Here’s the rundown for those who haven’t been paying attention to this AI saga that’s been unfolding for several weeks now.

The Set Up

ChatGPT announced on January 16th, 2026 it will incorporate ads into the platform.

Earlier, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that ads would be a “last resort” for them.

But the company is under the gun to increase profitability ASAP, given its massive cumulative losses. So, it has turned to ads.

OpenAI promises, of course, to incorporate ads into an ethical and transparent way, similar to sponsored results on Google.

The Ad Battle Begins

Antrhopic, in response, has launched a series of ads comedically jabbing ChatGPT for this decision, all without mentioning them by name. At the same time, Claude is reinforcing it’s own position to never incorporate ads into LLM conversations.

Here’s one Claude ad with a coach metaphor, which ran during the Super Bowl.

And another with a therapist metaphor.

In response, Sam Altman posted a lengthy quote tweet trying to sound casual and unbothered, while also downplaying this vector of critique. It fell pretty flat though, and also had a bit of an air of PR crisis management contrivance.

The Escalation

This advertising battle ramped up amid the backdrop of Claude taking the spotlight recently among hardcore AI builders.

Particularly, Claude Code has shown momentous gains over ChatGPT’s Codex. Developers and vibe coders have begun preferring Claude Code for open source projects like OpenClaw. And the fervor has gotten so intense that Mac Mini’s briefly went out of stock due to so many devs setting up virtual AI Agents running Claude.

However, from a pure market dominance perspective, ChatGPT still leads massively.

Yet Claude appears to be gaining on this.

In addition to their standard ads, Anthropic has also launched a number of influencer collaborations, particularly targeting female-leaning, artsy, hipster audiences, which have been well-received and are cleverly positioned from a marketing perspective.

It feels a little bit like the “I’m a Windows, I’m a Mac” campaign for the AI era.

This dynamic continued to escalate leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, when Claude and ChatGPT both aired prime time ads.

The Super Bowl

Claude ran the coach ad, included towards the top of this Substack post. It resonated well among AI savvy audiences, but for many people it went over their heads.

My wife, for instance, only noticed that it was a robot-sounding Coach, and then saw the Claude logo at the end, so it might not have had the intended impact.

You have to be pretty in-the-know to get that Claude was taking a jab at OpenAI.

OpenAI’s Super Bowl ad, by comparison, came off as confident and tasteful, focusing on the problems that ChatGPT solves rather than its competitors. This is considered best practice for a leading brand in any category.

The “YOU CAN JUST BUILD THINGS” line at the end was perfect.

What Will Happen Next?

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Before we get into why most ads fail, a disclaimer…

It is possible for a single ad to immediately launch a business into the stratosphere.

The most famous example is Dollar Shave Club.

Dollar Shave Club’s iconic video ad cost just $4,500 to make. The company would later be acquired for $1B.

When razor prices were sky high, Dollar Shave Club did not try to outspend the giants. They used comedy to win attention. Founder Michael Dubin, trained at Upright Citizens Brigade, wrote and starred in a deliberately scrappy, self-aware video that launched on YouTube and immediately went viral. Subscriptions sold out in six hours. The site crashed.

That kind of outcome is real. But it is also very rare.

What often gets missed in these “overnight success” stories is the groundwork. The website, supply chain, and positioning all had to be ready. And the video itself was so strong it likely would have spread organically. What looks like a lightning strike is usually years of preparation. In Dollar Shave Club’s case, that meant Michael Dubin honing his comedic delivery for years at Upright Citizens Brigade.

So while breakout ads can happen, most brands find success a different way.

They build an organic audience first.

Then they sprinkle ad dollars on top to pour rocket fuel on what is already working at smaller scale.

This takes more time. But the result is lasting growth that does not disappear the moment you turn ads off.

With that context set, here is what I have learned from actually running campaigns across industries about why most ads fail, and what actually works.

Why Most Ads Fail

Most ads fail because they are treated like a silver bullet.

They are expected to do everything at once:

• Create demand

• Explain the product

• Build trust

• Differentiate the brand

• Close the sale

All in a single impression.

Instead of pouring rocket fuel on something that is already working, the ad is trying to be the thing that works.

When this happens, the result is usually the same.

Realistically, most companies, especially those working with typical ad agencies, end up with a ROAS below 1.00.

