Sometimes I Take Knowledge For Granted

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and found yourself saying, "How could you not know that?" or "That's so basic, everyone knows that"? It's easy to take our own knowledge for granted and assume everyone else knows what we know. I do it fairly regularly, according to my wife, Allison -- and after 40+ years and 100,000+ ads written, I've earned a few blind spots I don't even notice anymore.

Here's the thing about this business: the stuff that feels like common sense to someone who's spent four decades staring at ad platforms, client briefs, and campaign data is not common sense to a normal, functioning human being with a life outside of advertising. I forget that constantly. And forgetting it is exactly how agencies lose clients -- you assume they know why a headline matters, why a call to action needs to be one clear instruction, or how a platform actually works, and they nod along having no idea what you're talking about.

The Facebook Ad Library Wake-Up Call

Case in point: I recently talked with a friend who didn't know about Facebook's Ad Library. For those who aren't familiar, it's a public tool that lets anyone see every ad currently running on Facebook or Instagram -- political ads, business ads, all of it. I use it multiple times a week to check what competitors are running, how long an ad's been live (a live ad running for months is usually a working ad), and to steal structure ideas the same way I've stolen structure ideas since before the internet existed.

My friend wanted to show me an ad from an heirloom seed company that she thought was really cool, but she didn't know how to find it again or show it to me. I was genuinely surprised -- I'd always assumed the Ad Library was common knowledge, the way I assume everyone knows a good headline has to earn the next sentence, not just look nice sitting at the top of the page.

But she's not in this business. She doesn't spend her day picking apart other people's ads or wondering why a competitor's offer is still running six months later. That's my job, not hers. I'm the ad nerd. She just liked some seeds.

What This Taught Me About Assumptions

This reminded me why I never let a client meeting go by without checking my assumptions at the door. When I'm walking a client through why we're testing three headlines instead of running with the one they like best, I don't get to assume they know that headline is doing roughly 80% of the work an ad has to do. Most people writing ads still write the headline last, in about ten seconds, because nobody ever explained to them why it matters. That's not a knowledge gap they should be embarrassed about -- it's a gap I'm supposed to fill. That's the actual job.

We Can All Learn From Each Other

It's also worth remembering that this cuts both ways. I learn things from clients all the time -- about their industry, their customers, the objections their sales team hears every single day that I'd never think to ask about. There's real value in staying curious instead of assuming you're the smartest person in the room, even after nine Super Bowl ads and a few hundred billion dollars of client revenue generated. Especially after that, honestly.

The next time you catch yourself thinking, "How could they not know that?" -- stop and consider the different life and professional experiences people bring to the table. It's the same instinct that keeps me from assuming a client already trusts our recommendations just because they signed the contract; you still have to earn it, the same way you build real trust with a client instead of assuming it exists. And remember, we can all learn from one another, and it's okay not to know everything... although I think I pretty much already do. 😜