Marketing Max is the growth marketer behind the TikTok account @marketingmax, where about 73,000 followers watch his advice on ads, offers and landing pages. A former Wall Street investment banker, he started a performance ad agency in 2016, sold it to a private equity fund in 2021 and relaunched it in 2026 as Max’s Media Buyers. He also runs the daily marketing newsletter Growth Daily and a sponsorship business, @MarketingMax Media. He goes by Marketing Max publicly and doesn’t publish his last name, so we haven’t used one here.
Key Takeaways
- Marketing Max has about 73,000 TikTok followers, 578,000 likes and more than 490 videos. His bio jokes that he “went viral on here in 2021” and “haven’t done much since.”
- That 2021 video has about 1.6 million views. It argued that one free website, Harry Dry’s Marketing Examples, beats a “$200k degree” for learning marketing.
- He left investment banking in 2016 to build a performance ad agency, sold it in 2021 and relaunched it in early 2026.
- His sites credit him with two 2020 Drum Awards for Google Ads ROI and creative optimization, and a 2026 People’s Choice Newsletter Award.
- His marketing comes down to three laws: outcomes beat features, frequency creates familiarity, and social proof reduces risk.
Who is Marketing Max?
Marketing Max describes himself as an entrepreneur, investor and growth marketer. According to his website, he started out on Wall Street as an investment banker, helping early-stage companies raise money. In 2016 one of those clients asked him to run its Facebook ads, and the results were strong enough (his agency site says the first client saw a 10X return) that he left banking to start a performance ad agency.
His agency site says he bootstrapped that agency to more than 100 clients and $40 million in attributable revenue before selling it to a private equity fund in 2021. His homepage now puts the revenue he’s generated for clients above $107 million. Clients named on his site include HubSpot, monday.com, State Farm, Ahrefs, TechDay, Bareburger and Bordelle.
His homepage is styled like an encyclopedia entry, complete with an infobox, a “Criticism” section and his golf handicap (6.5). The one complaint it lists from friends, clients and employees is that “Max cares too much.” His defense: “If someone trusts me with growing their business, I take that personally.”
These figures and client names come from his own sites and haven’t been independently verified.
The video that made @marketingmax
On August 9, 2021, he posted a one-minute TikTok captioned “Wanna get better at marketing?” It opens on a question: “What is something important you’ve told someone, but they refused to believe you?” His answer, on screen: “1 website > $200k degree.”
The website is Marketing Examples, Harry Dry’s library of real-world case studies on cold email, copywriting, pricing, referrals, SEO and more. “& it’s all free!” the caption reads, before he signs off with “it’s my little secret.” It now has about 1.6 million views, 203,000 likes and more than 58,000 saves.
His TikTok bio still pokes fun at that moment: “Went viral on here in 2021. Haven’t done much since.” In fact he hasn’t stopped posting. His 2026 videos are about why copying a competitor’s 50%-off sale is a mistake, why the landing page matters more than the ad, and whether ads inside ChatGPT will feel useful or intrusive.
What are Marketing Max’s three laws of marketing?
He says his Wall Street background shaped how he markets. He describes great marketing as “sitting at the intersection of spreadsheets and storytelling,” with statistically significant tests and attribution on one side, and on the other, “empathy, creativity, and messaging that makes people actually care.” His site sums up his campaigns in three laws:
- Outcomes beat features. “Customers rarely buy products. They buy better versions of themselves.”
- Frequency creates familiarity. People almost never buy the first time they hear about something. “The brands that win are often the brands people remember.”
- Social proof reduces risk. Testimonials, customer stories, recognizable clients and awards lower the risk a buyer feels better than “almost any sales copy.”
He adds a few beliefs on top. Qualified leads beat cheap leads: he says he “would rather pay twice as much for someone who buys than half as much for someone who never will.” Creative is usually the biggest lever once tracking and targeting are in place. Most businesses have one real bottleneck, not twenty. And “customer psychology ages slower than algorithms.”
“Customers rarely buy products. They buy better versions of themselves.”
