Simon Robert

We delivered 4,000 static ads last month for brands like Jones Road, HexClad, VKTRY, and Hollow Socks. Here's how to perform with static ads: 1. Run offers Running offers doesn't mean neglecting your margins. You can actually increase them. BOGO, % OFF, Subscribe & Save. Be creative, optimize for contribution margins, and deploy an offer. Offers are powerful because they let you educate at TOF with videos, then convert at BOF with statics. All our clients using this funnel are crushing it. They don't hurt your brand. Customers love great deals, and you can still create high-quality offer statics. 2. Be creative Evergreen statics largely aren't working because you're doing what everyone else does. You open Foreplay, pick a concept, then think how to apply it to your brand. You're thinking backwards. Instead, start with your brand. Think of a creative concept that works for YOU. Most high-performing static ads follow this simple formula: highly creative scene + headline + offer. You won't find highly creative concepts on Foreplay. You find them on Pinterest by playing with keywords. 3. Test new audiences Statics are cheap to produce, get cheap clicks, and can scale decently. They're perfect for testing new audiences/angles. Let's say you're a coffee substitute brand unsure which demo to target next. Try different angles: gut pain vs low energy, paired with specific demos: women 30+ health enthusiasts vs men 30+ workout enthusiasts. Here's how it looks in Figma: 5 different ad concepts, each with 2 design variations targeting different demos. Pair copy with each variant to match your audience. Variant 1: "Take it easy on your gut" + pink background Variant 2: "Bring intensity to your workouts" + blue background Bonus point: click bait visual + controversial headlines

I think the world just needs more static ads

The power of the Statiq brand in the eCom industry is getting stronger and it's just really cool to see. Whenever I'm hiring, at an event or like jumping on a random call, people know about us. They've seen our ads or used our work as reference. Let's build.

I think it's time to realize I spent years building out of anger. Like a broken kid with something to prove. My father, a shameful version of myself etc. Did some work and feels like I'm there for the love of the game now. It's much more peaceful.

Our goal is to make the best static ad workflow in the world.

@MikeLukashewich @connorrolain great work guys

Homestead quite literally changed the direction of my professional career forever. While working at ESPN X Games, I was doing some very small-scale freelancing—running FB ads with budgets of $10–$100/day. Occasionally, @connorrolain and I would connect about the accounts we were each freelancing for. Not long after, Connor joined the Homestead team in its infancy. When I got laid off during COVID, Connor reached out and told me what he was working on and that they were looking to grow. I remember him telling me about an account spending $500/day… lol. The way he talked about it fired me up. He then connected me with @zachmstuck, who gave me the opportunity to join what would soon become a rocketship. For the next two years, I got to work alongside @zachmstuck, @thekyleleach, @_RileyTrotter, @jsappington, @connorrolain, @GrantWydeven ,@Matt_Fra_ and many more killers. We were scrappy. We would do anything and everything for our clients. I remember many late nights auditing accounts, putting together plans with the small team. Ads were only a small part of the equation. We were required to think holistically about the entire business. We cranked out audits and every audit forced us to look at the next business a little differently. We were submitting tons of creative requests every week for each brand. Hell, sometimes we were in a parking lot or a studio shooting ads ourselves. The people I got to work alongside became the true foundation of my journey in the years that followed. Forever grateful for the opportunity. The success that team has seen is a testament to the hard work and the vision of the leaders. Awesome to see!

if you were making bad ads before AI, you're still gonna be making bad ads with AI. Shit × 1000 isn't better shit. It's exponential shit.

Mark couldn’t care less about the Ads Manager. His focus is on the product and he’s right. If the product doesn’t improve we advertisers won’t have an audience to advertise to. The ad manager is a by product of humans being addicted to Meta’s products. Focus on the product.

40K steps yesterday walking through beautiful Buenos Aires. Te amo Argentina.

