PAID ADS, DONE FOR YOU Ads that keep running in categories where they usually don't
Icarus runs paid ads on Meta for cannabis, CBD, kratom, vape and peptide brands. Media buyers who've run restricted ads since 2016 run yours and make every call. Dex, our Meta ads agent, never sleeps, so the buyers never run short of new ads to test. You approve each ad and watch every cent in your own dashboard.
- Since 2016
- Over 300 brands
- Run through official Meta partners
- Direct partnership with Snapchat
- No long-term contracts
An ad account dies one of two ways
The first you already know. Your ads run for two or three weeks, get pulled, and you start again on a new account. There's an explanation every time. Your card gets charged every time too.
The second is quieter. The account stays up and the ads go stale. On Meta the ad itself decides who sees it, so the account needs a steady run of new and different ads to keep finding buyers. A team of people can make a handful a month. So the same three ideas come back in new colors, each sale costs a bit more than the last, and nobody can tell you why.
Staying live takes people who know your category. Staying fresh takes more work than people can do. You need both in one team.
People make the calls. Agents keep the ads coming.
Icarus is an agency that runs on its own agentic system. On your ads it splits like this.
The people. Michael Porke, our co-owner, leads paid ads. His media buyers are why the ads stay up. They run them on accounts from official Meta partners, which hold where a brand's own account gets pulled. When an ad is rejected, they can tell you which part did it: the wording, the picture, one keyword, or the history of the account it ran on. They decide the strategy, launch the campaigns, switch each ad on and choose what gets cut and what gets more budget.
The agents. Dex is our Meta ads agent. He reads your market, your rivals and your buyers' own words. He plans the next batch, writes the copy, and makes the statics and the video. He does it at three in the morning as well as three in the afternoon. Neil is our Google Ads agent. He studies rival ads, pulls the search and cost data, and drafts the plan, the ad text and each change for a person to approve.
You. You approve the ads, watch the numbers and top up the spend. That's the whole job.
Everything your paid ads need, made and run for you
First, who buys and why
Your buyers in their own words. We go through your market, your rivals, your offers, and what real buyers say on Reddit, in forums and in reviews. That becomes four or five types of buyer, each at a different point on the way to buying.
A straight verdict on what you run today. We check your current ads and pages against what Meta rewards now. Sometimes the answer is to keep none of them.
The plan, in writing, before anything is made. Which buyers we go after first, what we say to each, and what it will take.
Then the ads, and they don't stop
8 to 15 different concepts in a campaign. Separate ideas, where you'd usually get one idea in fifteen outfits. Meta treats ads that look alike as one ad, so real variety is what gives it something to test.
Statics. Offers, proof, us-against-them, a note on a phone, a text thread. Quick to make and cheap to test, so you find out what lands before you pay for film.
Video. People talking to camera, podcast clips, street interviews and animation, with your product in shot and looking like your product.
Five opening texts and five headlines for each ad. So you find out which words sell as well as which picture. Each headline is sized to show whole on a phone.
A person checks each ad. Against the platform's rules, and for whether a buyer would believe it. So what reaches you is ready to run, and all you decide is yes or no.
New ads before the old ones tire. Your proven ads keep running while fresh concepts come in behind them.
A page for each ad to land on
Built for where that buyer is. An advertorial for someone who has never heard of you. A sales page for someone ready to buy. Listicles and quiz pages where they fit. The promise that earned the click is the first thing they read.
The account, in experienced hands
Accounts stronger than your own. On Meta we run through official Meta partners, on their ad accounts. On Snapchat we have a direct partnership. We don't run from your Facebook page, your profile or your ad account, so none of them is on the line.
Our ad accounts don't go down. And if a platform changes its rules, your data carries across to a new account and the ads relaunch.
Nothing goes live by itself. A media buyer looks at the campaign and switches it on by hand.
A verdict on each ad. Cut, hold or scale, with the reason, on rules set before the ad ran. We read the platform's numbers against your store's own orders, and we judge on what a customer costs to win and what they're worth over the next six to twelve months.
Watched daily. The team checks your ads and your numbers each day and sends you a breakdown each week.
Snapchat alongside Meta. A second place to find buyers, through our direct partnership, run by the same team. So you get one answer on where your budget should go.
Your part is approve, watch, top up
Joining is one form and a kick-off call. You don't hand over passwords, and we don't ask for access to your Facebook page or your ad account, because we don't run on them. We need your site, your product photos, your margins and your store connected so sales are counted.
After that you have two places to look.
Your Slack channel. The team is there daily. Ask a question and a person answers.
Your Icarus dashboard. New ads wait there for your yes. The ads that are running are there too, with what each one spent and what it brought in. So is Dex, at any hour. Ask him why an ad was made or what's coming next, and he'll tell you or take you to the people in Slack.
Add email, SEO or social later and they show up in the same dashboard.
Ten years in the categories ad platforms make hardest
Since 2016. Cannabis, CBD and kratom from the start. Vape, tobacco, mushrooms and peptides along the way. Over 300 brands and many millions in ad spend. What that gives you is judgment: we know what an account can carry this week and when it's safe to push.
Ads that say enough to sell. A vague ad pointing at a vague page will run for months and sell nothing, because nobody can tell what it is. We show your product and say what it does, and the first click lands on a page that sells it.
More work than a team of people can do. Michael's buyers don't wait on a designer or a script. The research, the copy, the statics and the video are there when they need them.
The ads are half of it. A customer you win at break-even can be worth many times that over a year if someone is emailing them. We do that too, and it sits in the same dashboard.
Questions owners ask before they book
Do you run ads for cannabis, CBD, kratom and vape brands?
Yes. It's what Icarus has done since 2016. We run paid ads for cannabis, CBD, kratom and vape brands on Meta, and on Snapchat through a direct partnership.
Which platforms do you run?
For brands like yours it's Meta first, and Snapchat through a direct partnership. Which of the two suits your product is the first thing we'll tell you on the call. We run Google Ads as well. We don't offer TikTok.
Is my own Facebook page or ad account at risk?
No. We don't use them. Your ads run on accounts from official Meta partners. Your store is connected so sales are counted, and that's all we touch.
What if an ad account goes down?
Ours don't. Platforms do change their rules, and when a change means a new account, your data carries across and the ads relaunch. The platform needs a short spell to relearn who your buyers are, and we tell you what happened and why.
Do I have to supply the content?
No. We make all of it: the statics, the video, the copy and the pages. You approve it, and what you approve is yours.
Are the ads made by agents, and will they look it?
Dex does the research and makes the ads. A person checks each one for whether a buyer would believe it before you see it, and you have the last word. On the account itself, people make the decisions. No agent launches a campaign or spends your money.
Will you promise me a return?
No. We stand behind stable delivery and a method that follows the data, and we work toward a target cost per customer. We don't forecast a number to win your business.
How long before ads are live?
It goes in this order: the written plan, your form and kick-off call, research and production, your approval, launch, then testing and scaling. New accounts and new campaigns need warming up, so the early weeks are for learning what works.
Who's on my account?
A media buying team and an account manager, led by Michael. Dex does the research and the creative behind them. You talk to the people in Slack daily.
What does it cost?
It depends on the size of your brand. You'll get a number after the call. Ad spend is separate, and you top it up as we go.
Am I locked in?
No long-term contracts.
Tell us what you sell and where your ads keep breaking
We'll tell you whether Meta, Snapchat or both fit, what we'd run first and what we can't promise. If it's not the right time for ads, we'll say that too.
Book a call