James Dooley: The dollar a day strategy. Today I'm joined with Dennis Yu who speaks a lot about small compounding wins on social media using a dollar a day strategy to help you win long term. Dennis, it is a pleasure to have you on. For anyone watching, can you give a simple overview of what the dollar a day strategy is?

Dennis Yu: It is a testing methodology. It has nothing to do with Facebook, YouTube, TikTok or any channel. If you put multiple pieces of content out there aligned to an objective such as leads, views, form fills or appointments, you allow the system to optimise for you.

Dennis Yu: One of the companies we do this for is HVACQuote, which is SaaS software. We created a range of videos showing how the software works, interviewing customers and explaining why online quotes matter. We approached it from different angles. We launched around 15 to 20 videos and put one dollar a day behind each for a week.

Dennis Yu: Most of the videos I thought would perform best actually performed badly. Retention dropped quickly. Some kept only 30 percent of viewers past the first 15 seconds. But the more casual videos, including off the cuff walk and talk interviews with HVAC industry leaders, achieved up to 95 percent playthrough on one minute clips.

Dennis Yu: Once we identified the winners through retention metrics, we increased the budget to 20 dollars, 50 dollars or 100 dollars per day on those specific videos. That process helped drive 100 SaaS customers paying 350 dollars per month within the first 100 days. It was not about fancy editing. It was about structured testing and scaling what worked.

James Dooley: I love that. The videos you expect to perform best often do not. We see the same with PPC and Facebook ads. Some campaigns you think will dominate fail, and others surprise you.

James Dooley: When you see 95 percent retention on YouTube, you increase spend because people clearly enjoy the content. On platforms like Facebook or Instagram, are you still mainly focused on video?

Dennis Yu: Yes, mostly video. You can take a 45 minute podcast and break it into one minute clips. Publish those across Facebook, X and YouTube. The first stage is identifying who watches and stays. The second stage is optimising for leads, cost per lead and conversion rates.

Dennis Yu: Video is powerful because it feels real. My best performing HVAC video was filmed while Marco and I were having steak in a noisy restaurant. It was not polished. It was authentic. That resonated. Highly polished content often feels like an advert, and audiences are sceptical.

James Dooley: You are also producing whiteboard videos on topics like knowledge panels and KGM IDs. Do you create multiple variations and test which performs best?

Dennis Yu: Yes. YouTube analytics shows where viewers rewind, creating spikes in the graph. Those spikes indicate strong hooks. My friend Tom Breeze analysed retention data from Alex Hormozi and MrBeast. He found that high retention moments in long form organic videos can be repurposed as hooks for paid ads.

Dennis Yu: The principle is the same. When a respected brand or individual publishes content with strong retention, it performs well in ads. We applied this with major brands like the Golden State Warriors. Instead of polished commercials, we used authentic fan footage from games. That content drove ticket sales because fans felt closer to the action.

Dennis Yu: We applied dollar a day testing with Uber, United Airlines, Nike and Adidas. It works because you test attention first, then scale conversion. It is not a hack or black hat strategy. It is structured experimentation.

James Dooley: I like using those retention spikes as hooks in YouTube Shorts and linking viewers back to long form videos. Shorts often gain wider distribution and drive additional traffic.

James Dooley: For anyone watching, the dollar a day strategy is about launching multiple pieces of content with small budgets, measuring retention and engagement, then scaling the winners. It builds brand, drives trust and creates measurable growth. Dennis, it has been a pleasure.

Dennis Yu: Thank you, James.