A founder just told me “I hit $5.2 million last year and can’t figure out why growth has stopped.”

He went on “Our Meta campaigns are still running. CPA looked fine on the reporting. But revenue just… flatlined.” I stepped in to help and it only took us three hours to see what was actually happening. Frequency hit 11.

They were showing the same ad to the same 50,000 people over and over. CPMs doubled. New customer acquisition dropped 60%. They’d found every person interested in eco-friendly water bottles on Instagram.

Now they were just annoying them. The CMO kept saying “we need better creative.” They kept approving bigger budgets. Nothing moved. When our agency asked a simple question: “Where else do your customers spend time online?” I could see the wheels turning. We tested Snapchat with the same creative that crushed on TikTok.

Within two weeks, we were reaching 100,000 new people they’d never touched. CPA dropped back to where it was 18 months ago.

Not because the creative was better. Because these people had never seen it before! Eight months later, they crossed $7 million. Same products. Same core message. Just stopped trying to squeeze more from a tapped-out audience.

The wall wasn’t a ceiling. It was a brand standing in the same room wondering why it felt crowded. Most brands stuck at $5M aren’t facing a strategy problem.

They’re facing an audience exhaustion problem. Your best customers already bought from you.

Go find the next group who doesn’t know you exist yet.