Aazar Ali Shad

Grown several tech companies from 0 to 8 figures I Paid Social Growth Marketer I I deconstruct paid marketing so you can level up.

After 5 years in sales, I moved to marketing.

Frankly, I love it. I learned marketing by starting 2 startups and side hustles. 

Then, I found my Ikagai: Growth Marketing. I became Head of Growth at Userpilot (Grew it to 7-figures and beyond). And then, I moved to become an advisor.

Now, I have grown several tech/SaaS companies from 0 to 8 figures. Currently, I lead paid social and growth initiatives at 3 different D2C tech companies. 


❇️ Paid Growth Marketing Newsletter:
Get smarter about paid growth marketing in 5 minutes. I analyze the best brands on paid social to give you insights to level up your marketing: https://theperformers.beehiiv.com/subscribe

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❇️ Podcast: Growth Marketing Stories
I deconstruct how companies grow with marketing and share learnings along the way. Folks from Wistia, Postscript, Buffer, Truebill, Airtable, Oribi, Attentive, PandaDoc, Baremetrics, CXL, and many others have joined. Give it a listen here: https://pod.co/growth-marketing-stories/

Thank you for visiting my profile. Feel free to reach out at aazar@aazarshad.com.

Growth Marketing Consultant

Providing growth marketing consultancy and advisory services with:

- Paid Social
- Paid Search
- Content Marketing & SEO
- Conversion Rate Optimization

Invested in: Maven, Gumroad, Vuvei Ventures, Synthesis, Userpilot, Breshna and more.

Current clients: MakerKids and Prequel.

At 10, they put me in a box. "He's a B student."

At 18, they put me in a box. "He can't speak English well."

At 23, they put me in a box. "He can only do sales, not marketing."

At 30, they put me in a box. "He can't lead a team."

Now I'm 36.

I create A+ ads that scale. I lead a 6-person agency team. I manage 15+ clients, crushing their marketing goals.

People will always try to box you in.

When they do, let it fuel your inner belief and prove them wrong.

Scaling Brands from $3Mn to $25Mn with Meta Ads — Ads Nerd — I Create Un-Ignorable Ads To Reduce CAC

I hate being wrong.

Yesterday, a founder changed my mind about performance and ads.

He built a 7-figure brand without virality. No viral posts. No paid traffic blitz.

Just word of mouth.

The common thread? Storytelling.

He gave customers such an elevated experience they felt guilty NOT sharing it.

Most brands chase clicks and conversions. They forget the best growth lever is a customer who can't stop talking about you.

Performance ads amplify what already works. But if your product doesn't 
create stories worth repeating, you're just buying attention that disappears.

Here's what I learned:
Give people an experience so good they have to tell someone.

That's how brands are built.

Performance is the booster. Storytelling is the foundation.

I changed my mind on brand vs performance.

Turns out, storytelling comes first. Everything else follows.

Thanks to Robbie Bent for this AMAZING session. Othership is indeed of one of my favorite companies.

My 2026 tool that you can't miss as an agency is AdManage.ai.

I simply can't live without it.

How I turn one customer interview into 30+ ad variations in 30 Minutes.

I manage $100M+ in ad spend.

Here's what most brands get wrong: they create content once and use it once.

I do the opposite.

One customer interview becomes 30+ authentic ads. All in 30 minutes.

Here's how: I send customers a Riverside link. They record on their phone. I get studio-quality footage instantly.

Then Riverside’s Magic Clips feature automatically generates short-form clips. Customer testimonials. Before-and-after stories. Objection handlers. Product demos in real life.

All ad-ready. All authentic. All from one recording.

No editor needed. No file mess. Just a library of content that converts.

People crave authenticity. AI-generated content feels fake. Real customers telling real stories? That's what performs.

This is how I scale ad accounts without burning through creative budgets.

Check out Riverside

Link here: https://lnkd.in/dq6q4Rbt

#riversidepartner

Steal this VINTAGE ad format.

Comment "ads" to get my winning ads swipe file.

How to crush video ads with this one simple hack.

Alex Banks

Building a better future with AI

Alex Banks is a founder, creator and investor. He reaches over 1 million people on social media each week with insights into the world of artificial intelligence (AI).

