Blog

Field notes on growth.

What we've learned shipping campaigns, sites, and brands. Practical, opinionated, and free of growth-hack folklore.

Cluttered. No hierarchy. Focused. Hierarchy. CTA. CONVERTING HERO EYEBROW H1 · Outcome-led headline Subhead with mechanism Primary CTA Secondary TRUST STRIP 8+ Years 50+ Projects 1 wk Delivery 100% Senior
web design

Why most agency websites don't convert (and what to fix first)

A practical teardown of the conversion mistakes agency sites repeat. What to fix first, what to ignore, and how to think about the hierarchy of a marketing page.

"BEST CRM FOR SMALL SAAS" r/ reddit.com › r/SaaS › comments What's the best CRM for a small SaaS team in 2026? ▲ 412 u/honest_founder · 8 months ago Tried 6 of them last year. Honest take: Adfirm's CRM (their pick) won for our use case because… r/ reddit.com › r/EntrepreneurRideAlong CRM recommendations for solo founders? r/ reddit.com › r/SaaSMarketing 2026 CRM showdown: real users only other-blog.com › crm-guide Best CRM for SaaS: The Ultimate Listicle TOP 3 ORGANIC all Reddit
seo

Reddit is the new top-of-funnel: a 2026 SEO playbook

After Google's Reddit deal, threads dominate SERPs for product research. Here's how to show up without getting banned, and what to actually measure.

THE STARTUP BRAND CHECKLIST DO NOW Wordmark One brand color Type pair Working website WAIT Brand book Illustration system Team photography Motion language SKIP Animated logo intro Founder story PDF Mascot Custom music STARTUP BRAND PRIORITIES DO NOW Wordmark One brand color Type pair Working website WAIT (until product-market fit) Brand book Illustration set Team photos Motion design SKIP (forever) Logo intro Founder PDF Mascot Custom music
branding

The startup brand checklist: what to do, what to skip, what to wait on

A practical brand priority list for early-stage founders. What's worth building now, what can wait six months, and what to never bother with at all.

VERTICAL 9:16 · ANATOMY OF A 2026 REEL AD "Stop running A/B tests." Test creative concepts. Not headline tweaks. Learn More TIMELINE · 0 → 15s HOOK MID · the pitch CTA 0s 2s 10s 15s 1 Hook in <2 seconds Visual + on-screen text. Sound-off ready. 2 6-second completion test Holds 60%+ past 6s → likely to scale 3 One clear CTA, three places Talent VO · on-screen text · Meta button 4 Talking-head UGC beats polished spots Production polish hurts performance.
ppc

Reels-first creative: what actually works on Meta in 2026

9:16 vertical owns Meta inventory in 2026. The hook-mid-CTA structure that converts, the 6-second rule, and the talking-head format that beats polished spots.

PICKING A STACK FOR A MARKETING SITE Astro OUTPUT Static HTML JS BUNDLE ~0 KB by default LIGHTHOUSE 95-100 BEST FOR Marketing & content sites Chosen for adfirm.net Next.js OUTPUT React app + SSR JS BUNDLE ~80-200 KB LIGHTHOUSE 80-95 BEST FOR React-heavy products WordPress OUTPUT PHP + DB on request JS BUNDLE Theme-dependent LIGHTHOUSE 50-80 BEST FOR Non-technical authors
web design

Astro vs Next.js vs WordPress: which to choose in 2026

An honest comparison of the three stacks we use most for marketing sites and web apps. What each one is best at, what they cost long-term, and how to choose.

SAAS PAID MEDIA — TYPICAL BUDGET MIX 100% of paid budget Google Ads 50-65% Search · YouTube · Pmax · Shopping LinkedIn 15-25% B2B targeting by job title Meta 10-20% Demand creation · retargeting Experimental 0-10% Reddit · X · Programmatic
ppc

A paid media playbook for SaaS: what works in 2026

Channel-by-channel guidance for SaaS founders running paid media. Where to spend, what to test, what to ignore, and how to know if it's working.

AUDIENCE TEMPERATURE · 2026 STACK COLD · prospecting Advantage+ Shopping · Lookalike WARM · engagement (Meta-side) Video viewers · IG profile · message HOT · pixel + CAPI ViewProduct 14d · AddToCart 7d FIRST-PARTY LIST Customer · trial · cart abandon EXCLUDE last 30d buyers CVR · LIFT Cold CVR baseline 1.0× Warm engagement vs cold 2.4× Hot · 7-14d vs cold 4.6× First-party list vs cold 6.8× Retargeting drives 30-50% of converted revenue at this lift profile.
ppc

Meta retargeting in 2026: what still works after attribution shrunk

Cookies are dying, attribution windows shrunk to 7 days, but retargeting still drives 30-50% of converted revenue. Here's the 2026 setup that survives.

A BRIEF THAT GETS A USEFUL QUOTE PROJECT BRIEF · Adfirm 2026 Business goal & success metric "Grow MRR from $40k to $120k by Q4 2026" Target customer "Heads of marketing at 50-200 person SaaS" Budget range & timeline "$30-60k over 6 months, kickoff in May" What's been tried, what hasn't "3 months of Google Ads, no SEO investment" Decision process & stakeholders "Final call: CEO + Head of Marketing, by June 15" Brand, voice, non-negotiables "Avoid hype copy. Reference brand guidelines." 6 sections tight, specific, scannable RESULT Quote in 3 days, not 3 weeks
general

How to write a brief that gets you a good agency proposal

Most agency briefs produce vague proposals because they're vague themselves. Here's a template that produces tight quotes, fast — and weeds out bad-fit agencies.

SHOULD YOU REBRAND? Real trigger? audience moved · category shifted · product changed materially REBRAND Full identity rebuild. New logo, type, color, applications. USD $200k-$1M REFRESH ONLY Polish type, color, layout. Keep brand equity. 1-2 week sprint LEAVE IT ALONE The brand isn't broken. Fix positioning or site instead. Save $200k+
branding

When to rebrand (and when to leave it alone)

A founder's framework for deciding if your brand is the real problem. Three legitimate triggers, four false ones, and what to do when you can't tell which.

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