Marketing Max, marketingmax.com
Max’s Media Buyers and his ad results
In early 2026 he relaunched his ad agency, now called Max’s Media Buyers. He says the idea came from his audience: people kept asking him to recommend ad help, and the people he referred weren’t as good as he wanted. The agency runs month to month with 15 days’ notice. Each media buyer works with no more than four other clients and talks to the client directly in Slack.
The results he highlights are specific. He says the agency turned $7,000 of Google Ads spend into $1.2 million in revenue for Easy Group Airfare, which won Highest ROI Google Ads Campaign at the 2020 Drum Awards. That same year it won Best Creative Optimization; his agency site says the entry “beat IBM Watson.” His site also says a beauty brand’s Meta ads went from about 2X to more than 6X return on ad spend without more budget, after the team found a customer segment the brand had overlooked. A neighborhood gym went from about $400,000 to more than $2 million a year, and a Google Ads strategy for Real ATOM generated more than $14 billion in commercial real estate loan requests.
His TikToks make the same argument in short form. Everyone obsesses over the ad, he said in October 2026, but “the ad gets attention for 5–20 seconds. The landing page gets the real decision-making time.” For another take on running profitable paid ads, see our feature on Jessie Hackett of MAIUS.
What is Growth Daily?
Growth Daily is his marketing newsletter. It started in April 2020 as a weekly that reused his Twitter posts and later went daily. It’s now the base of @MarketingMax Media, run by Growth Daily LLC, which sells sponsorships to B2B brands that want to reach his readers. “You are not buying an ad in a newsletter,” the media site says. “You are buying a room full of people who already trust the person handing you the mic.”
His audience numbers vary by page. His agency site says 250,000 daily newsletter subscribers, his homepage says 325,000, and his media site says 400,000 or more “B2B decision makers.” The media site also says it has worked with more than 200 B2B brands, with a 72% sponsor renewal rate. If you’re thinking of starting your own, our guide to launching a newsletter with Beehiiv covers the setup.
He also works as a consultant and fractional CMO for founders, covering positioning, customer acquisition, pricing, launches and newsletter growth. His rule is to “uncover the highest-leverage growth opportunity first.”
Marketing Max’s socials and links
- TikTok: @marketingmax
- Website: marketingmax.com
- Ad agency: Max’s Media Buyers
- Newsletter sponsorships: @MarketingMax Media
@marketingmax Wanna get better at marketing?
More in our Who Is series: Who Is Edward Sturm?, the SEO behind Build in Public, and Who Is Jessie Hackett?, the growth lead teaching founders Google and Meta ads. For more people worth following, see the business and marketing experts to follow in 2026 and our Marketing section.
Also in the series: Who Is Sarah Young? The CPA turned business coach on why buyers anchor to the first price they see.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Marketing Max?
Marketing Max is a growth marketer and former Wall Street investment banker who posts as @marketingmax on TikTok. He founded a performance ad agency in 2016, sold it in 2021 and relaunched it in 2026 as Max’s Media Buyers. He also runs the Growth Daily newsletter.
What is Marketing Max’s real name?
He publishes under the name Marketing Max, or @MarketingMax, and doesn’t share his last name on his sites or social profiles. Thought Leaders Ethos has respected that.
What was Marketing Max’s viral TikTok?
In August 2021 he posted a video saying one free website, Marketing Examples, is worth more than a “$200k degree” for learning marketing. It has about 1.6 million views.
What is Max’s Media Buyers?
Max’s Media Buyers is Marketing Max’s paid advertising agency, relaunched in 2026. It runs Google, Meta and other ad campaigns on month-to-month contracts, with each media buyer limited to a handful of clients.
What is Growth Daily?
Growth Daily is Marketing Max’s daily marketing newsletter, started as a weekly in April 2020. Brands can sponsor it through @MarketingMax Media.
How can I contact Marketing Max?
His media site lists max@marketingmax.io, and his homepage at marketingmax.com has a contact form.
Source note: This profile is based on Marketing Max’s public TikTok videos and captions at @marketingmax and his websites, marketingmax.com, maxsmediabuyers.com and marketingmax.media, all reviewed on October 31, 2026, plus a published podcast interview recap for the newsletter’s history. Career, revenue, award, client and audience figures are his own and were not independently verified by Thought Leaders Ethos. Follower and view counts are as displayed on October 31, 2026.
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