While scrolling through Facebook, I came across a reel from a page called Excelerate by Coach Mijs (Mijs Johan Iglesia). He appears to be a digital marketing and paid ads specialist who runs training programs and workshops. Based on his content, testimonials, and the results shared by his students, he clearly understands performance marketing at a deep level.
The video caught my attention because it goes against one of the most common practices in paid advertising which is waiting several days before making optimization decisions. As someone who actively studies and runs ads, I found his technique intriguing it could work but not for all types of businesses with different organizational goals.
From personal experience, Facebook Ads have long been the go-to advertising channel for many Filipino businesses. I’ve seen large corporations to small local shops trying to gain visibility in Facebook. Since Facebook remains one of the most widely used social media platforms in the Philippines, it continues to be one of the strongest channels for local exposure and customer acquisition.
Traditional 3-7 Day Learning Curve
For many seasoned advertisers, waiting 3–7 days to evaluate results is standard practice. This is because platforms like Meta and Google require a learning phase whenever you launch a new campaign or make significant changes.
Coach Mijs argues that while this approach isn’t wrong, it can be too slow and expensive. For example, running a ₱500 daily budget for 7 days results in ₱3,500 spent before you can clearly evaluate performance.
Coach Mijs’ 3X KPI Technique Explained
Coach Mijs proposes what he calls the 3X KPI method, claiming that you can test creatives within a single day without spending too much.
The key requirement is knowing your historical cost per action (CPA) from past campaigns. For example, if your average cost per lead is ₱20, that becomes your baseline.
Your key performance indicator (KPI) should match your campaign goal — whether that’s messages, downloads, sign-ups, or purchases.
Multiply your historical CPA by three:
CPA × 3 = Budget per Ad
₱20 × 3 = ₱60 Budget per Ad
You then use ₱60 as your hard stop budget for each individual ad creative. This is set at the ad level, not the entire campaign budget. Meta automatically distributes budget across ads based on performance.
According to Mijs, you can evaluate performance within the day. If an ad generates zero conversions or results in a CPA higher than your target, you turn it off. If it generates three or more conversions at or below your target CPA, it may be worth scaling.
Pros of the 3X KPI Method
1. Quickly and Cheaply Test Creatives
If your business can produce creatives quickly whether through AI tools, agencies, or internal systems this method allows rapid testing. You can eliminate weak performers before they inflate your CPA during the learning phase.
2. Test Multiple Creative Variants at Once
Meta’s built-in A/B testing usually limits you to two variations, and many marketers recommend testing no more than three variables at once.
With the 3X KPI method, you can test multiple headlines, CTAs, colors, hooks, and formats simultaneously.
However, ads with low impressions may also spend less. This means some creatives may not receive enough exposure before you decide to turn them off.
Cons of the 3X KPI Method
1. Not Suitable for All Conversions (Conversion Windows)
Not all conversions happen within a day.
For example, if you’re running ads for a mobile game and optimizing for in-app purchases, users may need time to download, sign up, complete levels, and experience difficulty before deciding to buy. In this case, giving each creative only one day and a small budget may result in zero conversions across all variants even if some will potentially become strong performers.
Always check your internal data to understand your average conversion window from initial action to final conversion.
If you still want to apply this strategy, consider using it for top-of-funnel (TOFU) actions like app installs or leads, where CPAs are lower and results appear faster.
Purchase campaigns typically have higher CPAs (often around ₱500 or more), which may require 2–3 days or longer depending on your business to gather meaningful data.
2. Requires Running or Recently Active Campaigns
If you’ve never run ads before, you won’t have a historical CPA to use as a benchmark.
If your past campaigns were run a long time ago, your data may no longer be reliable due to market changes, audience shifts, or platform updates.
In these situations, the traditional 3–7 day learning phase may be necessary to establish a proper baseline. Otherwise, you risk turning off creatives just before they generate conversions, which can hurt overall performance.
3. Focused on Meta Ads Only
This method is more aligned with Meta Ads.
In Google Ads, you can analyze performance at the asset level — headlines, descriptions, images — through built-in asset performance reports. Google also labels assets as “Learning,” “Low,” “Good,” or “Best,” making optimization more structured.
Applying the 3X KPI method immediately on newly launched Google campaigns may not work as effectively, especially if assets are still in the learning phase.
Lifecycle of Ad Creatives
Mijs is correct that ad creatives don’t improve over time, instead they decline. Ad fatigue is real. When users repeatedly see the same creative, engagement drops and CPAs increase.
However, creatives often go through a peak performance period before stabilizing. It’s the advertiser’s responsibility to monitor trends and replace creatives once performance begins to decline.
The Andromeda Algorithm Trend for Ads
Many advertisers on LinkedIn have discussed Meta’s new Andromeda algorithm, an AI-powered machine learning system designed to better personalize content and ads.
The emerging trend suggests that traditional audience micromanagement may be less important. Instead, advertisers are encouraged to produce as many creative variations as possible and allow the algorithm to match creatives to users.
This shift may explain why rapid creative testing strategies like the 3X KPI method can perform well under Meta’s current system.
Final Thoughts
Advertising is an ongoing process of testing, tracking, and optimizing. Creatives are only one part of the equation. Audience targeting, exclusions, bidding strategies, and campaign structure all play major roles.
At its core, advertising is controlled experimentation. Even experienced marketers make mistakes.
As always, test new strategies on a small scale before rolling them out across all campaigns. There is no single strategy that works for everyone. What works for one advertiser may not work for another but shared insights help us refine our own systems.
Leave a Reply