Speaker 1 (00:00):
Most people running businesses right now are drowning in noise. Every week there is a new AI tool, a new platform update, a new thing that you are supposed to be doing, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, the actual job of growing your brand, acquiring customers, and building something that lasts, it's getting harder to focus on. That's why I built this podcast, the Unlock. I'm Oliver Bruce. I'm the founder and CEO of Pinpoint Media, a performance marketing and paid media agency based in the uk. We run campaigns for some of the most ambitious brands in the world. We live in the data, we test the creative, and we operate at the intersection of where creativity meets performance. And over the last few years, I've watched AI and automation completely reshape what's possible for marketeers and business owners. Not in theory, but in practise, in the ad account, in the creative studio, in the way brands acquire and retain customers at scale.

(00:53):
This is for anyone essentially running a business or a brand who knows things are changing fast and wants a way to stay ahead. Whether you're scaling a startup, leading a marketing team, or just trying to figure out what AI and automation actually means for your bottom line, the unlock is built for you. No hype, no theory, just what's working, what's changing, and what you should be doing about that. Now let's get into the episode. So in this episode, there are three things that I want you to walk away with. First is a clear understanding of why the old model of producing one big hero ad is actually dying and what the algorithm actually needs from you. Now the second is a practical breakdown of how AI tools like Opus are in the economics of creative production. So that volume is not necessarily anymore a budget problem.

(01:39):
And third, the exact testing and iteration framework for deploying high volume creative or meta so that you are letting the data drive your spend not doing guesswork. So let's get into it. The game has changed and most brands are still playing by the old rules. Five years ago or so, the playbook for paid social was relatively simple. You spent a month developing on incredible high production hero video. You put your entire budget behind it on meta, you let it run for three months and you watched the conversions roll in. It was kind of that simple. If you try to do that today, you'll burn through budget in a week and have literally nothing to show for it. The algorithm doesn't really care how much money you've spent on the camera crew. The algorithm cares about engagement, retention, and relevance. And because consumer retention spans have really fractured the lifespan of a piece of creative or meta or TikTok is no longer measured in months.

(02:35):
It's measured in days and even sometimes hours. You don't need one perfect ad anymore. What you actually need is 50 perfect ads. You need volume. You need an always on creative engine. Now I want to talk to you about how platforms like Opus are completely changing the economies of how creative is actually deployed, how meta is living and breathing through high volume distribution, and how you can build a content machine that feeds the beast without actually breaking your team. Now, the fundamental shift in platforms like Meta and TikTok is that they have become content hungry machines. They're consistently testing variations of creative against macro and micro segments of your audience to see actually what sticks. If you only give the algorithm two videos to actually test it will figure out very quickly who likes them, serves them until the audience is exhausted, and then your cost per acquisition will essentially skyrocket.

(03:29):
This is what we call ad fatigue. Now, if you give the algorithm 50 or a hundred different hooks, different videos, different lengths from visual styles, different text overlays, it has the fuel, it needs to find pockets of profitability essentially across your entire and total addressable market. So your tam, but here is the friction point. How does a brand produce 50 or a hundred pieces of video creative a month without a massively increased cost? And in-house team, the answer is AI assisted volume clipping, and the tool that is leading the charge right now is Opus Clips. Opus is an AI repurposing tool, which we use all the time, and it produces shorts from long form video content. It uses the AI to analyse the content, find the most engaging moments, and automatically cut them into short form vertical clips for whatever channel you want to distribute it on.

(04:21):
It doesn't just cut however, the video, it adds dynamic captions, it frames the speaker, it highlights keywords, it scores the clip based on its predicted virality, and then you can distribute it through the channel. What used to take human video editors days of scrubbing through footage and tweaking premier timelines now literally takes opus 10 or 20 minutes. This change is the unit economics of creative production massively. If you sit down and record one high value, 30 minute conversation about your industry, your products, all the problems that you are solving for your customers, you can feed that directly into Opus Clips. Opus will give you back 15, 20, 30, 40 different short form clips. You've just generated a month's worth of creative, a month's worth of testing and a month's worth of volume in half an hour. But volume alone is not a strategy. You cannot just dump 20 random clips into meta and hope that it works for you.