That means for every $1 spent on ads, they earn less than $1 in revenue.

They are paying for the privilege of losing money.

The important thing to understand is that this is not inevitable.

At Noble Growth, we typically see around 2.5× ROAS across accounts, with certain campaigns reaching 10× ROAS once they hit their sweet spot. These results come from following a repeatable system that blends scientific discipline with creative flexibility, and they are achievable as long as the product or service itself is sound.

Here is how that actually looks in practice.

Start With What Is Already Working

Ideally, you begin by building an audience or fan base that already likes your product or service.

This is how you establish product market fit at small scale.

Before you go hunting for new customers, you want proof that someone already wants what you are selling, and that they want it for the reasons you think they do.

A simple place to start is closer than most people realize.

If you are starting at zero today, my advice is to reach out to friends, family, and people you already know in real life. Ask them to check out your startup project. Find out what resonates and what is confusing.

Think organic reach first. Then paid reach second.

Paid ads work best when they amplify existing momentum, not when they are asked to create it from nothing.

First: Inbound Marketing

Your first ad dollars should usually go toward inbound demand.

Start by bidding on your brand name alone.

There are two reasons to do this.

1. First, defense: Competitors can and often do bid on your brand name. Bidding on your own name helps ensure that you show up first.

2. Second, friction reduction: You are making it as easy as possible for people who already want you to find you.

There is also a secondary benefit many people overlook. Being a verified Google advertiser, with strong click through rates and clean account history, often helps reinforce your overall visibility in Google’s ecosystem over time.

Once your brand campaign is profitable, expand into a non-brand keyword campaign.

A good way to plan this is simple. Search your product category on Google and look at what already shows up near the top. Those results are telling you what Google believes best matches user intent. Take inspiration from these results: the best headlines, descriptions, visuals, landing pages, etc, and make them your own.

Inbound marketing works because you are meeting demand, not trying to manufacture it. That is why it is typically the easiest place to achieve ROAS positive campaigns early on.

Then: Outbound Marketing (Carefully)

Once inbound is working, you can move into outbound.

Right now, Meta is the largest outbound platform in the world. Depending on your audience, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, X, or others may also make sense. But if you’re agnostic I’d recommend starting with Meta Ads.

If you are not sure where to begin as far as your ad creative, one of the best tools available is the Meta Ads Library.

Search for competitors in your space, especially the same companies already ranking highly on Google, or other brands you know are doing meaningful volume.

Then look for the longest running ads.

The reason to look for the longest running ads is simple: Ads that have been running for a long time are usually profitable. They are battle tested. If they were not working, they would have been turned off.

New ads, even from top brands, are often exploratory. Long running ads are proven.

If you take inspiration from the top two or three longest running Meta ads from your top two or three competitors, you give yourself a major head start. You are effectively benefiting from the testing and learning those brands have already paid for.

Run Ads Like a Scientist

One of the most common mistakes I see advertising novices make is messing with their campaigns too much. They are so eager for results, that they feel compelled to change ad parameters constantly, or turn them off too soon, or not know when to declare victory and when to admit defeat and try something different. They let emotions be their guide rather than anything resembling the scientific method.

Take emotion out of the process. Follow the scientific method.

Commit to spending $X per week for 12 weeks, no matter what. This gives you enough time and data to test systematically instead of reacting emotionally to short term noise.

Start with what you believe is the best possible combination of:

• Messaging

• Visuals

• Landing page

• Targeting

• Placements

Then test one new variable per week, keeping only the winners from the previous week.

Think of it like a March Madness bracket. Losers get cut. Winners advance.

The structure should be scientific. But the creative should be artistic.

Create Ads Like an Artist

Just as your testing framework should be rigid, your creative process should be fluid. Don’t worry too much about making it systematic. Follow your intuition, and imagine what would persuade you if you were in the customer’s shoes.

Feel free to test whatever you like. That said, there are some helpful prompts to follow to get you going creatively.

Try:

• Questions

• Statements

• Quotes

• Exclamations

Try:

• Video

• Text overlays

• Carousels

• Static images

Apply all six of Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion.
Try ads that resemble the best competitors in your space.
Try ads that look like nothing else in your category.

Aim to outdo yourself each week.

