The Marketing Pro That Used Memes to Find Her Target Audience

Chatting with Lisa Avvocato of Avvocato MKTG about doing more with less

When budgets are tight and attention spans even tighter, marketers need to get scrappy. That’s where Lisa Avvocato comes in. As the founder of Avvocato MKTG, she’s made a career out of helping early-stage startups and fast-growing brands punch above their weight. From crafting go-to-market strategies to driving revenue with scrappy, product-led campaigns, Lisa knows how to turn limited resources into lasting impact. Her secret? Cutting through the noise with creativity, precision, and just the right amount of rebellion.

We sat down with Lisa to talk about her work and why she believes brand, not volume, is the future of marketing.

Q: What’s shifted in the way you approach marketing today?

Lisa Avvocato:

I’ve always approached marketing through the lens of product and revenue, or telling a story in a way that aligns with growth. But what’s changed is how noisy the landscape has become. With AI, the volume of messages has exploded. Even great writing gets buried in the clutter. When we’re inundated with all of these messages, we really need companies to get back to the basics. The next wave of successful companies will be those that invest in brand and brand assets. That’s how you stand out now.

"It doesn’t matter how great the writing is. You’re still just drowning in a sea of clutter."

Q: How have you gotten a strong ROI on a shoestring marketing budget?

Lisa Avvocato:

When budgets are small, creativity has to do the heavy lifting. With Vitam, a new recreational seltzer brand I’m working with, we’re building organic traction by leaning into affiliate marketing and finding micro-influencers. It’s about identifying where your audience hangs out and meeting them with tailored content.

In B2B, that often means being scrappy with paid ads. Too many companies still operate with a “throw everything at the wall” mentality—dumping budgets into Google and Meta ads without first refining who they’re actually targeting. The result is tons of wasted spend and low conversion rates.

We saw a massive shift when we took the time to get super specific, especially on LinkedIn. I’m talking 15x improvement in click-through rates. And almost every single lead that came in was part of our exact target market. It was about being intentional: refining the filters and zeroing in on the right job titles, industries, and geographies. 

“When you’re being scrappy, it’s all about eliminating waste—wasted time, resources, and budget.”

Q: What’s one of the scrappiest or most creative campaigns you’ve pulled off?

Lisa Avvocato:

One of my favorites was for a company targeting machine learning (ML) engineers. This is an audience that usually tries to steer clear of traditional sales and marketing. So instead of trying to reach them with traditional marketing efforts, we just said, “Let’s lean into it.” We had our internal ML team create memes, and then we pushed them out on Reddit as ads. 

It was a hit. My favorite proof point, and what I think was a real indicator of the campaign’s success, was that one person even filled out a form just to say, “Your ads suck, and whoever makes these memes should be fired.” But the fact that they were so bothered told us it was working. He liked the meme, he clicked it, and it directed him to the company page. We hit a nerve, but in a good way. 

Q: How are you using AI to stretch budgets?

Lisa Avvocato:

Large language models (LLMs) have been a game-changer. They help me structure thoughts, do research, and write better content much faster than I would without them. And with the rise of multimodal models, I’m doing things like tabular data analysis and image generation, which used to be out of reach without a bigger team.

That said, AI won’t replace strategic thinking. It can ideate, but if everyone’s using the same tools the same way, you end up with homogeneous output. You still need someone to steer the creative direction and understand nuance.

"AI makes the job easier—but it won’t replace strategy, creativity, or brand.”