TOOLING TO SET UP EFFECTIVE ONLINE MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Every marketer who’s ever tried to set up a campaign in Meta Business Suite knows what a struggle it can be. The system is technical without a clear overview, making it a tedious process - especially when you don’t run ads regularly. Maximilian Nols and Marc Schäfer experienced the struggle firsthand in their digital marketing agency. Together with Farzam Madani, they decided to start Reeply AI to solve this problem. We sat down with Maximilian and Farzam to talk about their innovation.

This story was first published in the Next Icons Magazine. You can read the entire magazine here.

Is it really that difficult for marketers to set up an ad campaign?

Maximilian: “It is. Meta’s tools are very complicated for most people, and they suffer a great deal in just understanding how they work. But even if you know how it works - because you’re a marketer at a marketing agency - it’s still a tedious process. The system is very technical and not intuitive.”
Farzam: “Our tool mainly focuses on improving the experience of people who create and manage campaigns on Meta. We want our tool to save a lot of time and frustration. Whereas setting up a campaign could easily cost you around thirty minutes, with Reeply AI, it could be done in two minutes. That leads to more time so marketing agencies can take on more clients. Besides, SMEs with limited marketing resources can also run campaigns confidently while focusing on their core business.”

So, is the tool meant for both marketing agencies and SMEs?

Maximilian: “Yes, that’s because Marc and I used to run a marketing agency where we helped SMEs to set up digital marketing campaigns. We realized two things. The first one was that SMEs hired us because they couldn’t take the time to figure out how to set up a campaign on Meta. That complexity often caused a lot of frustration. This led us to our second realisation: they hired us to do it, but we also struggled with it, even though we understood it very well. We figured there had to be a smarter and easier way.”

And that was the start of Reeply AI. What was your first year like?

Maximilian: “We founded the company in March of 2024, and since then, we have gone from an idea to a fully functioning product. While building, we were accepted by the imec.istart.nl program and got a pre-seed investment of €120,000 total. A standout moment was when we advertised a waiting list for businesses who wanted to use our tool. Within two months, we had more than 650 sign-ups. That was ridiculous. Later, we were invited to speak at the World Economic Forum about the future of work in combination with AI, which was a great opportunity. Recently, we made an early release of our platform, and this time, we had around 100 sign-ups within a week. Having strangers tell you you’re onto something big is gratifying. We’re now onboarding as many clients as possible, iterating our product, and preparing for a seed-round investment.”

Can you keep up with the demand?

Farzam: “Sometimes it’s stressful, but that’s part of running a startup. We’re really motivated by the fact that we actually solve a real problem for people. It’s not just a ‘cool’ idea that we want to put out there. You have to ask the question if it’s something you’re excited about or if it’s also actually solving a problem. That also means we don’t want to present ‘just’ a solution. It should be much better than what’s already there, because if it’s not significantly better, you’re just iterating on something. That’s not true innovation. In the past, we worked on ideas that didn’t work out in the end. And even with this idea, there were many moments where I wondered whether it’d be buildable. What if it doesn’t work out? When it did, I was really, really happy about it. We were lucky to have gained a lot of experience that way.”

To what extent did luck play a role in your success?

Maximilian: “We were definitely lucky at times, for sure. However, it also has to do with probability. If you buy many lottery tickets, you have a higher chance of winning, simply because you have more tickets. Similarly, we tried and failed a lot in the past year and worked way more hours than 9 to 5. Hard work is 100% involved. The trick is to keep trying and standing up even after you fail. If you stop trying, there’s 0% chance of getting lucky.”
Farzam: “Definitely. If you solely rely on luck, it’s like gambling. While if you put in the hard work, eventually it’ll work out for you, or you gain insights into why it didn’t work out.”
Maximilian: “Just sitting there and waiting for luck to rain over you will not cut it. We’re big believers in taking action, and Reeply AI is the result of that.”