Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! It’s a really good question you’ve asked, and something I see a lot of people running ads grapple with. It’s one of those things that seems simple on the surface but actually gets to the very heart of what it means to get good results for a client in this day and age. I’m happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and guidance based on what we've seen work.
You’re dead on that creative strategy and production is a seperate skillset from the technical side of managing campaigns. A lot of people think our job is just about picking the right audience and setting the right bids, but that's only half the story, and it's becoming a smaller half every year. I'll walk you through how I think about it and how you might be able to approach this with your client.
I'd say you're right, but you can't ignore it...
Let's get this out of the way first: you are absolutely correct. Designing a compelling image, writing copy that grabs someone by the scruff of the neck, and producing a video that people actually want to watch is a completely different discipline to analysing CPA data, structuring campaigns, and setting up tracking. One is art and psychology, the other is data and logic. It's rare to find someone who is a genuine master of both.
But here's the rub. On platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the creative isn't just a part of the campaign; it is the campaign. The algorithms are getting so advanced now with things like broad targeting and automated placements that the platform is doing a lot of the technical heavy lifting for us. It’s getting better and better at finding the right people. So, what becomes the deciding factor? What makes one advertiser succeed where another fails, even if they're targeting the exact same audience? It’s the creative. It's the one big lever we have left to pull that can make a monumental difference.
Think of it like this: your campaign setup – the targeting, the bidding, the budget – is like a high-performance engine. The creative is the fuel. You can have the most powerful, finely-tuned engine in the world, but if you put dirty, low-quality fuel into it, it’s going to sputter, stall, and ultimately break down. You're just not going to get where you want to go. When you're running ads with creative that you know sucks, you're knowingly putting bad fuel in the tank and then wondering why you're not winning the race. It's a recipe for failure and, honestly, a waste of your client's money. You could have the most perfectly optimised campaign structure, but if the ad itself is weak, you're just paying to show more people something they dont want to see. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I've learned that ignoring the creative issue is the fastest way to a failed campaign and an unhappy client.
We'll need to look at what's actually going wrong...
When you say the creatives "suck," what does that actually mean in terms of the data you're seeing? Bad creative isn't just a matter of taste; it has a direct, measurable, and pretty brutal impact on every single one of your key metrics. It's probably the root cause of more performance issues than any other single factor. Let's break down where the damage is being done.
-> Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Cost Per Click (CPC): This is the most obvious one. If an ad is boring, ugly, or just doesn't connect with the audience, they're not going to click on it. It gets lost in the noise of their feed. A low CTR is the first sign your creative isn't cutting it. And because the platform wants to show engaging content, it will often penalise un-engaging ads by making you pay more for each click, so your CPC shoots up. You end up paying more to get fewer people to even look at the offer.
-> Cost Per Mille (CPM): This is how much you pay for a thousand impressions. While it's largely driven by your audience choice and competition, platforms like Meta have a quality score system. Ads that get poor engagement (few clicks, no comments, people hiding it) are deemed low quality. The platform's job is to keep users happy on the platform, and showing them rubbish ads does the opposite. As a result, it will charge you a premium to show your low-quality ad. So bad creative directly leads to higher CPMs, making your entire campaign less efficient before anyone even has a chance to click.
-> Conversion Rate (CVR): This is the killer. Let's say you manage to get some clicks despite the poor creative. What happens next? The ad failed to do its job of properly framing the product or service, building trust, or creating desire. The people who click are often not properly qualified. They land on the page, they're confused or unimpressed because the ad set the wrong expectation, and they leave. You get a load of product page views but no one adds to cart. Or you get loads of adds to cart but no one completes the purchase. The creative failed to build the momentum needed to carry the user through to the final action. A great ad pre-sells the user; a bad ad just confuses them.
-> Ad Fatigue: If you only have a few bad creatives, they will burn out incredibly fast. The audience gets sick of seeing the same weak ad over and over, performance tanks, and you're left with nothing. A solid creative strategy involves having a pipeline of different ads and angles to test, so you can keep things fresh and maintain performance over the long term.
When you put it all together, bad creative means you pay more to get your ad seen (high CPM), fewer people who see it are interested (low CTR), you pay more for those few who are interested (high CPC), and almost none of them end up doing what you want them to do (low CVR). It's a cycle of inefficiency. For your client, this means their budget is being wasted, and they're not getting the results they're paying you for. The problem isn't the ad spend; it's what the ad spend is being spent on.
You probably should start thinking like a creative strategist...
So, how do you fix this? You have to take control of the creative strategy. Even if you don't end up designing the ads yourself, you need to be the one directing the ship. You're the one who understands the audience, the platform, and the campaign objectives. Leaving the creative direction to a client who doesn't understand these things is like letting a passenger try to fly the plane. It's your job as the expert to provide that direction. Here’s a simple framework for how to approach it.