As long as your brand messaging and aesthetic stay unified, this combination of creative experimentation inside a disciplined process tends to produce better results over time, typically three months is a solid benchmark to assess your progress.

By then, you are usually well on your way to ROAS positivity, unless there is a deeper issue with product market fit.

The Hidden Benefit: Fast Truth

Let’s consider the worst case scenario for a moment…

You try this system. You commit to 12 weeks of iterative ad testing. You experiment with different creative angles, persuasion angles, targeting angles, and you still don’t see the results you’d hoped for. Your business hasn’t achieved product-market fit.

Even in this case, where product market fit is the issue, this process reveals it faster than almost anything else.

By putting your product in front of a statistically significant number of real people and watching how they behave, you learn the truth quickly.

At that point, you can pivot or persevere.

And with all the data gleaned from your advertising learnings, you’ll have a good sense of which way to pivot, or how best to persevere.

Either way, you are better off.

The Best Ads

The best ads accentuate what is already real.

They start with a truth that already exists in the world and tell it in the most compelling way possible.

The job of advertising is not to fabricate desire or manufacture belief. It is to recognize what is already resonating and bring that story into sharper focus.

Great ads do not sell the product itself.
They sell what life looks like after using it.

More confidence. Less friction. A better version of the customer.

The product or service is simply the vehicle.

This is why ads work best when built on top of organic momentum. The story has already been validated. The transformation is already happening. Paid media helps that truth travel farther and faster.

As they say in copywriting circles: “Facts tell. Stories sell.”

Find what is already true.
Tell the best story about it.
Then scale it.

And when one of your ad campaigns reaches that sweet spot, let it run.

Looking to grow? Contact Noble Growth

Start with the Goal, which is 1,000 True Fans

In 2008, Kevin Kelly published a now-famous essay titled “1,000 True Fans.”

His thesis: A creator doesn’t need millions of followers to make a living, just 1,000 true fans who will buy whatever they produce.

This concept has become foundational in the creator economy and is widely cited across entrepreneurship, marketing, and digital growth. And given the rise of AI, having your own true fans is even more important than before. Otherwise you’re paying for every impression, which is costly and vastly raises your success hurdle.

Enter organic social media growth.

Building your own following on Instagram, X, YouTube, Twitch, Reddit, or whatever other platform feels most natural to you, is immensely valuable. It might not feel like it right away, but the value compounds over time. Eventually, you won’t have to rely on ad dollars. And any ad dollars you do allocate will provide a much higher return.

So, how do you attract these 1,000 true fans? Follow these 5 rules.

But First, Why Buying Followers Doesn’t Work

Before we get into the rules, let’s address the “shortcut” that you may have in mind: buying followers. It’s tempting to just buy followers. Suddenly you have 50,000 Instagram followers, and at a casual glance it looks impressive.

But that’s all it is, surface-level optics. You’re posting to an audience of bots. No real people will see your posts. You’re not getting 1,000 true fans. You’re getting the appearance of fans. And even that illusion only works if you keep paying for bot likes, which is the opposite of organic growth.

There’s also a deeper reason not to buy followers: It nukes your reach in the algorithm.

Every platform is becoming more like TikTok, which means that even small accounts can go viral if their content resonates. This is a good thing. It means any one of your posts has the potential to attract thousands of new followers overnight.

However, if your follower base is made of bots, your posts will most likely only get recommended to… more bots. Therefore, you will have effectively eliminated your changes of going organically viral if you start off by paying for fake followers.

It’s better to have 12 real followers than 120,000 fake ones. Why? Because those 12 real people accurately tell the algorithm who to show your content to next. Bots do not.

Tl;dr: Don’t buy bot followers. And if you already made the mistake of buying bot followers, don’t worry, you can still do things the right way to improve your chances at organic virality by following these 5 rules of organic social growth.

Rule #1: Don’t Fear Being Cringe

The more you post, the better your chances are at growing.

Not all posts will land. And unless you’re saying something as uncontroversial as “water is wet,” someone out there will disagree with your takes. That’s fine.

Be fearless. Be cringe.

Everyone else is mostly thinking about themselves anyway.

Post often. Post confidently. Be the man in the arena.

Rule #2: Be Authentic

The best posts are the ones that flow out of you naturally, not the ones you try to compose. It’s fine to take inspiration from others, but stay true to your own voice.

