Apex Ad Systems
The engine.
How it works ↓
The method, built as 1 engine. Every part you see is a part of the method, with the same number. It runs on the method’s made-up business, so every number on it is made up. Real clients are in the cases, by where they broke, some with their own numbers.
How to read the paper
- Across: money spent.
- Up: 1 step for each new customer.
- The heavy dashed line: the most a new customer may cost. Above it on the paper, each one costs less than the line.
Chapter 1
Before it runs.
Nothing is built until it’s read, and nothing runs until the line is drawn.
The method, part 4
The read.
Read before anything is built: the account as it stands, your numbers against your words, the market, and Meta’s rules for your business. On the engine, 4 sight glasses on the tank.
Part 4 →The method, part 7
The offer.
What everything else turns on: 2 or 3 ways to sell it, each held against the target, before any ad idea. On the engine, the mainspring, wound once.
Part 7 →The method, part 20
The most a new customer may cost.
Decided before the launch: $390 here, the heavy line, with 3 more beside it to read against. You don’t argue with it afterwards. On the engine, 4 lines printed on the paper before it goes in.
Part 20 →The method, part 5
Getting to Point A.
Before the launch: today counted, the target dated, the money approved to last to the first reading. A is where you can read it: the wiring live, the learning settled, the gauge reading. On the engine, the fuel tank and its lock, and the A on the paper, where the reading starts.
Part 5 →The method, part 14
The step before Meta’s AI.
Whoever writes it steers Meta’s machine: the objective, what a customer is worth, the offer and the brand. On the engine, the card you hand it.
Part 14 →Chapter 2
It runs.
What goes out, what comes back, and what Meta learns on.
The method, part 8
The 1 thing.
1 idea in every ad, however different the ads look, for longer than feels comfortable. On the engine, the cam: its shape is the idea, and the shape doesn’t change.
Part 8 →The method, parts 9 to 12
The ad, the page, the reply, the follow-up.
4 pieces that tell 1 story, so they work as 1. On the engine, 4 wheels on 1 arbor, their marks lined up.
Part 9 →The method, part 2
The idea.
1 idea, carried all the way to the market. On the engine, the clicks out of the horn, in 1 beam.
Part 2 →The method, section IV
Meta’s machine.
You don’t build it. You feed it: the ads, the card, the signal and your data. On the engine, it’s the motor behind the plate, in dotted lines, running steady.
Section IV →The method, part 11
The reply.
Every lead answered fast, none left waiting. On the engine, leads come back like echoes, and the catch in the jaw takes each one the moment it lands.
Part 11 →The method, part 12
The follow-up.
Timed to how long your buyers really take, not to your patience. On the engine, the slow track from the catch to the register.
Part 12 →The method, part 15
The wiring.
The same events from your page and your server, counted once. On the engine, 1 line from the catch back to Meta’s machine.
Part 15 →The method, part 17
The event it learns on.
Meta learns on the event you pick. Pick the one with the volume: here, leads, with new customers counted on the side. Switch to new customers only with enough of them a week, and the learning starts over. On the engine, the valve on the line, held on leads, and 10 pips counting them to 50, a readable count (part 6).
Part 17 →The method, part 16
Your own data.
Yours, kept in your own systems with your lock on it: Meta gets from it only what you send. On the engine, the reservoir in the 2nd fluke.
Part 16 →Chapter 3
It reads.
1 number, read on your books, never on the dashboard.
The method, part 18
What a new customer really costs.
Read from your own books, not the ad platform’s count. On the engine, the recorder: money moves the pen across, each new customer moves it up 1 step, and the steeper it climbs, the less each one costs.
Part 18 →The method, part 19
Who’s new.
1 mark for each new customer, counted from your own books by 1 definition of new, used everywhere. On the engine, the register behind the white patch.
Part 19 →The method, part 21
Reading it honestly.
By channel is always an estimate, so the channels are never added up. On the engine, 1 gauge per channel, never added up, and they read nothing until the count is big enough to read.
Part 21 →The method, part 22
The tools, and the sheet.
Read the line where it is, not where you hope it is. In the method, a sheet of 7 steps to fill in. On the engine, the magnifier on its arm.
Part 22 →The method, part 6
Point B.
A reading, not a date: the decision comes at a count. Here, by part 20’s rule, at about 24 new customers: the first count where even its worst case sits under $650, where the year loses money. On the engine, the perforation on the paper; inside the shaded wedge, nothing can be told yet.
Part 6 →Chapter 4
It changes.
Not on a schedule. When the numbers say so.
The method, part 13
Live, then deliberately boring.
Change only when the reading earns it, with 1 reason and 1 date, and new pieces go in together. On the engine, the eye ticks all the time and lets nothing through until then; then the drum steps once, and the key hangs a tag.
Part 13 →The method, part 25
Who runs it.
A director, a pod and the engine, beside your own team. On the engine, the plate around all of it: ORCAS. Engraved along its back, the engine’s name: Apex Ad Systems.
Part 25 →The film
Watch it run.
About a minute, with sound.
- 0:06The method, built as 1 engine.
- 0:10Part 8: 1 idea in every ad, every turn.
- 0:16Parts 9 to 12: the ad, the page, the reply, the follow-up, as 1.
- 0:21Part 11: every lead caught the moment it lands.
- 0:27Parts 18 and 20: money across, new customers up.
- 0:33Point B: at 24 new customers, the reading answers.
- 0:37Part 13: then it changes once.
- 0:41The sheet tears, the next roll seats, it runs again.
- 0:48Part 25: a director, a pod and the engine: ORCAS.
Then
The sheet tears, the next roll seats, and it runs again.
That’s the method, running. Every part of it is written down, checked and dated, and it’s free.
Read the method