Episode 249: The Meta Algorithm Shift: How to Adapt Your Creative Strategy - Part 2
Release Date: 11/19/2025
Episode 276: How to Get Your Brand Recommended by AI: AEO with Julian Lopez
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode Description AI is changing how customers discover, research, and choose brands. If your business isn’t showing up in AI-generated answers, you may be missing the next major wave of organic visibility. In this live session from Mentor Table Nashville, Julian Lopez from the Smart Marketer team breaks down AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, and what brands need to do now to become the recommended choice inside AI tools, AI overviews, and answer engines. From schema markup and indexability to brand authority and bottom-of-funnel search intent, Julian shares the early signals Smart...
info_outline
Episode 275: The Paid Ads Machine: Creative Systems That Scale in the Age of AI
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode 275: The Paid Ads Machine: Creative Systems That Scale in the Age of AI Episode Description What if your ad creative system could think more like Meta’s algorithm? In this live session from Mentor Table Nashville, Smart Marketer’s Director of Creative Ben Bennett and Creative Operations Manager Melvin Cotton III break down the exact system they use to plan, produce, analyze, and scale paid social creative in the age of AI and Andromeda. From diagnosing what’s actually working inside your ad account to building scalable creator systems and using AI to uncover hidden performance...
info_outline
Episode 274: How to Use AI to Write Better Meta Ad Copy Without Losing the Human Touch
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode 274: How to Use AI to Write Better Meta Ad Copy Without Losing the Human Touch Episode Description AI can help you write faster, but that does not mean it should be writing your ads for you. In this podcast episode taken from our Smart Paid Traffic Live training, Senior Paid Performance Specialist Dominique Nobel breaks down her step-by-step process for using AI to create stronger Meta ad copy. You will learn how to build a brand intelligence document, generate better hooks, write stronger body copy, improve headlines and descriptions, and use AI as a volume tool while keeping...
info_outline
Episode 273: Scaling to $300M+: Paid Media, Attribution & Building Teams That Win
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode 273: Scaling to $300M+: Paid Media, Attribution & Building Teams That Win Episode Description What does it really take to scale to $300M+ in revenue and spend $300K per day on ads? In this live Mentor Table session from Nashville, Molly Pittman sits down with entrepreneur Rob Schmidt to break down what actually changes as you grow, from attribution and paid media to leadership and team building. “You have to be really comfortable relying on your other leaders… You need to find good people to surround yourself with that you can trust because you can't do it all yourself....
info_outline
Episode 272: The Business Growth Levers That Actually Matter (Ezra Firestone and John Grimshaw)
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Ep. 272: The Business Growth Levers That Actually Matter (Mentor Table with Ezra Firestone and John Grimshaw) Episode Description Most entrepreneurs are stuck optimizing the wrong things. In this Mentor Table conversation, Ezra Firestone and John Grimshaw break down the real levers that drive business growth from customer acquisition and profitability to product strategy and operational focus. If you have been buried in the weeds, this episode will help you zoom out, simplify, and focus on what actually moves the needle. “Don’t quit before the miracle, man, just keep going. I am telling...
info_outline
Episode 271: Meta Ads Q&A: Targeting Evolution, Retargeting & What Actually Matters Now
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode 271: Meta Ads Q&A: Targeting Evolution, Retargeting & What Actually Matters Now Episode Description Are you overthinking your campaign structure while missing what actually drives results? In this episode of the Smart Marketer Podcast, Molly Pittman and Smart Marketer’s Director of Advertising, Denis Paskalev, continue the Meta Ads Q&A series, diving into retargeting, targeting strategy, and how the algorithm is really working in 2026. From whether you still need separate retargeting campaigns to how creative is now doing the heavy lifting, this conversation breaks down...
info_outline
Episode 270: Organic Social vs Paid Ads What’s Actually Working Right Now (And Why Most Brands Get It Wrong)
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode 270: Organic Social vs Paid Ads What’s Actually Working Right Now (And Why Most Brands Get It Wrong) Most brands are doing organic social completely wrong and it’s costing them growth. In this episode, Zach Dampier breaks down what’s actually working with organic social right now… and how to use it alongside paid ads without burning out or chasing the wrong metrics. If your organic content feels like an afterthought or just a weaker version of your ads, this episode will completely reframe your strategy. “Organic and paid are not competing for your resources. They're doing...
