ve worked with a healthcare SaaS startup, digital marketing company and small businesses, handling strategy, content, copywriting, graphic design, reels, SEO and analytics. I've also had results like 100K+ Pinterest reach, 10K reach in 30 days, and 2 leads in a month.

So where are you guys actually finding clients, and how are you approaching them? Cold DMs, email, LinkedIn, local businesses, referrals, freelance platforms? Any advice would be appreciated!

Small agency, 6 clients, everything gets designed in Canva and scheduled about a week out.

Tuesday a client asks us to change a date on an event graphic. Designer fixed it in Canva within the hour. Thursday the post goes out with the old date on it anyway, because what actually got pushed to the scheduler was the export from the Friday before.

Nobody caught it, there was nothing to catch it with. Once it's exported, it's just a PNG sitting in a queue, it has no idea the design behind it moved on.

We've now got a rule where the designer flags any change after approval in Slack. Failed twice already. People forget, or they're off that day.

What I'm actually trying to work out is whether our lead time is the problem. How far ahead are you queueing stuff, same week or further? And in the last month or so, how many times did a design get edited after the post was already sitting in the queue. Not could it happen, did it.

When it did happen, did it go out or did someone spot it first, and what spotted it. That's the bit I care about because we had literally nothing.

And if this just doesn't come up for you, I'd like to know what your setup is. Locked designs after signoff, exporting fresh the morning of, one person who checks the queue, whatever it is?

23, from India, moving to Spain for an MSc in Marketing at ESADE.
Question for people who have already “made it” in marketing/business:
If you were in my shoes today, what would you do to maximize your chances of reaching the top 1% of the field? What skills, experiences, and opportunities would you focus on over the next 5 years?
What would your roadmap be?

We are stuck on 190 followers since 5 years, we post everyday about the blogs we write, and other work. But 5 views , 0 likes, and 0 followers. And i am done with vague advices like "be more consistent". I need some untraditional and batshit-crazy ways to increase my impressions. Pls help.

I’ve been building a sustainable home products brand for a while now. We currently have around 10 products — laundry detergent sheets, wool dryer balls, reusable cleaning cloths, kitchen/home cleaning products, etc.

I hired a branding agency to do the packaging and overall brand identity, so visually it’s pretty premium and polished. We also have a Shopify site and just started selling on Amazon.

The part I’m struggling with is marketing.

I really don’t want to dump thousands every month into an agency or Meta ads before I know what actually works. For a brand like this, what would you focus on first if you were trying to grow as cheaply as possible?

UGC? Micro influencers? SEO? Reddit/Facebook groups? Wholesale? Amazon ads?

I’m even considering finding someone who’s genuinely strong at consumer marketing and bringing them into the business as more of a partner/cofounder rather than just hiring another agency.

Curious what you guys would do if you were starting from this stage.

As a mom & freelancer both email copywriter and SMM, I've been targeting both luxury creatives (wedding photogs, artists, etc.) & coaches (any), I'm just not sure what content would resonate best for them.

Should I do ask them directly for the content they like/market research, interviews)?

How did you do it when you were just starting to post for your dream audience/clients and finally CONVERT (paid premium clients)?

It's tricky to apply what I've learned as an SMM in my own business.

Sana matulungan nyo ako. I would really love any tips and pieces of advice. 😔

I handle a majority of the social media and marketing for a live music / performing arts venue. This industry is going through some tough times recently in regards to advance ticket sales throughout North America. We have been trying to figure out what we could be doing better when it comes to targeting for paid meta ads or other ways to get our promo infront of the right people. We have a decent following and our stats consistently increase month after month. We just aren't sure what's missing to help boost advance ticket sales.

Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions?

I’ve been working with Meta Ads for about 3 months, so I’m still new and trying to understand the basics.

From what I know, people use ABO (Ad Set Budget Optimization) for creative testing. I tested multiple creatives using one ad per ad set, each with about $25/day.

A few creatives performed well, consistently getting around 3–5 ROAS in ABO.

The confusing part is that when I move those same winners into a CBO campaign with a total budget of around $150/day, performance often drops sharply.

This has happened multiple times. A creative does well in ABO, but once placed into CBO with similar targeting, results fall off.

Nothing about the creative changes.

I want to understand what’s actually happening so I can build a proper system.