"Fire your agency" content is everywhere right now — but is it good advice? Megan (who runs both an agency and a training program teaching people to run their own ads) breaks down the truth: there's no universal right answer, only the right fit for your business and your timing.

In this episode Megan covers:

• What an agency actually is (and why the term "agency" has become diluted over the last decade)
• Why so many agencies are better at marketing themselves than they are at delivering results
• The real cost of hiring too soon vs waiting too long
• The "sleepless night test" — a simple way to know if a decision (or a fee) is right for you
• Key questions to ask yourself before hiring an agency, including whether you're ready to grow and whether you actually love data
• The red flags that mean it might be time to break up with your current agency — word salad reporting, being palmed off to a junior, order-takers, and agencies with no real strategy
• How to decide whether learning to run your own ads is the smarter move for where your business is right now

Learn more about working with us:

• The next 8-week mentoring program where you'll learn to run Meta ads like a pro is opening soon. Apply now.
• Hire me and my team to run your ads. Learn more.
• Learn how to run your own ads. Click here.

Learn more about your host:

Megan Winter is a meta ads expert, an experienced ADMA and AMI-awarded marketer and founder of Lume Marketing.

As an early-adopter of digital marketing and social media advertising, she has consulted to global brands owned by Heineken and Lexus, has taught hundreds of small business owners at The Facebook Ads Academy, and presented on digital marketing at Bond University.

Now, her passion is helping ethical, purpose-led brands achieve more income and impact with high-performing meta ads.

Connect with Megan on Instagram @meganwinter or LinkedIn

"Until you test, it's just a guess." You've probably heard Megan say it a hundred times — but most small businesses are still testing their meta ads the wrong way, which means they're not really testing at all. They're just guessing with extra steps.

In this episode, Megan breaks down the 5 most common testing mistakes she sees, and what to do instead so your data actually tells you something useful.

In this episode, Megan covers these mistakes:

1. Testing without a strategy behind it — Throwing AI-generated creative into ads just to "see what happens" without checking it aligns with your brand and offer first. Testing rubbish still gives you rubbish.

2. Trusting the Meta dashboard as the source of truth — Why every platform wants to claim credit for the same sale, and why your website and sales numbers matter more than what Meta tells you.

3. Not checking that the pixel is actually tracking correctly — A real example of a client whose purchase pixel was triple-firing, making an $18 cost per purchase look like $6.

4. Testing too many things at once — Why changing your creative, landing page, and offer all at the same time makes it impossible to know what actually worked.

5. Panicking and adding more instead of reading the data — When results dip, the instinct is to create more. Often the real answer is hiding in the data already — like the account that was losing money until the data pointed straight to a landing page fix.

Plus, two real case studies: an account that started losing money (and what the data tells us to do about it), and a client who set a target of 100 memberships, tested the plan, and sold 104 while spending 20% less.

Learn more about working with us:
The next 8-week mentoring program where you'll learn to run Meta ads like a pro is opening soon. Apply now.
Hire us to run your ads. Learn more.
Learn how to run your own ads. Click here.

Learn more about your host:

Megan Winter is a meta ads expert, an experienced ADMA and AMI-awarded marketer and founder of Lume Marketing.

As an early-adopter of digital marketing and social media advertising, she has consulted to global brands owned by Heineken and Lexus, has taught hundreds of small business owners at The Facebook Ads Academy, and presented on digital marketing at Bond University.

Now, her passion is helping ethical, purpose-led brands achieve more income and impact with high-performing meta ads.

Connect with Megan on Instagram @meganwinter or LinkedIn

This week Megan welcomes Lume Marketing account manager Britt Brown for her very first podcast appearance. Britt manages a rotation of Lume clients and brings 20+ years of marketing experience to the chat, including running her own family business.

The pair dive into one of their favourite team-meeting topics: marketing tactics. In this episode they discuss the Labubu craze, and what it can teach small business owners about the psychology behind why we buy. From there they unpack how the same tactics show up again and again throughout marketing history, from Prime energy drinks to the 1950s diamond ring campaigns that convinced the world "a diamond is forever."

In this episode Megan and Britt cover:

• How Labubu's blind box format created mystery and anticipation
• Why manufactured scarcity (and real scarcity) drives FOMO, and how FOMO is really just anticipated regret
• The role influencers played in turning a toy into a cult object
• What happened to demand once Pop Mart scaled production from 50,000 to millions a month
• Social proof in action, from bootleg resellers to a packed restaurant with a line out the door
• How Prime drink used the same playbook, targeted at kids, and why that's a whole ethics conversation on its own
• Why consumers aren't as easily fooled as brands think, and the difference between a genuine limited drop and a "fake" one
• How small businesses can borrow these tactics authentically, without needing Pop Mart's budget or scale
• Real examples: Mecca's loyalty program and reward emails, Britt's Cardera Coffee subscribe-and-save, and the power of a great "About Us" page
• Why brand story and community will always outlast a discount code, and why tactics are "the gravy, not the meat and potatoes"

People and brands mentioned in this episode:

• Rebecca Sparrow -- Lume client and how Britt found Megan
• Welds and Wood -- small business Megan purchases a floating shelf from
• Cardera Coffee — Lume client subscribe-and-save coffee brand, cited as an example of community/social proof driving a sale
• Labubu / Pop Mart — the toy craze that anchors the episode's discussion of scarcity, blind boxes, and hype
• Prime (energy drink) — co-founded by founded by Logan Paul and KSI (in the episode Megan says "Logan brothers or whoever it was".)
• Aldi — mentioned re: their toy/collectible packet promotions and kids trading them at school
• Coles — mentioned alongside Aldi re: bonus ticket promotions
• Mecca (beauty retailer) — used as an example of loyalty programs, birthday freebies, and purchase-triggered incentives
• Shein — mentioned twice: once re: knockoff Labubu dolls, once re: fast fashion ethics/pricing
• Chanel — mentioned as an example of a luxury bag Labubus were being attached to
• Showpo — fast fashion brand founded by Jane Lu, used as an example of selling "the vibe" not the product

Learn more about working with us:

• The next 8-week mentoring program where you'll learn to run Meta ads like a pro is opening soon. Apply now.
• Hire us to run your ads. Learn more.
• Learn how to run your own ads. Click here.

Learn more about your host:

Megan Winter is a meta ads expert, an experienced ADMA and AMI-awarded marketer and founder of Lume Marketing.

As an early-adopter of digital marketing and social media advertising, she has consulted to global brands owned by Heineken and Lexus, has taught hundreds of small business owners at The Facebook Ads Academy, and presented on digital marketing at Bond University.

Now, her passion is helping ethical, purpose-led brands achieve more income and impact with high-performing meta ads.

Connect with Megan on Instagram @meganwinter or LinkedIn