Authenticity attracts the right followers over the long term. If you spend all your time and energy trying to be like somebody else, chances are you’ll burn out. So, be yourself, post what you find interesting, visually appealing, and worth talking about.

This way, it won’t feel like work. It will feel like texting a friend.

Rule #3: Have a Purpose

Why does your account exist? Why should anyone follow it? What do they expect to see if they do? Who is it for?

Be able to answer all of that in one sentence.

Once you find your niche, growth becomes much easier. Consistency of message, visuals, and ethos helps others recognize who you are and what you stand for. It’s ok to have a variety of interests, but there should be one unifying theme for your account.

Does your account pass the “5 second rule?” Meaning, if someone who’d never seen your account before came across it, would they be able to know what it’s all about with 5 seconds of scanning your profile? If not, you need to have a clearer purpose.

A great way to cement your place in a niche is to interact with and collaborate with top accounts in that niche. If you’re a marketing agency, follow and engage with other top marketing accounts, and you’ll likely get recommended alongside them.

Rule #4: Follow the Golden Rule

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. This is the golden rule not just for life, but also for organic social media growth.

Be courteous. If someone shows kindness to you, reciprocate. If you enjoy someone’s post, like it, share it, or comment on it. Join other people’s conversations, not just your own. Follow back the real people who follow you.

Reciprocity is the first and most powerful of Cialdini’s persuasion principles.

Most people are so focused on their own posts, and wondering why nobody is commenting on them, yet they never think to comment on other people’s posts. A good exercise is to spend 15 minutes per day making other accounts look good. There’s even a cliche on Twitter/X that says, if you have less than 500 followers, your best bet is to be a “reply guy.” Once you hit critical mass, you can focus more on your own posts. But don’t shy away from engaging with others’ posts and following other accounts before they’ve followed you, especially in the early growth stages.

Reciprocating in this way also helps you find kindred spirits.

Rule #5: Be Consistent

A huge portion of success is simply showing up every day.

I’ve seen successful accounts that post some variation of the same thing every single day, and they are immensely successful. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each morning. But you do need to post consistently to attract your 1,000 true fans.

This last rule encapsulates the other rules in that, if you fear not being cringe, if you are authentic, if you have a clear purpose, and if you follow the golden rule of reciprocity, you are unlikely to burn out. Your growth won’t feel like work. It will feel like fun, like a natural extension of what you’re already doing day-to-day. It will feel like connecting with old friends each time you log on, steadily achieving your mission.

Case Study: The National Flag Foundation

Noble Growth recently took The National Flag Foundation, a respected nonprofit that’s been around for more than half a century but had no social media footprint, from 143 followers to nearly 20,000 followers on Instagram in just four months.

We did it by following these 5 unwritten rules. And we’re just getting started.

Most marketers get one thing fundamentally wrong:

They make their marketing about themselves, not their customer.

You’ve seen it a thousand times:

“WE just launched…”
“Sign up for OUR newsletter…”
“OUR product is the best…”

Brands love to talk about their product, features, and accomplishments.

But customers only care about a single question:

“What does this do for me?”

This is the moment everything changes.

The Super Mario Insight is that your product is not the product.
Your product is what your customer becomes after using it.

Little Mario = Your customer today
Fire Flower = Your product
Fire Mario = Who they become after using your product

And here is the key insight:

You do not sell the flower.
You sell them becoming Fire Mario.

Most brands talk about the flower.
Great brands talk about what the flower transforms you into.

This is what psychologists call Theory of Mind. It is the ability to model what another person thinks, feels, and cares about from their unique corner of the universe. It is the foundation of all persuasion, advertising creative, and high-performance marketing.

A Campaign That Does This Exceptionally Well

When the “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercial first aired in 2006, it boosted Dos Equis U.S. sales by 22% at a time when most imported beers were declining. And it spawned a viral internet meme format that is still used today.

Part of why it was so successful is it doesn’t sell the beer. In fact, the ad never talks about the qualities of the beer.

Instead, Dos Equis sells who the beer allows you to become. In other words, it sells the dream that you, too, can become the Most Interesting Man in the World.

Lesson there.

A Common Example That Falls Flat

❌ The typical newsletter subscribe box

No transformation. No benefit. No reason.