Step 1: Deeply Understand the Audience and the 'Hook'
Before a single pixel is pushed, you have to go back to basics. Who are you actually talking to? What keeps them up at night? What are their biggest pain points and desires related to what your client sells? Then, what is the single most compelling thing about your client's offer that solves that problem or fulfils that desire? This is your 'hook'. You need to be able to articulate this clearly. Without this foundation, any creative you make will be guesswork.
Step 2: Brainstorm Multiple Messaging Angles
A common mistake is to just create one ad that says "Here's our product, please buy it." This rarely works. You need to approach the audience from different psychological angles, because different things resonate with different people. Here are a few classic angles to start with:
- The Problem/Solution Angle: State the painful problem clearly, agitate it a little, then present your client's product as the perfect solution. This is direct and powerful.
- The Social Proof Angle: Use customer testimonials, reviews, or case studies. Let other happy customers do the selling for you. This builds immense trust. I remember working on a campaign for a medical job matching SaaS. We managed to reduce the Cost Per User Acquisition from £100 down to £7 by using video testimonials from both doctors and hospitals talking about how much easier the platform made their lives. It's far more believable than you saying it yourself.
- The Benefit-Driven Angle: Don't talk about the features of the product (e.g., "it has a 5000mAh battery"). Talk about the benefit to the user (e.g., "use your phone all day without ever worrying about finding a charger").
- The UGC/Aspirational Angle: Show real people using and loving the product. User-Generated Content (UGC) is massive right now for a reason – it feels authentic and relatable. We've had several SaaS clients see fantastic results with simple, low-budget UGC videos. It's not about slick production; it's about authenticity.
Step 3: Match the Angle to the Right Format
Once you have your angles, you can think about the best format to deliver that message.
- Single Image: Great for a strong, benefit-driven headline and a stunning visual. Fast, effective, and gets the message across instantly.
- Video: Perfect for storytelling, demonstrations, and testimonials. The first 3 seconds are everything. You have to earn the viewer's attention.
- Carousel: Excellent for showing multiple features, products, or telling a step-by-step story.
To show you what I mean, let's imagine your client sells a project management software for small businesses. Here’s how you could quickly map out some creative ideas:
| Messaging Angle | Ad Concept | Potential Format |
|---|---|---|
| Problem/Solution | Headline: "Tired of tracking projects on messy spreadsheets?" Visual: A split screen showing a chaotic spreadsheet on one side and your client's clean dashboard on the other. |
Single Image Ad |
| Social Proof | A short video of a real customer (a small business owner) talking to their webcam about how the software saved them "10 hours a week". Add a quote and their name as text overlay. | UGC Video Ad |
| Benefit-Driven | A carousel ad where each card highlights a key benefit with an icon and short text: 1. "Never Miss a Deadline" 2. "Keep Your Team in Sync" 3. "See Project Profitability Instantly" |
Carousel Ad |
Suddenly, instead of one "sucky" creative, you have a whole portfolio of strategic ideas ready to be produced and tested. You've moved from being a reactive manager of bad ads to a proactive driver of strategy. This is where your value really lies.
You'll need a proper testing structure...
Having a bunch of creative ideas is great, but it's useless unless you have a robust system for testing them to find out what actually works. The goal isn't to guess the winner; it's to let the audience's data tell you what the winner is. This is where you merge the creative strategy with your campaign execution skills.
A simple and effective way to do this is with a CBO (Campaign Budget Optimisation) campaign. The structure could look something like this:
Campaign: Prospecting - CBO Enabled
- Ad Set 1: Broad Audience. Trust the algorithm. This works surprisingly well once your pixel has enough data.
- Ad Set 2: Interest Stack. Group together 5-10 of your most relevant, high-intent interests.
- Ad Set 3: Lookalike Audience. A 1% Lookalike of your best customers or leads is usually a powerful place to start.
Inside EACH of these ad sets, you would place your 3-5 different creative concepts. For example, the UGC video, the single image ad, and the carousel ad. The CBO campaign will automatically allocate more budget to the best-performing ad set, and within each ad set, the algorithm will push the creative that's getting the best results (i.e., the lowest cost per conversion).
After a few days (the exact time depends on budget and conversion volume), you'll have clear data. You can look at the results and say, "Okay, the UGC video is outperforming everything else by a mile, and it's working best in the Lookalike audience." Now you know what to scale. You can turn off the losing creatives and ad sets, and start thinking about your next test. Maybe you test different variations of the UGC video? Or test the winning UGC video against a new set of creative ideas? The process never stops. I remember a campaign we worked on for a women's apparel brand where we achieved a 691% return. It wasn't a fluke. It was the result of this relentless process: constantly testing new product shots, different ad copy, different models, different offers. It's the only way to stay ahead.
