Alex Schultz is the Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Analytics at Meta. He describes how an accidental translation quirk in France revealed a key growth optimization for self-serve ads.
“Instead of advertise, when we translated it to French, we said, create an ad. And in France, we had a much larger rate of advertiser growth, like really much rather a larger rate, like 30, 40%. We were doing an analytics test with a vendor, and they found that France was far higher, and we found it was this mistranslation, so we changed everywhere on the site. Instead of saying advertise, we changed it to create an ad, and we step changed up advertiser growth.”
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 Alex Schultz
Opinion
Schultz: Snap Cloned TikTok Despite Public Denials
“Faster than Snap, who also cloned and copied TikTok despite everything they've said about that.”
Alex SchultzMar 7, 2023▶ 18:51Meta CMO Alex Schultz: Competing Against TikTok & Snap; Why Reels Failed at First | E985 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionOpen · timeframe Sep 2030
Alex Schultz: A one-person startup reaching tens of millions is inevitable
“Instagram was seven people and got to tens of millions of active users. I don't see why there won't be the next Instagram that's one person and gets to tens of millions of active users. In fact, I think it's inevitable.”
Alex SchultzSep 5, 2025▶ 22:5420Growth: Meta CMO Alex Schultz on How All Founders Have to Change Their Marketing Playbook in a World of AI | Is AI Plateauing, What it Means if China Wins the AI Race and Why Zuck is a Generational Leader
Opinion
Alex Schultz: Europe is not in the global AI race
“Europe's not in the race right now. I mean, maybe it can find a way to be in the race, but I don't think it's in the race. You've got the US and China as the two groups that are leading in AI.”
Alex SchultzSep 5, 2025▶ 29:5320Growth: Meta CMO Alex Schultz on How All Founders Have to Change Their Marketing Playbook in a World of AI | Is AI Plateauing, What it Means if China Wins the AI Race and Why Zuck is a Generational Leader
AssertionContradicted
Alex Schultz admits Meta's Llama 4 missed the leading edge
“It's pretty clear Llama was not, like, Llama four wasn't leading edge where Llama three was. So, you know, our big release this year was not a slam dunk, but our big release last year was, and I'm pretty confident our next big release will be again.”
Alex SchultzSep 5, 2025▶ 32:3720Growth: Meta CMO Alex Schultz on How All Founders Have to Change Their Marketing Playbook in a World of AI | Is AI Plateauing, What it Means if China Wins the AI Race and Why Zuck is a Generational Leader
What-if
Schultz: Meta Moved Too Slowly on Product Rollouts and It Was My Fault
“Personally, I think we took too long, and if I went back and did it again, I would have moved a lot faster, which is weird for a meta executive to say, but I actually think we moved too slowly, and in many ways it was my fault.”
Alex SchultzMar 7, 2023▶ 16:25Meta CMO Alex Schultz: Competing Against TikTok & Snap; Why Reels Failed at First | E985 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Schultz: Being Second to Market Works if You Out-Innovate Later
“Personally, I think generally it's okay to be second, and we're totally fine being second. Catching up on the basics, and then trying to out-innovate. Like step, step, step. Like launch, catch up, overtake with innovation. I think is a very, very good model. Y…”
Alex SchultzMar 7, 2023▶ 18:00Meta CMO Alex Schultz: Competing Against TikTok & Snap; Why Reels Failed at First | E985 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.