Episode #118
118: Spend It Like It's Your Own Money: Aashna Makin on the Habit That Defines Great Media Buyers
The day Aashna Makin's employer offered her a promotion, she quit, a decision that has looked more strategic with every year since. She's gone on to manage over $75 million in paid media across 150+ niches, building a full-time practice from the ground up and recently sharing a panel stage with Danny at SMX Advanced in Boston. In this episode, Aashna breaks down what separates paid ads that actually grow a business from ones that just burn budget, why lead gen is a fundamentally harder problem than e-commerce, and the one habit she wishes every junior media buyer would build from day one. Episode Highlights: Aashna and Danny discuss why paid ads that drive real growth require a predictable, documented system, not just a well-structured campaign, and what happens to accounts built on checklists instead of strategy. She gives the B2B team-building example: how a campaign performing perfectly on every platform metric was creating a lead-quality problem that had nothing to do with the ads and everything to do with calendar availability. The reveal why lead gen is fundamentally harder than e-commerce in paid media, from messaging precision to seasonality to the scarcity of quality resources for practitioners working in the space. Aashna makes the case for pinning headlines, explaining why she hasn't been convinced by Google's arguments against it, particularly for businesses where a single wrong audience segment can poison the entire pipeline. The conversation details the ownership mindset: treating every dollar of ad spend as if it's leaving your own bank account, and why she considers it the single most important habit a new media buyer can build. Episode Links: Aashna Makin on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aashnamakin Website: reachaashna.com Sell Like Crazy by Sabri Suby: Available on Amazon SMX Advanced 2026 Panel, "Agentic PPC: What's Real, What's Hype, What's Next": searchengineland.com Send us Fan Mail Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.
