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Cory Dobbin Profile
Cory Dobbin

@CoryDobbin

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802
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CEO @ one of the best ad agencies in the world 👉 @shoelace . Newsletter:

🇨🇦 Toronto
Joined January 2020
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 months
I’ve had a lot of new followers on here recently, so I figured I’d reintroduce myself. Hey there! 👋 I’m Cory. CEO of @shoelace , where I am working to build one of the best ad agencies in the world with an incredibly talented team. I'm a life-long marketing hobbyist, obsessed
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
Digital ad agency nomad gurus be like: "I'm just here relaxing in Bora Bora and I made $16,000 today by working only two hours. Just transfer me $16,000 today and I will teach you how to dropship AliExpress bracelets."
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
@david_perell Imagine suggesting that Jerry Seinfeld should talk to McKinsey about 'building a comedy writing model'. My God lmao.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Let’s talk Facebook Automation & Rules I've been seeing a lot of uncertainty about how to use rules on Facebook Ads Manager lately, so I've decided to put together a list of my personal favourites. I’ve even given them cool names (a thread👇) 1/14
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
Ever wonder how much the big SaaS brands are spending on advertising as a percentage of revenue? Meritech Capital has some data: Monday: 69% Asana: 68% HubSpot: 45% BigCommerce: 44% Sprout Social: 40% Salesforce: 39% Squarespace: 36% Wix: 32% Adobe: 27% Zoom: 26% Shopify: 21%
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Facebook just shared their new recommended marketing funnel for increasing ROAS on Facebook Ads. Check it out below 👇
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
8 months
New whip. = secured. Unforeseen: it matches my dog. How sick is that.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Your customers before and after iOS14.5
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
Last week I wrapped up a month long, $40,000 test to determine which bidding modifier worked best at scale in top of funnel on FB Ads Manager. I tested Lowest Cost vs Bid Cap vs Cost Cap. Would anyone be interested in seeing the results? 📈
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
When is @Meta going to give Marketing Partner agencies the option to turn off 'Marketing Experts' hounding clients day and night about how performance could be better? What's the point in being a Business Partner if Meta is actively sabotaging my client relationships?
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Life update: I am incredibly excited to announce that I have officially stepped up as CEO of @shoelace . Since joining Shoelace, we have worked hard to revamp what Shoelace is and are very optimistic about our future. For those unfamiliar with Shoelace, here's a rundown 👇
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Facebook Ads Manager's optimizations are changing. You will soon only have 6 options to choose from: ☑️ Awareness ☑️ Traffic ☑️ Engagement ☑️ Leads ☑️ App Promotion ☑️ Sales Expect to see blank fields in your dashboard when this change happens as they won't be combining data.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 months
99% of the gurus you see on X are lying about every single thing. Do people not realize how hard it is to build an 8+ figure business? Do we really think these people have done it but are selling you all the secrets? 2024 is the year of critical thinking and guru extinction.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 months
Tell me I'm wrong.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
🚨 Alright, some more personal news! I'm super pumped to officially announce that I will be joining @shoelace as their Chief Strategy Officer 🔥 Ive always admired Shoelace, and its an honour to be joining this incredible team. 🚀
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Seeing a very common, troubling theme on Facebook lately. The big spender accounts are thriving, and the small accounts are suffering. Less data per dollar to optimize from = poorer performance, creating another barrier to entry. iOS14 is bad for small businesses.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
I just wrapped up a month-long, $40,000 test on Facebook Ads Manager to determine which bidding modifier worked best in top of funnel at scale. Details and results below: (1/14)
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
This probably seems like a small, silly thing, but I'm proud of myself. It's not this alone that's impressive, but life at large. I never in a million years thought I'd get to go to post-secondary, let alone achieve what I have. Started on welfare with no food, now we here.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
My FB rep just informed me of a new, API based product that is showing some strong results so far. It's called Ad Set Based Lookalikes (ABC LALs). It creates new LALs off your best performing Ad Sets in real time with data from the API. Will be testing this out for myself soon.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
I have officially received confirmation from someone at Meta that the recent wave of disabled pages/accounts and disapproved appeals is, in fact, a bug that they are working on. Confirmation is a big first step. You're not alone, and hopefully, we see a resolution soon.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
What has the biggest impact on profit: A 10% increase in price, a 10% reduction of COGS, or a 10% increase in sales volume? The math says there is only one right answer... 👇 P.S. The answer might reveal that you're running promotions wrong 😬
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Nothing to see here, folks. Modeled data is working just fine.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
I've seen ad accounts crash and burn after discovering successful winning ads. How? Moving the ads to another campaign/ad set after they've started winning. Here's why it happens and 3 things you can do to avoid it 👇
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
9 months
@jen_keesmaat Monetarily, the largest known scandal in Canadian history, preying on the precarious housing situation, and still Ford walks free. #jailford
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Today I hit 4,000 followers on Twitter. This might seem meaningless, but it still blows my mind. I started this account strictly for sharing marketing ideas, and 4,000 total strangers (some I now call good friends) care, to some degree, about what I have to say. Thank you ❤️
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
11 months
@damccormick13 @chamath The number of people replying completely seriously to this is astounding
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
DTC Twitter is phenomenal, honestly. In the past ~1 year that I've been on Twitter I've made so many new friends and meaningful connections. Not only that, I've had the pleasure of meeting some of you face to face. I'd love to do more of that. Who am I meeting next?!
