The Steal Club
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🕵️‍♂️ The “Organic Ad” Growth Hack

🕵️‍♂️ The “Organic Ad” Growth Hack

PLUS a retention trick that makes you second guess canceling and a single metric that scaled Facebook

Brian Augsburger
April 10, 2025

Hey thieves,

This week’s issue is packed with power moves. From a paid ad strategy that doesn’t feel like one, to a sneaky little retention trick, to the one metric that scaled Facebook — these are the kind of steals that sharpen how you think and build.

Which one’s your favorite? I’d love to hear what you’d swipe.

Stolen Tactics

#1 - The “Organic Ad” Growth Loop

The exact move

Instead of designing ad creatives, this strategy turns your best LinkedIn posts into paid ads — as-is. Same copy, same format. The only difference? A tiny “sponsored” tag at the bottom. It feels like a helpful post, not a promotion. In the video, they’re running 25+ of these posts as ads to a hand-built audience of ideal buyers. No funnels, no downloads — just value-forward content scaled with ad dollars.

Why it works

Feels native – The ad doesn’t interrupt, it fits in
Highest-leverage posts get the most reach
Custom audiences mean hyper-targeted impressions

🕵️‍♂️ Stolen from Dylan Hey

🕵️‍♂️ How to Steal it?

→ Find 3 of your top-performing LinkedIn posts — frameworks, ideas, tips.

→ Build a custom audience list (via Apollo, Clay, etc.)

→ Run those posts as ads — don’t redesign them.

→ Rotate through your top posts like an ad library.

→ Use engagement + outbound to convert interest into deals.

*********

#2 - “Member Since”

The exact move

Redditor SensiblePumps shared that when they went to cancel a subscription, a single line — “Member since 2004” — stopped them cold. They barely used the product, but the idea of wiping out 20 years of data felt like tossing a box of journals in the trash. That quiet little timestamp turned a cancellation into a crisis of identity.

Why it works

Loss aversion – Canceling feels like erasing progress.
Identity lock – Membership becomes part of your personal history.
Data nostalgia – Even if you don’t use the product, it represents something.

🕵️‍♂️ Stolen from Redditor SensiblePumps

🕵️‍♂️ How to Steal it?

→ Add a “Member since [Year]” tag to user profiles or cancelation screens.

→ Remind users what they’ve built, saved, or accomplished over time.

→ Think legacy, not urgency — make leaving feel like a loss of identity.

→ Bonus: Highlight milestones or “You’ve done X since Y” moments to reinforce it.

*********

#3 - The “One Data Point”

The exact move

Zulfiya Forsythe posted a modern throwback to Chamath Palihapitiya’s classic Facebook insight: users who added 7 friends in 10 days were far more likely to stick around. That single metric became Facebook’s entire growth engine. Zulfiya reframed it as a question — “What’s your one data point?” — and it hit hard. It wasn’t just nostalgia; it was a reminder that one behavior, tracked well, can unlock everything.

Why it works

It focuses your product – One metric keeps teams aligned
It drives habit loops – The right behavior leads to stickiness
It clarifies your strategy – You grow by getting more people to do one thing faster

🕵️‍♂️ Stolen from Zulfiya Forsythe (who stole it from Chamath Palihapitiya’s 😀)

🕵️‍♂️ How to Steal it?

→ Audit your best users — what one thing did they all do early on?

→ Turn that into your “7 friends in 10 days” moment

→ Build your onboarding or funnel to drive that one action

→ Use it as your metric, your hook, and your north star