(05:15):
You have to actually understand how to deploy volume strategically. Now, here's the playbook for deploying volume creative at scale and not tripping yourself up. Guys, I think you might find this useful. Something that we've started to use in my businesses is incar. It's a new financial platform designed specifically for high growth modern businesses. Now, if you are running a business, you've probably found that one of the biggest headaches is managing money across different tools, currencies, and expenses. So incar essentially gives you multicurrency, accounts, connected banking and smart spend management all in one place. The best part, however, is that you can earn up to 2% cash back on everyday spend, such as ads, SaaS, and travel, earning you points every time you spend, and you can redeem them instantly for real cash in the platform. Check out in card using the link E in the description.

(06:08):
If you are building or scaling an online business and you want a smarter way to manage your finances, check out in card. Let's get back to the episode. Step one is the anchor content. So volume creative requires raw material. Obviously, the most efficient way to generate that raw material is long form anchor content. So a podcast is a perfect example for this right record, a q and a with your founder or a deep dive educational session. Now, the key is that the anger content must be dense and with value, if it's full of fluff and nonsense, the AI will essentially clip out the fluff and your short form adss will fail. So speak directly to the pain points, be opinionated and be authoritative. Step two is the AI extraction extraction. So the fun bit, run the anchor content through opus. Let the AI identify the hooks, give it the right prompts.

(06:58):
When you get the clips back, do not just accept them blindly. This is where the human element comes into play. Review the clips, ensure the hooks, and ensure that the first three seconds is actually compelling. Ensure the clip revolves around a clear point or call to action. Opus doesn't necessarily have the knowledge to do that, but it does do the heavy lifting. It does do the technical edit, but you need to quality control it. Step three is the testing matrix. Take those 20 or 30 clips and put them into a testing structure on meta. Don't just put your entire budget behind them on day one. Set up a dynamic creative testing campaign. Let meta's algorithm test the different clips against different audiences with small budgets. This is where the magic actually happens because you have volume, meta has options, very important. It will quickly identify that clip A resonates with founders.

(07:49):
Clip B resonates with marketing managers and clip C is useless and will kill it. Step four is to double down on the winners, right? So once meta has identified the winning creative, the clips that are driving the lowest CPA or the highest engagement, you need to start to shift your budget. You turn off the losers and you pour fuel into the winners, but you don't just stop there. You analyse why the winner is won. That's so important. Was it a specific hook? Was it a specific topic? Was it the energy of the delivery? For instance, you take that insight and you feed into your next long form recording session. You intentionally create more content around the themes that the data has proved are successful and are working. This is the loop anchor, the content AI extraction algorithm testing, data-driven iteration. When you build this engine, you actually stop guessing what your audience wants to see.

(08:41):
You let the volume do the testing, you let the algorithm find the audience, and then you let the data dictate the strategy. Now, the brands and businesses that are dominating the paid social space right now are not the ones with the biggest production budgets. They're the ones with the fastest iteration cycles. They're using tools like Opus clips to generate volume, and they're using platforms like Meta to distribute that volume effectively at scale. So stop trying to make essentially one perfect video. Start building a machine that makes 50 or a hundred good videos. Feed the algorithm, test the hooks, follow the data and scale the conversions will follow. Thanks so much for listening or watching. If you're on YouTube, the latest episode of the Unlock, remember to hit that follow. Hit that subscribe button. Please share it with your friends, families, colleagues, and loved ones. This podcast doesn't grow without you. Honestly, it is really appreciated. I mentioned it earlier, but something that you may find super useful if you are a business managing multiple transactions across multiple platforms is in card. It's a new financial platform for modern online businesses giving you multicurrency, accounts connected banking and smart spend management all in one place. Open a Euro GBP or USD account in minutes. Attach cards for expenses and earn up to 2% cash back on everyday spend like ads, SaaS, and travel. Check out in card using the link in the description.