- Lara Acosta
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- I spent $20k on ads this month (here's why I'm never doing it again)
I spent $20k on ads this month (here's why I'm never doing it again)
Lara Acosta
November 07, 2025
I’m about to get unapologetically candid and honest with you my friends.
Over the last 3 years some of you have followed my journey closely, and by now you’d know that I’m a fan of trying new things.
(In an extremely calculated and safe way of course).
And I’ve been hearing about ads for years now, but I never went in on them because I just didn’t have the budget.
I’ve heard business owners spend $1M+ on ads and make $347 billion in return..
I’ve been in masterminds where the founders swear by ads.
And honestly my unsatiable need to become a jack of all trades got to me.
So I tried them, and said “fuck it” ship whatever is necessary.
We ran ads to my 3-day webinar where I announced my new programme The Known Club in partnership with Shan Hanif who’s worked with Iman Gadzhi and co-founded my favorite drink Neutonic which I later became an investor of.
We landed 9,000 new leads and attendees for the webinar.
Around 4,000 people attended the first one.
It was fantastic. A dream come true.
But, there was a problem I didn’t account for.
This was COLD traffic.
And look, my friend the very reason why I built a personal brand was to never deal with the problem we just faced.
Having to convince people to listen to me and then trust me to buy.
I don’t have a lambo.
I haven’t sold a business.
I haven’t got 3 miami penthouses
Which often, is what truly helps in cold webinars, I’ve binge watched many of them.
And so, that 9k attendee list became a strong reminder on why building a personal brand organically will always outperform ads.
Because in the webinars with 200 people I’ve made 100,000 USD.
This 3-day series allowed us to do a similar number, but the ground work was 10x higher.
So what is my point here?
That you don’t need to do ads when you have a bullet proof personal brand built on trust and expertise.
You don’t need to rely on objective and material assets to show wealth and success.
I never had to. Never been compelled to. But I get WHY people do it now more than ever.
It’s like a cheat code to buy trust from cold traffic.
But take it from me, building a personal brand on Linkedin with 10,000 followers can make you 40k in one week.
I’ve seen people like my student Thea who’s done exactly that.
No Ads. No rolex. Not even a 3 day webinar.
Just personal brand, good educational content and a killer offer we designed together.
Today, more than ever, I’m all in on personal brand.
I'm going back to no ads, ever again lol.
It was a good test, and I’ve learned so much from it, which is something I can now teach about in the future.
This is partly why I expose myself to such trials and tribulations - to acquire knowledge to help you make the best decisions.
Rather than guide you blindly with no real stakes.
You don’t need ads to sell. The gurus promoting it burnt out their audiences, pushing shit offers and have no credibility.
I refuse to become one of them.
Build a business you’re proud of.
Build credibility through your intellect.
Get insane results for clients you can share as proof.
Repeat, weekly.
This was a well-deserved lesson for me.
Because if you never try, you never know.
And now we all know, it’s better to be known through a personal brand that positions you immediately not ads.
That’s literally it kings and queens, thank you if you tuned in to the webinars and have read the emails I sent out during this launch.
We’re closing enrollment in 24hrs, so if you’re curious about it check it out here
Here are 3 good reads and watches for you this weekend..
Let me know if you liked any of the above and your thoughts!
Love you SO much!
Now, I got to go get ready for 4 weeks of intense coaching on all of the above topics lol.