The key metric to judge success is your target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) or Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). Don't get distracted by vanity metrics like CTR. An ad with a great CTR that doesn't convert is a failure. You need to be ruthless. If a creative has spent 2-3x your target CPA without getting a conversion, it's time to kill it and move on.
I'd say you have a few options for offering this...
Okay, so you're bought into the idea that you need to be in charge of creative strategy. But what about the actual production? You said it yourself, it's a seperate skillset. So how do you actually get these ads made? You've got a few realistic options.
1. The DIY Method: You learn to do it yourself. Tools like Canva have made basic graphic design accessible to everyone. You can use stock video sites and simple editing tools to create video ads. This is a good starting point if your budget (or your client's) is tight. The downside is that you might not be a great designer, and your output might still look amateurish. It's also very time-consuming and can distract you from the strategy and management work you're best at.
2. The Freelancer Method: This is probably the best middle ground for most small agencies or freelancers. You act as the creative director – you come up with the strategy, the angles, and the concepts using the framework above. Then you hire a freelancer from a platform like Upwork or Fiverr to do the actual production. You can hire a graphic designer for image ads and a video editor for video ads on a per-project basis. This lets you access specialised skills without the overhead of a full-time employee. You maintain control of the strategy, which is the most important part.
3. The Partnership Method: Find a small creative agency or a freelance designer/videographer you trust and form a strategic partnership. You handle all the paid media buying and strategy, and you refer clients to them for creative production (and maybe they refer clients to you for media buying). This can work really well as you both focus on what you do best. The key is to find a partner who understands direct response advertising and isn't just focused on making things look pretty.
4. The In-House Method: As you grow, you eventually hire a creative person to join your team. This gives you the most control and the fastest turnaround times, but it's a significant financial commitment. This is a long-term goal.
No matter which option you choose, the critical point is that you must be the one driving the creative brief based on your campaign goals. Production can be outsourced, but the strategic direction cannot.
You probably should re-frame this for your client...
Now for the trickiest part: talking to your client. You can't just go to them and say "your creatives suck." That's confrontational and puts them on the defensive. You need to position this as a strategic, data-driven opportunity to improve their results. You are the expert they hired, so you need to lead them.
Schedule a meeting and frame the conversation around performance. You could say something like this:
"I've been analysing the campaign performance over the last few weeks, and I've identified our biggest opportunity for growth and for lowering your cost per lead. Right now, our campaign metrics, specifically our CTR and conversion rates, are being capped by our current creative assets. To unlock the next level of performance, we need to implement a structured creative testing strategy. This involves developing and testing a range of new ad concepts based on different messaging angles, designed specifically to resonate with our target audience and drive conversions. I believe by taking a more strategic approach to our creative, we can significantly improve our return on ad spend."
This approach does a few things. It shows you're being proactive and analytical. It uses data ("CTR and conversion rates") to justify the change, making it objective, not subjective. It positions the change as an "opportunity" and a way to "unlock performance," which is what they want to hear. And it clearly states the desired business outcome: a better return on their investment.
From there, you can present your plan. Explain the different angles you want to test and how you'll measure success. And then, you introduce your new service. You can offer a "Creative Strategy & Testing Package" as a monthly add-on to your management fee, or charge on a per-project basis to produce a batch of new creatives for testing. This is how you increase your own revenue while delivering far better results for the client. You're solving their real problem, and you should be paid for it.
This is the main advice I have for you:
I know that's a lot to take in, so I've tried to boil it down into the most important, actionable steps for you. This is the path from being a simple campaign manager to a true growth partner for your clients.
| Area of Focus | My Recommendation | Why It's So Important |
|---|---|---|
| Mindset Shift | Stop seeing creative as a "separate skill set" that isn't your problem. Accept that creative strategy is a core part of a paid ads manager's job now. | On modern ad platforms, the creative is the single biggest performance lever you can pull. Ignoring it means leaving massive results on the table. |
| Creative Strategy | Develop a simple framework: 1. Understand the audience & hook. 2. Brainstorm multiple messaging angles (problem/solution, social proof, etc.). 3. Match angles to formats. | This moves you from guessing to a structured, repeatable process for generating ad ideas that are far more likely to work. |
| Campaign Integration | Use a structured testing campaign (like CBO) to run your different creative concepts against each other and let the data decide the winner based on Cost Per Acquisition. | This removes subjectivity and emotion from the process. It's the only way to truely know what works and what doesn't, allowing you to scale the winners. |
| Service Offering | Choose a model for production (DIY
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