info_outline
Episode 269: Meta Ads Q&A: Creative, Budgets, and What’s Actually Working Right Now
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode 269: Meta Ads Q&A: Creative, Budgets, and What’s Actually Working Right Now Episode Description In this episode of the Smart Marketer Podcast, Molly Pittman, CEO of Smart Marketer, and Denis Paskalev, Director of Advertising, answer real questions from marketers navigating the shift in Meta ads, starting with one of the biggest concerns right now: can small businesses still win? They break down the reality behind creative demands, including whether you really need dozens of new ads every week, and what actually drives performance when budgets are limited. “The information that...
info_outline
Episode 268: Axon Ads - How to Diversify Beyond Meta and Find New Customers
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode 268: Axon Ads - How to Diversify Beyond Meta and Find New Customers Episode Description In this episode of the Smart Marketer Podcast, Molly Pittman is joined by Smart Marketer agency CEO Pep Hufen to break down Axon (also known as AppLovin), a fast-growing ad platform that is giving marketers a new way to diversify beyond Meta. They walk through how the platform works, what makes it different from traditional social media advertising, and why it is becoming a powerful channel for acquiring net-new customers. From creative requirements and campaign setup to attribution differences and...
info_outline
Episode 267: Meta Ads Q&A - What’s Actually Working in 2026
The Smart Marketer Podcast
Episode Description In this episode of the Smart Marketer Podcast, Molly Pittman is joined by Smart Marketer’s Director of Advertising, Denis Paskalev, for a live Meta Ads Q&A where they answer real questions from marketers about what is actually working with Meta ads in 2026. From campaign structure and creative testing to scaling strategies and performance metrics, this conversation breaks down the modern approach to Meta ads in a world where targeting is driven more by creative, messaging, and landing pages than traditional audience targeting. If you are running ads for ecommerce,...
info_outline🎙️Episode 249: The Meta Algorithm Shift: How to Adapt Your Creative Strategy – Part 2
(with Ben Bennett)
đź“ť Episode Description
Want more winning ads with less guesswork?
In Part 2 of this creative strategy masterclass, Smart Marketer’s Director of Creative, Ben Bennett, takes you behind the scenes of a real ad campaign to show how small, intentional changes to your message and creative experience can lead to major performance gains on Meta.
Forget pumping out 20 random creatives a week. Ben shows you how to scale creative purposefully by testing strategic variables like persona, tone, and setting instead of scrambling to change formats.
“With the right variables, small changes become big changes. That’s real creative strategy.” – Ben Bennett
This episode is packed with examples, frameworks, and a fresh way to approach Meta’s evolving algorithm by focusing on people first.
âś… You Will Learn
-
How to turn one winning hook into multiple high-performing ads
-
Why Meta’s algorithm rewards creative diversity based on experience
-
What variables matter most: persona, setting, tone (not just format)
-
How to create “purposeful volume” instead of creative noise
-
Why human-first strategy beats algorithm-chasing every time
-
A repeatable system for long-term creative testing & scaling
đź”— Links & Resources
-
Smart Marketer – smartmarketer.com
-
Smart Marketer Agency – smartmarketeragency.com
-
Omnisend (Email & SMS tool) – smartmarketer.com/omnisend
👉 Use code SMART for 50% off your first 3 months
⏱️ Timestamps (Chapters)
00:00 – Welcome back: What You’ll Learn in Part 2
01:00 – Ezra Firestone’s Omnisend Shoutout: “That’s how much I trust that platform.”
02:04 – Ad Case Study: 3 Winning Ads, Same Hook, Different Experiences
03:54 – How Changing One Variable (like persona) Unlocked Higher Performance
06:52 – From Winning Image → UGC Video: Building Iterations with Confidence
07:41 – Persona Shift: Human Activity vs. Human Connection
08:58 – Why Format Isn’t Strategy (And What Actually Is)
10:05 – Why People First > Algorithm First Creative
11:01 – The Real Director of Meta’s Algorithm? Humans.
12:08 – Purposeful Volume: How to Test Strategically
13:02 – Final Thoughts: Real Creative Strategy is Human-First
14:01 – Outro & YouTube Shoutout
đź“Ł Your Engagement Matters!
Thanks for listening to The Smart Marketer Podcast! If this episode helped shift your thinking, do us a favor:
âś… Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts
📲 Share this episode on social & tag us with #WeOutHere
đź’Ś Got feedback or a question? Email us at support@smartmarketer.com
Serve the World Unselfishly and Profit! 🚀