Diao: Early paid acquisition should target breakeven ROAS, not 3x returns
Sandy Diao · 20Growth: How to Build a Paid Marketing Machine: ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) 101 | The Rise of User Generated Content and How to Use It | TikTok Ads: Expectations vs. Reality | Hiring for Growth: When and Who with Sandy Diao · Oct 24, 2025 · at 26:03
Sandy Diao, growth leader, discusses setting realistic performance goals for early-stage paid acquisition campaigns when advising founders.
0:00 / 0:23exact quote · 23.1s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I don't think ROAS is necessarily the best target to start with. I think the best target to start with when you're investing in some of these paid channels, or channels with cash or financial investment up front, is to actually figure out whether or not this is a viable channel that, firstly, you can actually get up and running and working, and there I think breakeven or better is, is actually pretty good.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Sandy Diao
Diao: Hire growth specialists only after proving early channel fit
“The growth teams that I see that have the most impact are the ones where there are some early signs that there's channel fit with some kind of growth channel that's working, and then you build a team customized in a way around that. So instead of saying, I wan…”
Diao: Static Meta ads convert software downloads better than video ads
“Like one example I'll share with you actually is a lot of people really want to use video content for ads these days, but it turns out that for paid social platforms like Meta, static ads still actually do a better job of converting people into downloads or pe…”
Diao: Traditional SEO automatically drives traffic from generative AI engines
“If you do the things that are good for SEO traditionally, you're going to benefit from it. From GEO. And that's already been proven by many companies who already start to get a lot of organic traffic from generative engines, even without optimizing for those m…”
Diao: Descript's web app launch unexpectedly tanked conversion and revenue
“Two years later, we have a web version of the app. I thought this is going to be our step function increase. Like we're just going to blow up user acquisition. Conversion rates are going to triple and I can just go on vacation after this because the growth tea…”
Diao: Fast-growing companies rely on one or two power-law channels
“The consistent observation I've had in being the first growth person and head of growth in multiple companies now and advising many more is observing that the fastest growing companies and those who really know where to double down experience the power law of …”
Diao: Social algorithms give micro-creators equal reach potential as large accounts
“The way that a lot of the modern social video algorithms work is that small creators and big creators alike have equal shots at distribution based on what customers and viewers are engaging with. So micro creators, nano creators can go from, you know, zero to …”