A Subscribe Box That Actually Works

Here is the better version:

This version answers “WIIFM” instantly:

✔ What I will get
✔ How it helps me
✔ Who I will become

When framed this way, subscribers do not feel like they are doing you a favor.
They feel like they are doing themselves a favor.

Where to Begin ( Start With “WHY?”)

Simon Sinek’s Start With Why is required viewing if you have not seen it.

“People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.”
— Simon Sinek

It all falls into place when your “why” aligns with who the customer wants to become.

The Takeaway for Marketers

To convert the customer, you must become him. Or, as the Buddha puts it:

This post breaks down how to adapt your website to get recommended more often by LLMs, highlighting a few key adjustments to make your business more visible.

In our inaugural Noble Growth Insights post, we shared a chart showing how AI search is predicted to overtake traditional search by 2028. That shift is already well underway.

Your website is no longer just competing for clicks on a search results page. It’s competing to be the answer that AIs deliver. And this trend will only become more prominent over time, so you’re better off adjusting sooner rather than later.

The Case Study: From 0 to 80 AI Hits a Day

One of my clients, a hospitality business, just recently began appearing in AI recommendations after a few key optimizations focused on crawlability and clarity.

Here’s what we changed:

• Added an FAQs page with natural, conversational questions that people are likely to ask to an LLM; and clear, plain-text answers to those questions.

• Added a reviews page written in simple text that AIs can easily summarize.

• Added rich, structured content with clear headings and hierarchy, avoiding hidden text or dropdowns that look nice to humans but are obfuscated for AI.

• Optimized metadata to make the site easier to interpret for AI models.

• Integrated authoritative backlinks to make the website as easy as possible to find.

Result: The site went from 0 to 80 AI hits per day over the first 90 days, and is continuing to trend upwards. 89% of the traffic comes from ChatGPT, 7% from Perplexity, and 4% from Gemini. Many of these interactions led directly to bookings.

Why AI SEO Differs from Traditional SEO

• AIs read differently. They ignore design flourishes and focus on text structure, metadata, and schema.

• Clarity beats cleverness. Straightforward language helps AIs map your content to user intent.

• Questions matter more than keywords. Think like your customer: What would they actually ask an AI?

• Entities and context are key. Use consistent names and schema to identify your business, location, and services.

• Readable reviews matter. Include written reviews in plain text, not just embedded widgets or scripts that look good to humans but are invisible to AIs.

How to Make Your Site AI-Discoverable

1. Add an FAQ page that mirrors the natural phrasing of user questions.

2. Publish a reviews page in plain text rather than relying on third-party embeds.

3. Simplify the site structure so all key text is visible to crawlers.

4. Use schema markup to define your content clearly.

5. Write clear metadata with concise, descriptive titles and meta descriptions.

6. Keep your content fresh to encourage AI models to re-index your site.

7. Backlink to other prominent sites where your business can be found, in particular your Google My Business, your Apple Maps, and your social accounts on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and Reddit.

8. Track AI referrals separately using analytics tools that identify ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini as traffic sources.

The Takeaway

AI SEO is about finding and widening the path of least resistance between user intent and the information your business provides.

Traditional SEO was about ranking higher in search results. AI SEO is about being clearly understood by the models that now guide discovery and recommendation.

The businesses that adapt first will be the ones most often chosen.

Need help adjusting your website for AI SEO? Email mattimore@noblegrowth.co.

Noble Growth Insights exists to make sure you’re on the path to lasting growth. That’s why I created this Substack.

Each publication, I’ll share what’s actually working (and what’s not) across the brands I manage, spanning e-commerce, lifestyle, tech, fashion, and beyond. You’ll see real data, emerging trends, and practical tactics you can put into play immediately.

We’ll cut through the noise and get to what matters. For instance, recently I’ve noticed a few major changes in digital marketing:

• AI SEO is disrupting traditional SEO

• Semantic search now favors longer, richer captions on Instagram

• Collaborative posts help algorithms determine who your content is for

• Reels and carousels are currently dominating in Meta ads

This isn’t theory. It’s the real pulse of digital marketing in motion.

If you want to stay ahead of the shifts that decide who grows and who fades,
you’re in the right place.

– Mattimore, Founder of Noble Growth