Socrates Bourbon · Oct 23, 2026 · for review
Founder reels, winning stills, and captions to test
Tap the 9:16 / 4:5 switch on each reel. Sound on. Re-rendered Oct 23 evening: the camera-mic reels got their own voice chain (presence restored), and the guitar bed now sits about 23 dB under your voice in all of them.
Reels
Reel covers
Smiling frames from the end of your takes, color-matched to the reels. Use the plain one as the ad thumbnail; the titled one for the Instagram grid. Files in Downloads\socrates-launch-week\covers.
Founder story · with title
Founder story · plain
Intro reels · with title
Intro reels · plain
New stills from the reels
Your shelf photo with the real, filled-in app screens from the Birthday Bourbon session, plus three frames from your iPad take. Full-size 4:5 and 9:16 files are in Downloads\socrates-launch-week\stills. Number 1 is the finished version of your example.
Stills that won before
Lifetime results, Sep 23 – Oct 5. "Sessions started" = Meta's count of people who opened a session. Small samples; a guide, not a verdict.
BestGPS launch 4:5
| Spend | $58.40 |
| Sessions started | 46 |
| Cost per session started | $1.27 |
| Click-through | 5.4% |
Superseded by your re-render (next card).
NewGPS launch 4:5 · your re-render
The winner, refreshed: "See AI on a bourbon leash." and "Try for free." Ready to run against the shelf palate-tiles still.
The band's second line still reads "No membership required." It's accurate, but the house offer line is "No app store hassle ever." Your call.
Russell's 15 + iPad photo
| Spend (best ad set) | $22.80 |
| Cost per session started | $1.90 |
| Click-through | 7.7% |
Highest click-through of anything we've run. Weaker with the journal caption ($10.45 per session).
"AI on a bourbon leash" 4:5
| Spend (best ad set) | $17.12 |
| Cost per session started | $1.90 |
| Click-through | 6.1% |
Captions
Two proven controls first, then yours, then shorter variations. Orange notes are the edits I made and why.
One big campaign
One campaign, one shared budget (about $40/day), two ad sets. Meta moves money to whatever works, every ad learns from the same pool of sessions, and a deep bench of creative is the real cure for fatigue.
- Prospecting ad set (~$32/day): broad US 30–65, with the reel-finisher and Reveal lookalikes as audience suggestions. Eight ads: the three intro reels, two no-intro reels, the shelf palate-tiles still, the GPS re-render, and the shelf "name any pour" still.
- Warm ad set (~$8/day): reel finishers, Reveal-reachers, session starters, book buyers and subscribers, Facebook and Instagram engagers. Four ads: the founder story, the iPad intro reel, the iPad palate-tiles still, and the Reveal still.
- Captions: each ad carries two or three caption options (Meta rotates them per viewer): videos get A + B + the Leash control; stills get the GPS control + C + D.
- The catch: Meta will pour most of the budget into one or two ads, so we learn less about the losers. That's fine for selling seats. To force a clean head-to-head later, we split a pair into its own small test.
- Judge on: cost per session started after 3–4 days, then paid seats after 7. Pause any ad above about $3.50 per session started once it has spent $20; add a fresh cut weekly.