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Inspired by @dtcmag 's list, I am proud to share with you Cory's 50+ Most Interesting DTC Marketers On Twitter! Follow every single one of these people and thank me later. This is not a comprehensive list. I also missed 100+ other greats. In no particular order👇
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
What Shopify apps can you not live without? Upsells, post-purchase, reviews, fulfillment, you name it, I want to hear it.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
Some news on FB's Conversions API: Because this is server to server, it allows us to gather data even if the user is running an ad blocker. Also, it will be integrated with Shopify by month's end as a simple toggle on their pixel page instead of having to be coded.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Marketing gurus be like: "Look what I can do, and so can you for just $5k/month" Marketing gurus don't be like: "Context is important"
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
I was thinking yesterday that despite advertising being so hard on all of us right now, we are still profoundly blessed to be working in marketing. So many other industries have completely collapsed, mass unemployment etc. As long as we adapt, we will be fine. Practice gratitude.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
12 followers away from hitting 5,000. Help me reach this incredible milestone by retweeting this. In exchange, some value for you: The new Performance Max campaign type on Google Ads is crushing it for my eComm clients. Over 6x ROAS on one account. Write up on how coming soon 🔥
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
The 'we do things differently' ad agency you just hired
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
If someone uses a semi-colon, they're using Grammarly. There are probably 5 living humans who know how they're correctly used.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Lost a client recently because a Meta Marketing Expert™ reached out to a client offering to build them campaigns "for free". To someone unfamiliar with paid social this probably sounded like a great deal. Basically, nothing new here. @MetaforBusiness still hates agencies.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
I love data
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
Let's talk CCPA. I had a conversation with my team at Facebook about their thoughts, and while they aren't legally allowed to tell us what to do, I was able to gather some important information for everyone. More details below: 1/12
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Sometimes a simple mistake can cost you thousands of dollars. After auditing many ad accounts, I've put together my thoughts on this. Here are 5 simple mistakes to avoid on Facebook Ads Manager 👇
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
If you're dealing with bad imposter syndrome, just remember one thing: Almost everyone you look up to is on Adderall.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
What companies have the best Facebook Ads? Bonus points for Ads Library links ❤️
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
The cold hard truth is that there is no universal truth in advertising. Never trust a strategy that is told in absolutes. CBO, ABO, LAL, Broad, DCT, whatever - none of these will absolutely work in every account. Test it for yourself, and lean into what works for you. Happy Q4.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Optimizing Facebook Ads right now is hard. The data we usually optimize from is skewed, so it's hard to make educated decisions. Worse, we have modelled data in our dashboards, which can make it even more confusing. Well, I have a method that might help make this easier. 1/5
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
I've been running a test on FB Ads where we put our best-performing campaign against an identical version that uses keywords in the ad name and file name, and the results are dramatic 👀 Breakdown and results thread coming soon
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Woke up to a little redecoration in my office today by my wife 🔥 One year older, debatably one year wiser.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
It looks like @Meta has sent out new terms for self-serve Ads Manager accounts, and there are some huge red flags in here. Highlights in a thread 👇 S/O @jaketheadnerd for sharing this.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
| ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄| Goodbye ROAS Hello MER |______________| \ (•◡•) / \ / —— | | |_ |_
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
The new @shoelace swag has been secured. Who wants a care package?!
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Spending more makes your ads more expensive. As you increase spend, ad platforms have to stray from your ideal segment. The larger the budget, the larger the required audience, therefore the further you move from high purchase intent audiences, which drives up costs (CPA, etc).