He is the founder and writer of The Signal, a weekly newsletter that cuts through the AI noise to over 55,000+ readers.

Alex is also an active early-stage investor and advisor to startups across the AI and technology landscape.

👉 All partnerships, enquiries and speaking engagements: contact@noisemedia.ai

Writer

This should be illegal.

We’re entering a world where nothing can be trusted online:

I recently came across this video using Kling Motion Control.

It takes your movements and puts them in anyone's body.

Here's how it works:

→ Record yourself doing any movement
→ Use AI to generate a character image
→ Kling 2.6 merges the two seamlessly
→ Your moves, their face

We've now hit the threshold where it's impossible to discern whether someone is human in the digital world.

My takeaways:

The implications are huge in Hollywood:

→ Using someone's likeness without them present
→ Character swapping cost trends to near-zero
→ Reshooting scenes without actors on set

I also see new markets emerging:

→ Individuals renting out their identity
→ Licensing your likeness for content creation
→ Actors selling "performance rights" to their digital twin

Finally, proof of authenticity will become essential infrastructure, not just a nice-to-have.

Sam Altman is already building a global identity verification system using iris scans to fight against fraud and bots.

I believe we'll see identity become the next great asset class.

Follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

P.S. If you liked this post, you'll love the newsletter.

I help you learn AI each week.
↳ Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ePSZP6KF

Video credit: ederxavier3d on Instagram

OpenAI lost 22% market share in 12 months.

Gemini is eating their lunch.

The first Global AI Tracker of 2026 just dropped.

Here's what caught my attention.

Market share as of Jan 2nd:

→ ChatGPT: 64.5%
→ Gemini: 21.5%
→ DeepSeek: 3.7%
→ Grok: 3.4%
→ Perplexity: 2.0%
→ Claude: 2.0%
→ Copilot: 1.1%

12-month transformation:

→ ChatGPT dropped from 86.7% to 64.5%
→ Gemini exploded from 5.7% to 21.5%
→ Grok didn't exist and is now approaching DeepSeek

12-week data change:

→ OpenAI: -22% (their worst period on record)
→ Gemini: +49% (relentless momentum)
→ Claude: -14% (stable but dipping)
→ Grok: +52% (fastest growing)

Driven by the winter break, daily visits dropped to August-September levels across all tools.

But the underlying trends are unmistakable.

My takeaway:

This is OpenAI's make or break year.

It will take an incredible model (GPT-6+) from them to restore faith.

Claude Opus 4.5 with extended thinking is now my go-to model for practically every task. I rarely use GPT-5.2 as Opus 4.5 is faster, better, and more consistent across my daily work.

If Anthropic keeps shipping at this pace, they could overtake OpenAI by the end of the year.

The AI race has never been more competitive.

Follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

I cover the most important AI developments each week in my newsletter.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ePSZP6KF

NEWS: Okta just exposed AI's biggest blind spot.

Most companies aren't ready.

I sat down with Shiven Ramji, President of Auth0 at Okta, to find out what's being missed.

The problem is bigger than you think:

→ 80% of breaches already involve compromised identity
→ 91% of organisations are deploying AI agents
→ Only 10% have a governance strategy for managing them

Traditional security was built for deterministic apps.

AI agents are anything but.

They access sensitive data at machine speed, far faster than any human ever could.

4 things developers need to get right from day one:

1. Authentication 
↳ Verify the agent is working on behalf of who it claims

2. Human in the loop
↳ Sensitive transactions need async authorisation

3. Fine-grained permissions
↳ Ephemeral access that expires when the task is done

4. Secure connections
↳ No more static API keys scattered everywhere

The future Shiv predicts:

Memory will become tied to identity.

Right now, your context is locked inside each platform.

Eventually, you'll want to take your AI memory with you across tools.

My takeaway:

AI security is identity security.

You can't have one without the other.

The AI agent market is projected to hit $250 billion by 2034.

The companies racing to deploy without solving identity will learn this the hard way.

Follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

Google's best learning tool is free.

This is how I learn anything fast.

