The Pubcast with Jon Loomer

For years the direction of Meta advertising was clear enough to predict, and most of those predictions held up. But AI has scrambled the picture, and the trend line now runs into a space that's genuinely hard to comprehend. Jon sets the tactics aside for an honest, uneasy look at what it all means.

Meta is removing placement control for sales and leads campaigns, and advertisers are predictably freaking out. Jon explains why the change matters far less than it sounds, and why value rules are the control you should have been reaching for all along.

Fifteen years in, the celebrating gives way to a more honest look back at what worked and what didn't. This final entry in the anniversary series shares the lessons that mattered most, but it doesn't end there. Jon also opens up about two real regrets, including one he still hasn't figured out.

To mark 15 years since a layoff turned into JonLoomer.com, Jon sets aside the usual solo format for a rare interview with longtime teammate Luke Elliott. It's a blast from the past, but really a conversation about change: how Jon went from the complicated-targeting guy to preaching simplicity, why the uncomfortable 2022 pivot to video saved the business, and how he's found a place for AI without letting it replace the human work.

Two 15-year anniversaries fall the same month, a second layoff and the launch of JonLoomer.com days later. These episodes usually stay locked on Meta advertising, but a long drive to move the youngest son into college makes room to look back. Jon tells the origin story behind the brand, from repeated layoffs to a website meant only to find work, and how it became the business he'd dreamed of. It let him coach his three boys and be there as they grew, and it was worth it.

Value rules are one of Meta's most useful newer features, letting you nudge bids up or down instead of restricting your audience outright. But advertisers reach for them far too often, and because value rules deliberately raise costs. Jon lays out the two questions that separate a necessary value rule from a wasteful one.

One of the most popular myths in Meta advertising is that the conversion numbers are made up. But Meta only knows about a purchase because your event fired, which means the real problem is almost never fabricated results, it's advertisers who don't understand what their conversions actually mean. Jon explains how deduplication issues, attribution windows, and repeat customers inflate your numbers, and why fixing it is on you.

Incremental attribution reports only the conversions your ads actually caused, and most advertisers would be better off making it their default. But standard attribution isn't the real problem, it's the advertisers who take inflated view-through results at face value and scale on them anyway. Jon explains why he'd push nearly everyone toward incremental even though he doesn't always use it himself, and why the drop advertisers fear is mostly an illusion.

Restricting age and gender feels like smart budgeting, and it's the most understandable mistake in Meta advertising. But when you optimize for purchases, Meta already wants what you want, and every restriction you add just shrinks the pool and raises your costs before the algorithm gets a chance to surprise you. Jon explains why you should start broad, when value rules are the better tool, and why refining your audience based on results almost never holds up.

Most advertisers still obsess over targeting controls, remarketing campaigns, and which single ad won. But the foundations of Meta advertising today point the other way: consolidate your budget, trust the algorithm, and let creative do the reaching. Jon breaks down the core elements that actually matter now, and the old habits worth abandoning.

For fifteen years Jon has written every word on his blog, so publishing an AI-generated post cut against everything he believes about content. But the master brief behind it was consolidated entirely from his own work and labeled as AI up front. Jon explains why transparency and a real problem to solve are what separate useful AI content from the empty kind.

Advertisers treat every drop in performance as creative fatigue, but what they're actually seeing is Meta shifting delivery from remarketing audiences to prospecting. That initial boost from low-hanging fruit isn't sustainable, and the decline that follows is normal, not a sign your creative is exhausted. Jon explains why creative fatigue is far less common than it used to be, how to use audience segment breakdowns to see what's really happening, and why the ads that survive the shift to prospecting are the ones worth keeping.

Once campaign construction is simplified, it's just you and your ads, and advertisers tend to either micromanage everything or freeze up and do nothing. Jon explains why starting with one or two ads is enough, how to evaluate performance in aggregate rather than obsessing over individual winners, and when to shift focus from creating more ads to fixing your landing page.

Jon's profile was incorrectly flagged for suspicious activity while posting in his own private Facebook group, and after identity verification failed without explanation, he was locked out of group activity with no timeline or recourse. He wasn't violating any rules, and Meta isn't even claiming he was. Jon explains why this experience exposes how broken Meta's AI-driven moderation and verification processes are, what it means for businesses that depend on the platform, and why Meta's push to replace staff with automation is setting a dangerous example when the systems clearly aren't ready.

Meta ads misinformation spreads because it pays in clicks and impressions, and advertisers with the smallest knowledge foundation are the most susceptible. Jon uses the customer lifecycle strategy feature as a case study in how one screenshot and unverified claims about new superpowers went viral, only for the feature to do nothing new at all. He explains why believable misinformation is the most dangerous kind, and how building a foundation in official documentation is the best defense against falling for it.

Today's question is about whether to split worldwide targeting into separate ad sets grouped by CPM when promoting a low-cost digital product on a $100 daily budget. That approach can help with lead campaigns, but purchases change the equation since Meta shouldn't waste budget on countries that don't convert. Jon explains why starting with a single ad set and monitoring the country breakdown makes more sense, how value rules can solve distribution problems without splitting your budget, and when you might need to narrow your targeting anyway. Want your question to be answered on a future episode? Go to JonLoomer.com/Question and record your question today.

Following best practices and simplifying campaign construction doesn't guarantee results, and advertisers who do everything right still get anxious when they're not constantly tweaking settings. Jon explains why your energy belongs on the ads, your offer, and your landing page rather than campaign complexity, and why these three things in that order are where you'll make the most impact.

Most advertisers obsess over placement performance, demographic distribution, ad-level micromanagement, and data discrepancies between Ads Manager and other platforms, but Jon spends almost no time on any of it. Jon explains why these seven common concerns are rarely worth your energy when optimizing for conversions, why the exceptions are narrower than most advertisers think, and where to focus instead.

Advertisers love restricting demographics, removing placements, and splitting budgets across ad sets, but most of these decisions are based on feelings rather than data. Jon explains why every change that adds complexity should be tied to a specific measurable problem, why Meta's algorithm already handles most of what advertisers try to control, and why value rules should be your first move before restricting anything entirely.

Today's question is about how advertisers should approach AI tools like Claude's new connection to Meta ads. AI has enormous potential for creative development, but it's not a replacement for knowledge. Jon explains why advertisers without a strong foundation will just execute bad strategies faster, why creative is the most promising use case, and why treating AI automation as a magic pill is the biggest risk right now. Want your question to be answered on a future episode? Go to JonLoomer.com/Question and record your question today.