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
I am excited to announce that I have made it into the Forbes' 420 Under 69.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
Facebook's new(ish) ABC Lookalike audiences are 🔥 Over the last 30 days, I spent ~$120,000 testing the new ABC Lookalike audiences in partnership with FB, and the performance coming out of them was solid. Results below: 1/13
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
6 months
From my wife, who isn't in marketing and likes to shop. Jot that down for your next sale.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Meta's lead ads are incredibly powerful and allow users to submit a lead without even leaving Facebook; plus, pre-populated with their contact information from their Facebook profile. You're missing out if you're running lead ads without Meta's dedicated lead ads structure!
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Step 1 - Whistleblower comes out against Facebook Step 2 - Facebook's stock starts crashing Step 3 - Facebook's entire network goes down Step 4 - ??? Nothing to see here folks, carry on.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
I just had a Facebook rep tell a client on a call that they need to increase their Add To Cart retargeting budget to $1,600/day for learnings (despite there being only 500 people in this audience), and if the audience isn't big enough layer in a Lookalike Audience😂😷
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
My place is so zen 💤
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
One of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is assuming that good marketing will make a bad product sell. If you create a product built to solve a problem it will sells itself, and good marketing can help spread it like wildfire. Marketing is kerosene, not a bandaid.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Here's something hugely disappointing about GA4 that most people aren't talking about: They are removing the ability to report on crucial UTM parameters, which directly affects our ability to monitor performance. Notably, they are removing content and term UTMs.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Damn that's crazy how did it know🤪
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
My go-to prospecting campaign structure lately: 1 - Creative testing campaign 2 - Creative winners campaign 3 - Creative winners page post engagement boost campaign These three play very nicely with one another + help feed MOFU audiences along the way.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
10 months
Is anyone else just so sick of it all? The noise, the bickering, the hot takes, the agendas, everything. Sometimes this industry is so exhausting. Do good work, support one another, and be a good person. That's all that matters.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 months
I said 2024 was the year of Shoelace, and I wasnt joking 👀 Super pumped to announce that @cmikulin has joined the team as our CSO. Together we will make Shoelace one of the greatest agencies in the space. Brands: If you need help growing, now is a great time to get started 🚀
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
An iOS14 thought experiment: Big. Scary. iOS14. You're probably thinking "this is all too much info, just tell me WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!". Well, here's a roundabout approach to getting (slightly) more "accurate" data in FB after iOS14 (a step by step guide) 👇 1/9
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
Does every lead generation company share the same scripts?
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
It's been a while, so I figured I'd share with you what's working for me in TOFU on FB Ads lately: Interest-based Audiences ✅Highest ROAS ✅Highest Quality Clicks Broad Audiences ✅ Good ROAS ✅ Great scalability Lookalike Audiences ✖️Lowest ROAS ✖️Low Quality Clicks
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
Nailed it.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
Where are all the people that were putting @triplewhale on blast last year for their lack of female representation? TW have clearly put effort into doing the right thing here, so what's with the radio silence? Do we just prefer negativity? S/O TW, this is how it's done 🙌
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
5 months
Alright, folks 🚨 THE 69U69 AWARDS. ARE. HERE. 🚨 A huge thank you to everyone who participated and donated, but it's not over yet! This is just part 1, featuring the first 40 awards. The remaining 29 are coming tomorrow. That means more time to donate! Let's do this 👇 First,
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
@playlostark "Please communicate with your play group to coordinate which server will work for everyone." Okay my friends who preordered communicated to me what server they're on but you aren't letting any of their non-preorder friends join. What now?
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
11 months
It's unbelievable what we have to do these days just to get people to watch our ads.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
8 months
The Meta Performance Marketing Roadshow just happened here in Toronto, where they shared this 'Performance 5' scorecard for you to use in your accounts.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 months
Creating a good ad? Easy. Creating a great one? Hard. To make your brand unforgettable, you have to stand out. And the secret lies in crafting memorable marketing assets. For example, here's a fantastic example from Eskom. Let's break down exactly how to do it for your brand 👇
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Alright, guys... I hate gurus too, but what's with all the complaining about people sharing their knowledge, insights, threads, etc., lately? When did free education become annoying? Just because most of us are already experienced in this stuff, it doesn't mean that everyone is.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
⚠️ Some bittersweet personal news: Yesterday was my last official day with @weareboomn . This past year working with them was incredible. I learned a lot and am deeply appreciative for the experience. Next, some personal time followed by something new, to be announced soon 👀👟
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
Hey! My name is Cory, and I am here to share insights from my experiences as a DTC advertiser. Here's a thread of some tests I've run to give you an idea of what's to come. I'm looking forward to connecting 🙌
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Super excited to announce that I've officially joined @boomnagency as their VP of Brand Strategy. I'm feeling very blessed to be able to work with such an amazing team, and I can't wait to see how much rocket fuel we're able to pump into this 🚀
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
First day launching @shoelace into the stratosphere starts now 💪🚀
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
This is amazing — Google just dropped their own ad creation and management software and it's available now here: . Super stoked to test this out!
