Meta Ads Campaign

Challenge

GameChange has an incredibly powerful mission: Empower and inspire the next generation of athletes. They also have the content to back it up. What they lacked was proof. To attract the investors they needed to grow, they had to show that their content and coaching services could actually move people to act.

They partnered with BeaconBrand because they needed an agency that understood the modern ad landscape well enough to build an audience from scratch.

The Insight

Most agencies produce mediocre ads and hope the algorithm does the heavy lifting. BeaconBrand took a different approach. We identified a precise target audience (parents of student-athletes) and spoke directly to them from the beginning of the ad. That clarity gave us confidence: if the ad was good, we’d know exactly who the algorithm was showing the ad to and why.

From there, the creative strategy was simple. We used powerful emotional storytelling, delivered by a former professional NFL athlete who understood the pressure parents face from the other side of the field. We believed that if we gave people something worth watching, they’d watch. The data proved us right.

The Solution

Before a single dollar was spent on ads, BeaconBrand shaped the campaign strategy from the ground up: defining the target audience, setting campaign goals, and advising on the script and production approach. Working alongside GameChange’s Emmy Award-winning director, we helped craft a hook built on a single emotional truth: being the parent of a student-athlete is often more stressful than being the athlete.

Once the ad launched, we managed the full campaign in Meta Ads Manager. We set the budget, selecting placements, and optimizing for 15-second ThruPlays to build a qualified warm audience for retargeting. Bi-weekly reporting sessions keep the team aligned, with personalized performance clips and clear recommendations after every phase.

As funnel data comes in, we identify where viewers are dropping off, benchmark against competitors, and adjust. That same data is being used to build a profitability model, giving GameChange a clear picture of the ad spend needed to scale, and a compelling story to take to investors.

The Result

The campaign has produced a 70% ThruPlay rate on Facebook Reels — 4.4x the industry benchmark — at just $0.02 per engaged viewer. Across all platforms, half of everyone who saw the ad watched at least 15 seconds.

"We know there’s the demand. We know that people want it. They care about their kids." — Paul McDonald, Co-Founder, GameChange Nation

"We’ve created this little spark. We’ve got a little fire going. If we throw some gasoline on this, we can get a forest fire." — Jack Baric, CEO, GameChange Nation