Welcome back to this week’s Side Income Roundup, Monday, July 20.
This week is about spending smarter instead of spending more. The sellers pulling ahead right now aren’t throwing extra money at ads, they’re making the traffic and tools they already have work a lot harder.
📢 Why more ad spend often just buys you bigger losses
🛠 A free Klaviyo tool that turns Instagram comments into subscribers, plus Canva’s new ad engine
⚡ Meta’s new live shopping ads, plus Amazon opens its Seller University to everyone
📝 The 10-minute audit that recovers buyers you’ve already paid for
🤖 Shopify’s free AI that plans and runs your campaigns for you
Let’s get into it.
THIS WEEK’S BIG IDEA
📢 More ad spend won’t fix a campaign that isn’t working
It’s easy to treat a big ad budget as proof your marketing is working, but the two aren’t the same thing. Pour more into an ad that was never profitable and all you do is lose money faster.
The fix is to fire bullets before cannonballs. Test on a small budget until the numbers prove out, and only scale once a campaign is already profitable at low spend.
Our Take: Before you scale any ad, work out your true cost per sale from the last 30 days. If it isn’t profitable on a small budget, fix the offer first, because more spend just loses faster.
TOOLS OF THE WEEK
🛠 Klaviyo Social Auto-replies
A new free feature that auto-replies to your Instagram comments and DMs on a keyword you choose, then captures that follower’s email straight onto your list.
🛠 Canva Grow 2.0
Canva now doubles as an ad engine, creating, publishing, and optimizing paid ads across Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn inside one AI-driven workflow.
Our Take: If you sell on Instagram, turn on Klaviyo’s free Social Auto-replies this week and set one keyword like “guide” so every comment quietly hands you an email instead of just a like.
TODAY’S QUICK WINS
⚡ Meta rolls out Live Shopping ads to more sellers
Meta is expanding Live Video Ads so you can promote a livestream and let viewers browse and buy your products without ever leaving the stream.
⚡ Amazon opens Seller University to everyone
Amazon has unlocked its full Seller University training on listings, pricing, and fulfillment for anyone, so you can learn how top sellers operate before you open an account.
Our Take: Pick one and knock it out this week. Switch on Meta’s Live Shopping tools before your next livestream, or spend twenty minutes in Amazon’s free Seller University seeing how the best listings are built.
FROM OMC
📝 Your Product Page Is Leaking Sales: 7 Free Fixes to Recover Buyers You’ve Already Paid For
Most sellers spend their energy driving more traffic, then quietly lose those visitors once they land, because the product page leaks them. This post walks a 10-minute audit that plugs the gaps with seven free fixes.
Our Take: Run the audit on your product page before you spend another dollar sending people to it.
AI SPOTLIGHT
🤖 Shopify launches a free AI that runs your campaigns
Shopify just rolled out Campaign Autopilot, a free built-in tool that plans, creates, and optimizes marketing campaigns across Meta, Shop, and email for you.
Our Take: If you run a Shopify store, switch this on and let it draft your abandoned-cart and welcome emails first.
UNTIL NEXT WEEK…
Here’s your move this week:
✅ Work out your true cost per sale before you scale any ad
✅ Turn on Klaviyo’s free Social Auto-replies to grow your list from Instagram
✅ Run the 10-minute product page audit to recover buyers you’ve already paid for
✅ Switch on Shopify Campaign Autopilot and let it draft your first flow
The sellers pulling ahead this summer aren’t the ones spending the most. They’re the ones getting more out of every visitor, every tool, and every dollar they already have.
Talk soon,
Aidan
P.S. This Wednesday I’ll show you the quiet reason buyers leave your product page without buying, and the free fixes that win them back. Keep an eye on your inbox.
