The Growth Treadmill: Why Paid Ads Alone Will Never Scale Your Brand

Kyle Olmstead
Sep 1
3 min read

Updated: Sep 19

You don’t have a growth strategy. You have a gambling habit.

Every time you throw another dollar at Facebook, TikTok, or Google, you’re basically pulling a slot machine. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you don’t. But either way, the machine takes a cut.

Oh, and here’s the kicker. Paid ads don’t actually scale your brand. They just scale your spend.

That “next big growth push”? If it’s just more ad spend, congrats... you're sprinting on a treadmill. Burning calories. Sweating buckets. Looking busy. Going nowhere.

The Paid Ads Trap (and Why It’s So Addictive)

I get it. Ads feel like progress. They’re measurable. They’re immediate. You can screenshot a dashboard and say: “Look, growth!”

But let’s call it what it is:

🚨 High upfront cost
🚨 Short-term wins
🚨 Zero staying power

If you stop spending, the leads stop coming. Your “growth” vanishes overnight.

That’s not scale. That’s survival.

Real Growth Is Boring (and That’s the Point)

Scaling isn’t about getting bigger, faster. It’s about compounding.

Think about investing. Anyone can throw cash into a lottery ticket. Few have the patience to let compound interest quietly build generational wealth.

Customer retention is compound interest for your business.

A buyer who comes back doesn’t cost you a dime in CAC.
Their second order? Pure margin fuel.
Their third? That’s how you fund your next launch without begging Meta for mercy.

The boring truth? Brands don’t fail because they can’t acquire. They fail because they can’t keep.

A Personal Wake-Up Call

I worked with a fitness-forward DTC brand a few years back. Great product. Killer ads. They scaled from $50K months to $300K months in under a year.

On paper, it looked like rocket fuel.

Behind the scenes? Their repeat purchase rate was a graveyard. 70% of customers bought once… and never came back.

You know what that meant? Every month started at zero. New ads. New budgets. New stress.

They weren’t scaling. They were sprinting. Eventually, they hit a wall.

When we rebuilt their lifecycle—welcome flows, replenishment reminders, loyalty rewards—the story flipped. Revenue leveled. Growth compounded. Their $300K months stopped feeling like Russian roulette.

The Treadmill vs. The Flywheel

Ads are a treadmill: you stop running, you fall off.

Retention is a flywheel: hard to push at first, but once it’s spinning, momentum carries you forward.

Here’s what happens when you turn that flywheel:

Customers stick.
AOV climbs.
CAC drops.
LTV explodes.

Suddenly, your ads become optional fuel, not oxygen.

Why Paid Ads Alone Will Never Scale

Let’s put this in fitness terms (Inboxercise pun intended):

Paid ads = pre-workout. Fast buzz. Expensive. Doesn’t build muscle.
Retention = strength training. Slower progress. Compounds over time. Keeps you strong long after the caffeine wears off.

If your whole strategy is just ads, you’re basically slamming scoops of C4 and wondering why your body isn’t changing.

Okay, But What About “Blended Growth”?

Some of you are thinking: “Kyle, we use both. We spend on ads and email. Isn’t that enough?”

Not if your retention strategy is just tossing out 10% off codes every now and then.

Retention isn’t a discount. It’s a system.

Triggered flows that actually match customer behavior.
Campaigns that feel like conversation, not spam.
A loyalty ladder that rewards commitment, not coupons.
Community and content that give people a reason to stay.

Without that, you’re just running a slightly more expensive treadmill.

Quick Take-Home Truths

Let’s boil this down:

If you can’t make money from your existing customers, you don’t have a business. You have a pipeline problem.
Every new dollar spent on ads without retention is just paying tax to Facebook.
Scaling without compounding is an illusion.

A Little Sarcasm for the Road

Still think ads are the “scalable” play?

That’s like saying your dating strategy is “just keep swiping right.” Sure, you’ll meet people. But will anyone stick around long enough to split the WiFi bill?

My Challenge to You

Look at your numbers. Honestly.

What’s your repeat purchase rate? What’s your 90-day LTV? If the answers make you sweat, it’s not because you need to pour more money into ads. It’s because your treadmill is maxed out.

So here’s the million-dollar question:

👉 Are you ready to step off the treadmill and build a brand that compounds?