Not diversifying into emerging markets sooner. I spent years grinding tier 1 GEOs — US, UK, DE — competing with everyone and their mother for the same traffic, paying premium CPCs, fighting over the same audiences. Margins kept shrinking every quarter.
When I finally started testing Africa and Southeast Asia about two years ago, it was like discovering paid traffic in 2015 again. Low competition, cheap clicks, and audiences that actually engage with ads instead of scrolling past everything. Should have made that move at least 3 years earlier.
The other regret is not building systems from day one. I used to run everything manually — checking campaigns, adjusting bids, pulling reports. Burned out twice before I finally invested time into proper automation and tracking. The boring infrastructure stuff is what lets you scale without losing your mind.
