Welcome back to Funnel Vision, the weekly newsletter that puts performance creative & growth marketing in focus. Brought to you by the crew at Ready Set.

The scariest part of spooky season isn’t the costumes or the creepy decor, it’s the record $13.6B Americans spent on Halloween in 2025. That’s $3.9B on candy, $4.2B on decorations, and $1.5B on therapy for kids who’s parents posted “we ate all your candy” videos.

Here’s what’s inside today’s edition:

• Insights and takeaways from Meta & Alphabet Q3 earnings

• Why the algebra of scaling has shifted (and what to do about it)

• Lessons on nailing seasonal spots from a scary-good ad

Reading time: 5 minutes

THE BRIEF 💼 

What happened last week in DTC performance marketing.

Meta reported record revenue of $51.24B during its Q3 earnings call. So why did the stock drop 10%? Two main reasons. First, a massive $15.9B one-off tax bill squashed earnings per share (EPS) to way below expectations. Second, “aggressive” AI spending (which ain’t slowing any time soon according to CFO Susan Li) spooked a skeptical Wall Street. Yet a critical narrative was buried in the numbers, one that directly affects performance marketers. Advantage+ (Meta's AI-powered automated ad suite) crossed a $60 billion annual run rate, with advertisers using it for lead ads campaigns seeing 14% lower cost-per-lead. Why does this matter? While the jury is still out on whether Meta’s eye-watering AI spending will pay off long term, it’s already showing promise in at least one area: its ad tools. Yet more evidence that manual campaign management is going the way of the dodo.

Alphabet hit a record $102.3B in revenue (up 16% YoY), with YouTube ad revenue hitting $10.3B. Two performance marketing shifts played out in this week’s Q3 earnings call. First, YouTube held #1 in U.S. streaming watch time for 2+ years, with interactive TV ads crossing a $1B annual run rate and the 15% YT ad revenue hike driven by (get this) direct response ads, followed by brand. Second, Shorts now earns more revenue per watch hour than in-stream in the U.S., meaning what began as a TikTok defensive play is now an established DR platform. Why does this matter? It’s not only proof that Alphabet's “long-term bet” on owning the living room is paying off, but we’re witnessing YouTube shift from a ‘nice-to-have’ awareness channel to a full-funnel performance powerhouse in real time. Brands still treating it as the former will soon find themselves with an outdated playbook.

CLICKABLE LINKS 👆️ 

🤝 U.S. officials say China has approved the TikTok transfer, clearing the way for majority-American ownership of its U.S. operations and removing the risk of a shutdown.

🚀 Reddit investors are in for a treat this Halloween. Stock surged 13% (coincidence?) on Friday after a solid Q3 earnings beat expectations.

🔮 Here are 36 predictions for social media marketing in 2026.

🧵 Meta announces Threads has reached 150M daily active users, with ads now running globally and video ads on the way.

MEDIA STRATEGY

Why the 10K Rule Is the New Operating System for Scaling on Meta

The Andromeda era has fundamentally changed the math of scaling on Meta. Success no longer hinges on a single winning ad or clever targeting hack; it depends entirely on your creative infrastructure.

Under Meta’s rebuilt ad system, the need for fresh creative now scales directly with your budget. If your number of new creative concepts doesn’t grow in proportion to spend, you’ll start to see diminishing returns. That’s where the 10K Rule comes in.

So what is the 10K Rule?

Importantly, we mean concepts, not variations. Changing a headline or button color won’t cut it anymore; the algorithm is looking for different hooks, visuals, and angles.

Here’s how that translates in practice:

• At $100K–$250K/month, you need 20–30 new unique concepts per month

• $500K/month: 40–50 new unique concepts per month

• $1M+/month: 60–80 new concepts, plus variations of your top performers

Key takeaway: Volume alone isn’t enough. Diversity is just as critical.

The Andromeda Shift: The Algorithm’s New Appetite

Meta’s latest algorithmic overhaul put creative signals—concepts, hooks, visuals, messaging, and angles—at the center of performance. Andromeda behaves like a bouncer, giving unique creative express entry through the retrieval phase.

A single winning ad no longer carries the weight, it’s about steady creative velocity. Higher spend means higher creative demand. This isn’t theory, it’s what we’ve observed across multiple high-spend accounts.

Scaling Spend = Scaling Creative

This is where most advertisers hit the wall.

Producing 30–50 unique ad concepts a month isn’t hard because of ideas, it’s hard because of infrastructure. Scaling now depends less on one breakthrough ad and more on building a system that can generate dozens of breakthrough opportunities every month.

At Ready Set, brands we work with that are scaling fastest aren’t “getting lucky” with creative. 

They’ve operationalized production. An assembly line of ideation, testing, feedback, and iteration. By thinking in systems instead of one-offs, they keep pace with Andromeda’s appetite and avoid the stagnation that comes from running the same ideas too long.

“But even with 30–50 unique ad concepts, Meta still funnels most spend through a handful. Why bother with the rest?”

The answer: it’s not about equal distribution.

The algorithm’s job isn’t to give every ad equal spend, it’s to rapidly test, identify winners, and concentrate delivery into what performs best.

Your job is to make sure it always has new contenders to choose from.

So while only a couple receive the lion’s share of spend, the other 25+ concepts are not failures; they are the engine of exploration.

By continuously introducing different concepts, you give the algorithm the raw material it needs to expand its reach. If you only feed it iterations of existing winners, you cap performance before it even begins.

Your Questions, Answered

Q: How do lean teams with smaller budgets compete in this era?

While we’re still exploring this ourselves (most of our clients spend $100K+/month) our advice is to focus on static ads versus video. Diversification can still happen at the static level, and learnings can eventually be replicated in video formats.

Q: Hasn’t creative diversity always been important?

Yes, but Andromeda fundamentally changed how the algorithm uses creative signals. In the past, you could scale with targeting optimization. Now, creative is the primary lever for finding new audiences. The requirements have simply evolved.

Q: What if my best-performing concepts are all similar? Should I kill them?

No. Keep iterating on what works, but don’t let them be your only input. The goal is balance: keep feeding proven winners and keep introducing new, different concepts to expand your reach.

The Bottom Line

The 10K Rule is not theory, it’s the new physics of Meta advertising. The Andromeda era rewards preparation, process, and creative diversity at scale.

The brands that win don’t just have one great ad; they have the best creative system.

AD OF THE WEEK ✨ 

Just like our dancing skeleton, this week’s ad from DoorDash hits all the right moves. It turns a simple recruitment message into a high-converting "spooktacular" spectacle.

Brand: DoorDash
Length: 10 seconds
Platform: TikTok

WHY IT WORKS 🧠

👻 Right message at the right time: The window for seasonal ads is short. Like kids maximizing their candy haul, you gotta move quick to capitalize.

🌟 Platform-perfect: By employing native TikTok elements (POV format, trending dance moves, dynamic camera work) it fits right into the FYP.

🎯 Keep it simple: This ad delivers the entire value proposition (sign up → deliver → earn) in just 10 seconds through a simple, sequential story arc.

Don't overlook the impact of seasonal ads. Just like the big days themselves, they're fleeting—but they also present an opportunity for outsized gains with the right creative strategy and perfect timing.

Thanks for reading!

That’s all for this week. Seeya next time 🫶