@praxads.ig
When you double ad budget and results worsen, nothing broke: the platform serves the most likely buyers first, so each extra dollar reaches the next, lower-intent people (diminishing returns), and competition for the front of the line raises costs.
Posted 09 Oct 2026 · 66k plays · 1k likes · 21 comments · evidence: numbers-backed (illustrative made-up numbers, not real data) · saved in: business

The hook
Spoken: "It turns out Alex Hormozi is running a sales funnel that's so efficient, it was deemed illegal by the government." (transcript renders the name phonetically as "Alex Ramosi") On-screen: green box "EXPOSING ILLEGAL SALES FUNNEL" over a photo of Hormozi.

Full breakdown
- Hook claims: Grant Cardone, Patrick Bet-David and Jeremy Haynes use it; "HIMS got sued by the FTC because their ads became too effective" (a securities class action search result is shown at 9s). "So just be careful about how you use this."
- The funnel is a quiz positioned as a "$100M scaling roadmap" offering free personalised business advice in under 30 seconds: fast, free, personalised ("the holy trinity of marketing").
- Roughly 25% of his 600 Facebook ads (Meta Ad Library screenshot) drive to this free funnel. Every YouTube video has a mid-roll or end screen to the quiz.
- First questions: name, email, phone number, shipping address (in 2026; reason: snail mail is cheap and works, "when everyone zigs, you zag").
- Last questions: number of employees, annual revenue (plus net profit margin, partner status, how long in business appear in frames). Honest answers get an accurate roadmap.
- Logic: headcount decides which stage of the roadmap: just you and no revenue = stage zero; just you with some revenue = stage one, and up.
- Revenue decides whether you get sales calls: under $250k = roadmap and a value-only path; over $250k = book-a-call page ("Want to learn how to scale your business with us in Vegas?"). Same quiz, two outcomes. (Flowchart shown at 57s, 66s.)
- Why $250k: Acquisition.com buys and scales companies; under-250k leads are nurtured with free content until qualified; above it his team can sell workshops and consulting now. In 3 to 10 years some may become acquisition targets (ACQ Ventures page shown).
- Side benefits: leads today, acquisition pipeline, market research, and ideas for his next videos; people give him real data willingly.
- Generalise: push traffic into a quiz, qualify prospects while giving everyone value, pick who to work with. "You give value to 100% of your leads while only selling the right ones."

Tools & links
- acquisition.com/roadmap (the quiz), ventures.acquisition.com (ACQ Ventures page), Meta Ad Library (to inspect his ads), YouTube.
- Creator's own offer: full breakdown via comment "ALEX" (DM). Handle @hormozi referenced.

On screen
Hybrid talking head with screen-recording cutaways: Google results on the lawsuit, acquisition.com roadmap landing page, quiz field screens (phone, shipping address, employees), Meta Ad Library, YouTube channel, flowchart of quiz branching, book-a-call page, ACQ Ventures. Word-by-word serif captions, creator holds a furry-windscreen mic.

CTA & funnel
"Comment ALEX for the full breakdown." 272 of 285 retrieved comments are "Alex"; the creator replies in comments with "Check ur DM!", "Sent!", "DM'd!" to each (comment-to-DM automation). He sells quiz funnel building, so the reel is a demonstration of the exact funnel type he builds (quiz funnel builder bio).

The format
129 s, controversy hook ("illegal funnel") then a structured breakdown, "teardown of someone famous" format borrowing authority. Screen cutaways every 3 to 6 s as proof. The 575 comments (mostly keyword) feed reach.

Comment signal
- Overwhelmingly the keyword "Alex"; praise ("Alex is genuinely a monster in this game", 93 likes).
- "Quizzes and online assessments made me a fortune. Best lead magnet ever" (41).
- A commenter: "it's not illegal". Creator replies mainly with DM confirmations; no public link.

Apply it
- Ilene Joy: a jewellery quiz ("find your charm/necklace/gift in 30 seconds") that collects name, email, phone (WhatsApp) and budget, branching high budget to a concierge/book-a-call (Ilene's builder has a concierge) and low budget to the normal collection. Works with the "Design your own" builder.
- Healthy Manushya: a "supplement fit" quiz collecting WhatsApp number; sort by goal and send COD offer via WhatsApp; retention-ready lead data.
- Agencies: qualification quiz for Zamn Studios/StudioHRTN/Goodform using monthly ad spend or revenue threshold to route to a call vs a free guide.
- Own content: "teardown of a famous funnel" plus comment-keyword DM reel format.
- Shipping address in lead forms: consider for Ilene Joy gifting follow-up (postcards), but not for India-first COD brand without consent.

Doubts & caveats
- "Deemed illegal by the government" is clickbait and unverified: the cited item is a class action about Hims & Hers (securities), and the FTC claim is not shown; a commenter says it's not illegal. The quiz is not itself the subject.
- "25% of 600 ads" and funnel logic are based on an observed screenshot and may change; collecting phone/address has privacy implications (India DPDP act/consent).
- Creator sells quiz funnels, so the framing is promotional.

Full transcript
[0s] You doubled your ad budget, your results got worse, and the system did exactly what it's built to do.
[7s] Picture everyone your ad could reach as a line of people. The platform sorts that line.
[14s] At the front, the people it thinks are most likely to buy. At the back, the people it thinks
[20s] never will. Now you spend $100. The system starts at the front, where the odds are best.
[28s] Say 2 out of every 100 people there end up buying. Great week! So you double the budget.
[35s] But the front of the line is already used up. The next $100 has to go further back.
[42s] Say 1 out of 100 buys there. Your average just slid from 2 down to 1.5. Same ad. Same targeting.
[52s] Worse number. And it gets harder. The people at the front aren't only on your list.
[58s] Every other advertiser wants them too. So the deeper you push, the more you pay to keep winning
[65s] them. Meta's own help pages put it plainly. Costs tend to rise as you spend more on any one thing.
[73s] Economists have a name for this. Diminishing returns. The first dollar buys the easiest sale.
[81s] Every dollar after that buys a slightly harder one. So when you scale and the numbers dip,
[87s] nothing broke. You just reach the next people in line. More money doesn't buy better people.
[94s] It buys the next ones.

Watch the original
instagram.com/reel/DeRzDazODdV by @praxads.ig. Preview below is the first 15 seconds.
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