This AI ad funnel is driving $11M/month in spend (and it’s not Meta)

I was browsing through VidTao the other day and found something that caught my attention.

There's a company that spent an estimated $11M a month on YouTube Ads.

Now, if you look at most big companies, their main traffic source is usually Facebook.

But for this brand, YouTube is their #1 acquisition channel.

This got me curious, so I started digging into their funnel to see what they were doing.

In October, they ran around 500 ads, and almost every single one was AI-generated

Their top ad launched just over 2 months ago and has already spent an estimated $1M.

There are 3 things I want to unpack here because I think they're worth paying attention to.

First, this isn’t just proof that AI-generated ads can work…

It’s proof that they’re already working really well.

When I looked at their ads, one thing stood out to me:

The viewers don’t care that it’s AI.

They openly stated in the video that it was AI-generated.

And yet, it still drove an insane amount of traffic and converted them into customers.

A lot of people argue that audiences get turned off when they realize a video is AI-generated.

There's probably some truth to that. No one likes to watch AI slop.

But this brand is the perfect example that you can scale with AI ads… even when people know it’s AI.

Beyond that...

I keep hearing people say that AI creatives don't look realistic or that human-made videos are still better.

I'll agree that the technology isn't perfect yet.

But this is the ugliest, most unrealistic that it’ll ever look.

Every few months, the gap between human and AI videos gets smaller.

Soon, you won’t be able to tell the difference.

As I mentioned, this brand was testing an insane volume of creatives, which would be almost impossible to pull off without AI

Or at the very least, you’d need months and multiple six figures to produce that many variations.

This is why we've recently made several hires to build out our AI creative team.

The goal is to pump out high-quality AI ads at scale.

Because in my opinion, this is the only way to win in eCommerce over the next few years.

Soon, everyone will be splitting out 30 ads a day.

So if you’re still spending weeks on briefs, revisions, approvals, and “alignment” calls with your creative team… you’re going to fall behind.

I’m sure that there’ll still be a place for human creatives. A good ad will convert regardless of how it’s made.

But I’m also sure that brands that know how to make profitable AI ads will have a massive advantage.

Now onto the second point…

When I looked into their funnel, I saw they were pushing all their traffic to a dedicated quiz funnel.

This is a strategy that has been working well for our clients as well.

We scaled this subscription brand from $10k/week to $10k+/day in spend within 3 months.

This wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t figured out how to hit cold audiences at scale while still keeping KPIs tight.

And that unlock for us was YouTube Ads paired with a quiz funnel that our landing page team built.

This brings me to the final point…

When people think about reaching cold audiences, Facebook is always the go-to platform.

But for this brand, which is doing multiple eight figures a month, YouTube has become the main growth driver.

I’ve been saying this for years now… YouTube is one of the most overlooked acquisition channels right now.

It gives you one of the most effective ways to pull new customers into Google’s ecosystem.

One that can scale your brand far beyond what’s possible without it.

In the past few years, it has been a core part of our scaling stack, driving 6, 7 figures in direct revenue for our clients.

When done right, it can deliver massive volume and scale (in this case, even more than Meta).

The great thing about YouTube is that very few brands have figured it out.

Which leaves a massive edge for those who do.

So if you want our help to crack this channel, we’re opening up some free strategy sessions.

Happy to take a look at your Google Ads setup… and if you're a good fit, walk you through exactly how to implement this in your business.

Grab a spot with us here.

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

How we can help:

Get a free Google ads audit: For brands spending more than $20k/mo. or making over 1 million annually, we’ll identify the key bottlenecks in your account, and turn it into a free 90-day scaling plan. Click here.

P.S. Got a friend interested in Google ads? Share the love and send them our way.

If you’re that awesome friend, you can subscribe here.