I think dinosaurs are the coolest thing ever

This static ad we made 2 months ago for VKTRY spent like $100,000. Brands hire Statiq because we're able to come up with winners they would've never thought to try. lets work

@iamshaanarora Congrats man huge

This feels surreal to say. Alia has officially been acquired by Dotdigital. There were a lot of nights I pictured writing this post. [more emotional parts below, but I need to first talk to our customers and partners before anything else] NOTHING will change for our partners and customers. We're not asking anyone to move their ESPs to keep working with Alia. If you have Slack channels with us, those channels will remain and you'll still keep your current CSMs with us. Our same commitment to customer support and customer success for our customers and partners will still be there in full force. We're not done building Alia by any means. Our team and product are staying intact. And we're excited to build and move quickly as we've always done, but now with the resources of a much larger company. - I want to first express gratitude to my co-founding team. Cory, Bill, and Jake have challenged me every single second of this journey and I appreciate it more than they'll ever know. I try to read more and listen to more podcasts so that I can understand what they're saying when they're chatting to eachother at work. I'm forever indebted to them, and I'm excited to keep building with them for a very long time. I'm extremely grateful for the broader Alia team as well. I know that we ask a lot and that we're not the most typical company in many respects, but I'm damn proud of you all and your commitment to the company. I'm very grateful to my family for the unwavering support and all the thoughts and prayers they've been sending since we started this whole thing four years ago. When I asked my parents if I could live with them after college and work full-time on my crazy idea that had no funding or revenue, they didn't hesitate for a second. Living at home with them when our company had no money gave me the chance to ground myself and work as hard as humanly possible. My parents have supported me and given me space when I needed it, and I appreciate them dealing with me when my mood swings based on the revenue growth of the company on a week-to-week basis. I also want to thank my friends for supporting us and caring. I know we can act crazy sometimes about this company and I appreciate you bearing with us. Thank you to Dotdigital for trusting us and our mission. We’re just getting started, and we’re thrilled to build the future side by side. Cory and I first started building Alia four years ago when we were 20 years old, both interns at a bank. Being able to celebrate this with the same person who I've been with since the start is a feeling I can't put into words. Oh, and by the way, we didn't take a dollar of outside funding to build Alia. As I'm holding back tears, I'll conclude with this: I've been posting almost every weekday since January 2024 on LinkedIn and Twitter. And, at least once a week since then, I've dreamt of writing this post and how it'd feel to write it. It feels better than I could've ever imagined.

@andrewfoxwell @thedanielokon Thank you brother

@Simon__Rob @thedanielokon They are great operators and fantastic people on top of it

Not a sponsored post, but the team at Statiq is incredible. Some of our top performing assets are from them in several accounts. Highly recommend.

Hahaha no way 🤣 dang we’re having a tough month but seeing y’all support warms my heart!! Sending to the team Let’s work

@BeauchampAndrew @thedanielokon My feet are burning

@thedanielokon Ha @Simon__Rob is meeting me at my place in about an hour to train some Muay Thai. Great guys running that company.

@oliverblackshaw same here

@Simon__Rob walking without airpods is honestly the best decision I've made this year

For two years, I couldn't get a weekend off without feeling like I was losing. Every hour I wasn't working felt like debt. I founded Statiq at 25. We're a static ads agency and produce 9,000+ ads a month for DTC brands, and somewhere in building it, I stopped being able to separate the two. A bad month meant I was failing as a person, and a good month meant I was allowed to relax. Compared to my friends, I'm professionally ahead. Personally, I'm not so sure. That's not to brag, it's what happens when you spend two years unable to be fully present anywhere that isn't your company. What I've learned the past few months is that when your identity lives inside your company, you fill every gap with noise: music, podcasts, grabbing the phone the second there's a moment of stillness. Not exactly because you're busy, but because silence is where you'd have to figure out who you are outside of it. The work lately has been letting that silence back in: no phone before 11:00am, walking without AirPods, sitting through a movie without checking my phone. Statiq having a bad month still hits me harder than anyone else on the team. It probably always will, but it doesn't have to be the only thing that defines me. That's the difference.

What I've learned the past few months is that when your identity lives inside your company, you fill every gap with noise: music, podcasts, grabbing the phone the second there's a moment of stillness. Not exactly because you're busy, but because silence is where you'd have to figure out who you are outside of it.

It's now more about what to work on, rather than the work itself.

@oliverblackshaw Yes!!

I think @Simon__Rob mentioned this recently but been going out for a 45-60 min walk before bed each night, no earphones in, nothing to take my mind off the activity. Would definitely recommend