Podcast

Why Most Business Owners Waste 20% Of Their Ad Spend | ft. Jason Le

Chloe sits down with Jason Le, founder of JRNY Digital, who has managed more than $40 million in ad spend across 200 businesses, on where that spend actually leaks and how to catch it before it compounds.

Roughly 20 to 30 percent of every dollar spent on advertising in a typical small business account is wasted. The money goes to ads that have been running without a plan, audiences that no longer convert, and channels nobody has verified actually drive revenue. Most business owners never see it because nobody is reconciling the spend against the result.

Why This Keeps Happening

Most business owners cannot pinpoint where their sales actually come from. Jason Le describes a brand that grew from five million to ten million in nine months after introducing one new channel, then cut that exact channel because the founder drew the wrong conclusion from the data in front of them. This is the attribution problem. Without proper tracking, founders make decisions based on gut rather than evidence. They cut what is working and keep what isn’t. They assume the problem is lead volume when the real problem is conversion rate. They spend five thousand dollars extra on ads to fix something that would have been solved by rewriting a headline. The waste compounds every month, and most operators only notice when the bank account tells them something is off.

What Chloe And Jason Cover In This Episode

Jason has managed more than $40 million in ad spend across 200 businesses and was named one of Australia’s top 50 small business leaders. In this conversation, he and Chloe walk through the specific attribution mistakes that drain small business ad accounts, why cost per lead math is the single most important number most founders never calculate, the rule of one for testing ad creative, why landing page conversion is the cheapest lever you can pull, and why the founder story matters more than any clever ad.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

Where 20 to 30 percent of most ad budgets actually leak
The attribution mistake that cost one brand nine months of growth
The rule of one for testing ad creative without wasting spend
Why landing page conversion is the cheapest lever most business owners never pull
How to use the founder story as the strongest marketing asset in a B2B company

Listen to The High Ground Podcast on Spotify

About Jason Le

Jason Le is the founder and managing director of JRNY Digital, a performance marketing agency that has managed more than $40 million in advertising spend across 200 businesses. He was named one of Australia’s top 50 small business leaders.

Jason started JRNY Digital after being let go from his previous agency role during COVID. His father, like many small business owners, was losing clients. Jason built a website and ran ad campaigns on his own card for his dad’s business, generating $20,000 within a few weeks. Word spread through friends and family, and what began as helping one business turned into a company built on one principle: be accountable to revenue, not to vanity metrics.

Connect With Jason

You Ask, We Answer

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Of An Ad Budget Is Typically Wasted?

Research and industry audits suggest that 20 to 30 percent of a typical small-business ad budget is wasted on underperforming ads, poor audience targeting, and channels that no longer convert.

This aligns with the Pareto principle in advertising, where roughly 20 percent of ads generate 80 percent of the results. The remaining spend often continues running without reconciliation against actual revenue, which is why most waste goes undetected until a formal audit.

What Is Attribution In Marketing?

Attribution is the process of identifying which marketing channels, ads, and touchpoints actually contribute to a sale. In B2B marketing, attribution matters because buyers interact with multiple touchpoints before converting.

Poor attribution leads to businesses cutting channels that are working and investing more in channels that are not. The most common attribution models include first-touch, last-touch, linear, time-decay, and data-driven attribution.

Why Are My Facebook And Google Ads Not Converting?

The three most common reasons Facebook and Google ads fail to convert are poor audience targeting, weak creative that tries to say too much at once, and landing pages that do not match the ad promise. Fixing the landing page conversion rate is often the fastest and cheapest improvement. Changing a single headline can double the conversion rate without any increase in ad spend.

Does My Business Actually Need More Leads?

Most small and mid-sized businesses do not need more leads. They need better conversion of the leads they already have. Research shows that most sales teams drop in conversion rate when overloaded with volume because they cannot adequately nurture each prospect. Before increasing lead generation, audit the current lead-to-close rate, the speed-to-lead response time, and the landing page conversion rate.

How Do I Test Ad Creative Properly?

Follow the rule of one when testing ad creative.

Every ad should target one audience archetype, deliver one specific message, and ask for one call to action.

Create multiple ad variants testing different core angles, run each for approximately one week, and measure against a predefined cost-per-acquisition target. If the ad does not hit the target within two to three times the break-even spend, cut it and test a new angle.

What Is The Rule Of One In Advertising?

The rule of one is a creative testing principle that limits each ad to one audience archetype, one message, and one call to action. It prevents the common mistake of overloading a single ad with too many features or value propositions, which dilutes the message and makes it impossible to identify what actually resonates. Isolating one variable per ad makes testing meaningful and allows for faster optimisation.

How Fast Should I Cut A Non-Performing Ad?

Cut a non-performing ad once it has spent two to three times your break-even cost per acquisition without hitting your target. For example, if your break-even CPA is 50 dollars, give an ad up to 150 dollars in spend before deciding. This provides enough statistical signal to confirm the ad is underperforming while preventing continued spend on creative that will not convert.

What Is Cost Per Acquisition And How Do I Calculate It?

Cost per acquisition (CPA) is the total marketing spend required to acquire one paying customer. Calculate it by dividing total ad spend by the number of customers acquired in the same period. To determine a profitable CPA, start with the average order value, subtract product and operational costs, and set the remaining margin as the maximum spend per acquisition. Any CPA above that threshold erodes profit.

Why Are My Leads Not Converting Into Sales?

Leads fail to convert for several measurable reasons.

Slow response time is the most common. Research by MIT shows that contacting a lead within five minutes makes conversion 21 times more likely than waiting 30 minutes. Other causes include poor lead qualification, misalignment between marketing promises and sales delivery, and lack of a nurture sequence for prospects not ready to buy immediately.

How Can I Improve My Landing Page Conversion Rate?

The fastest ways to improve landing page conversion include matching the headline directly to the ad promise, reducing form fields to only essential information, adding social proof such as reviews or client logos, improving mobile load speed to under three seconds, and testing a single call-to-action button rather than multiple competing actions. Changing just one headline can double the conversion rate on most B2B landing pages.

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