NotebookLM lets you:

→ Upload any sources (docs, websites, research papers)
→ Use Deep Research mode to auto-pull 40+ cited sources on any topic
→ Transform everything into multiple learning formats

The 10 outputs it generates:

1. Chat Q&A → Plain-English answers with citations
2. Audio Overviews → Podcast-style explainers for commutes
3. Video Explainers → AI-narrated with custom visuals
4. Mind Maps → Explore concepts from first principles
5. Reports → Study guides, briefing docs, blog posts
6. Flashcards → Spaced repetition for terminology
7. Quizzes → Test what you actually retained
8. Infographics → Visual summaries in one click
9. Slide Decks → Presentation-ready in minutes
10. Data Tables → Structured comparisons automatically

Real-world business applications:

• Sales teams: Turn product docs into client-ready slide decks
• Onboarding: Create video overviews new hires can watch on day one
• Documentation: Generate infographics that replace 10-page guides nobody reads
• Training: Build quizzes that test whether your team actually retained the material
• Executive briefings: Summarise 50-page reports into 2-minute briefing docs

The people who win in 2026 are those who can learn anything quickly and apply it immediately.

NotebookLM is how I do that.

I wrote a full breakdown with video walkthroughs in my newsletter this week.

Read it here: https://lnkd.in/exymi6vU

Google just dropped AI into Gmail.

3 billion inboxes are about to change forever.

Gmail is entering the "Gemini era" with features powered by Gemini 3.

Here's what's new:

1. AI Overviews

→ Summarises entire email threads into key points
→ Ask your inbox questions in natural language
→ "Who gave me a plumber quote last year?" to instant answer

2. Help Me Write

→ Polish emails or draft from scratch
→ Rolling out to everyone for free
→ Next month: pulls context from your other Google apps

3. Suggested Replies

→ One-click responses that match YOUR writing style
→ Uses conversation context for relevant suggestions
→ Free for all users

4. Proofread

→ Advanced grammar, tone, and style checks
→ Available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers

5. AI Inbox (coming soon)

→ Filters out clutter automatically
→ Identifies your VIPs based on email patterns
→ Surfaces high-stakes items like bills and reminders

Availability:

• Rolling out today in the U.S.
• English first, more languages coming soon
• Some features require Google AI Pro/Ultra subscription

My takeaway:

Email was revolutionised by Google once in 2004.

They’re now doing it again 22 years later.

Only this time they’re embedding AI where 3 billion people already live.

I hope Google prioritises better phishing detection as part of their AI strategy in Gmail.

I think this could be a really wonderful feature to help educate users on dangerous activity.

AI is no longer a separate tool but is now invisible infrastructure.

Follow me Alex Banks for daily AI highlights and insights.

I’ll be doing a full breakdown in my newsletter this week.

I cover the most important AI developments to keep you ahead.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ePSZP6KF

I built an AI version of myself.

It's trained on 100+ editions of my newsletter.

ElevenLabs just made this possible with their Agents platform.

Here's how I built "The Signal Brain" in 5 minutes:

1. Create a blank agent
↳ Head to ElevenLabs
↳ Select “Agents Platform” 
↳ Create a new agent from scratch

2. Upload your knowledge base
↳ I compiled all my newsletter editions into one document
↳ The platform uses RAG to vectorise and store your content
↳ Supports files up to 21MB each

3. Configure the system prompt
↳ Define the agent's role and personality
↳ Set the first message and system prompt
↳ Choose your LLM (I used Gemini 2.5 Flash)

4. Clone your voice
↳ I've already created my voice in ElevenLabs Studio
↳ Now my agent literally speaks like me

5. Publish and share
↳ Get a shareable link instantly
↳ Embed it on your website
↳ Let anyone interact with your knowledge

My takeaway:

What once required a team of engineers can now be done in minutes.
Whether you're a creator, educator, or business owner, you can now build an AI trained on YOUR knowledge that speaks in YOUR voice.

The best part is it’s available 24/7 for anyone to ask questions through text or voice.

This is the democratisation of AI agents in action.

Create your agent here:
https://lnkd.in/ebUgMThi

P.S. I'll be sharing the link to try The Signal Brain in the comments below.

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