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Day 1 of being CEO: Food poisoning from celebratory dinner.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
I am officially 30 years old 👴 Today I am feeling incredibly grateful for where I am in life at the time of this milestone, and I can't help but feel that my network of fellow professionals and friends has helped in a real way. Shoutout to all of you, DTC Twitter deserves it 🙌
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
In 2022 I managed nearly $100MM in ad spend. Here are the five most common mistakes I see companies making: 👇
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Two years ago, I wrote a Facebook Media Buying Mastercourse that was ~40 pages long and as comprehensive as I could possibly make it. I decided not to release it because there were too many gurus selling bad info products at the time. Should I update it and drop it for free?
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 months
My wife officially became a Canadian Citizen today, so naturally that means mid day mimosas!
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
The Facebook gods have answered our prayers: You can now use existing story posts as story placement ads. Note that you can't use existing stories with emojis, GIFs, or stickers, and they cannot be used for carousel ads. Either way, this is a great start!
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
I wrapped up phase one of the Branded Content test on FB. In this test, I ran an influencer's content piece as Branded Content versus the same piece of creative run from our own account. Details below: 1/8
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Your Meta "reps" are not real Meta employees. If you want proof, read the fine print. These are third-party, contracted, entry-level salespeople. They are far removed from ad buying strategy and are often outright wrong. Trust your own agency/team, not these salespeople.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
(for now)
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
I know that this is fairly meaningless, but I just hit 3k followers and it is mindblowing to me that so many people care about what I have to say. DTCTwitter has been invaluable to me and I appreciate every single one of you. Happy Saturday!
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
Share this with your friends & family.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 months
January was a mind-blowing month for Shoelace. We smashed all records, surpassing our previous best by nearly 100%. Curious about how we pulled it off? It's all thanks to our amazing clients. Let me break it down for you 👇
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
When you wake up to 7 missed calls from a Facebook Marketing Expert™ attempting to fix your "poor performing" ad campaigns.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
A breakdown of Coinbase's Super Bowl Ad: Cost: ~$13MM ad slot + $3MM jackpot prize + $15/sign ups @ assumed minimum 1% CVR = $19MM Impressions: ~112.3MM Traffic: ~20MM people CPM: $169.19😐 Cost per click: $0.95 CTR: 18%😍 CPA: $95
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
@noahkagan "strongly agree!" - People who are using Slack incorrectly and setting poor expectations from team members. Been at companies with and without and I am a huge Slack stan if you use it right. Not to mention it's a great culture-building tool for remote businesses.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
I know this isn't a big number compared to others but I'm stoked. My newsletter frequency is low because I only write when I have value to share. It hurts my growth but it's important to me. The fact that 2k people want to hear what I have to say is crazy to me. Thank you all ♥️
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
4 years
Today for a client I created 210 ads across 3 accounts for a big sale campaign. 210 of those ads later showed random, old image assets instead of the sale image assets I uploaded to them. After fixing them, 210 didn't update, and I am doing it all over, again. Pray 4 me ~
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
1 year
Tell me this is wrong
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
3 years
@jackbutcher Took me too long to watch it, but Mr. Robot is certainly a top contender after finally finishing it. What an absolute masterpiece that finale was.
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
Not sure how to write a script for your video ads? I've coined a new script format for your creative: A PASTA Attention (Thumbstop) Problem (What is it?) Agitate (Why the problem is bad) Solution (Product & how it fixes the problem) Testimonials (For credibility) Action (CTA)
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
The absolute state of my DMs
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@CoryDobbin
Cory Dobbin
2 years
The other day I dropped a newsletter highlighting a 5 step process for auditing performance on your Facebook ads manager account, and how to optimize it. Here's the summary 👇 1/24 (strap in!)
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