The Marketing Operators on creative strategy

Creative strategy is the fastest-growing field in digital marketing.

The discipline has become essential to unlocking ad performance at scale. 

Why is this happening though? And how can creative strategy help you grow your business? We held a Q&A with the hosts of the Marketing Operators podcast to shed some light on the subject.

Some key takeaways from this blog:

• Make different ads for different buyers 💡
• Lean into creative testing when performance is down 📉
• Keep an eye out for external factors that influence ad performance 🕵️

Creative is the best way to scale 📈

Connor MacDonald of Ridge, Cody Plofker of Jones Road Beauty, and Connor Rolain of HexClad host the Marketing Operators podcast together, sharing learnings from their hundreds of millions in combined ad spend.

They weren’t shy about the importance of creative strategy in the current digital marketing landscape.

That’s a bold claim, but there’s ample evidence to back it up.

Why creative matters more than ever 🧑‍🎨

Remember iOS 14? It wasn’t as catastrophic as some marketers feared, but it has shifted the digital marketing landscape.

Targeting is weaker, which makes ads less effective (since they’re served to a more general audience).

The big ad platforms have worked to regain effectiveness, largely through algorithms and machine learning. That’s why the value of a media buyer has been squeezed — their role is being automated.

It’s also why creative strategy has emerged as the difference-maker. Creative is one of the few levers left to pull.

Make diverse ads for better testing 👩‍🔬

Effective creative testing relies on a lot of data points. So yes, you need to be producing a lot of volume, but more importantly, you need a lot of variation.

Try wildly different ads to find winners. Different formats, different hooks, and most importantly different messages.

Once you’ve found a winner, make small tweaks to find more.

Test positioning with single-message ads ☝️

Ads that highlight multiple selling points may ultimately convert, but — when testing — you won’t know which message is driving conversions.

Test ads with one clear selling point to get a sense of which message(s) resonate most with segments of your audience.

If one message outperforms the other across ad formats and channels, it’s a stronger selling point. Double down on the winner. 🥇

Consider different audience segments 🧩

People buy the same product for different reasons, so it’s important to vary the messaging in your ads.

Electrolyte drinks are meant to help athletes rehydrate, but college students buy them to nurse hangovers. Tennis balls were made for the racket sport, but have become synonymous with dogs.

Don’t ignore segments of your audience just because they don’t perfectly fit your ideal customer profile.

For example, look at these two ads for The Ridge wallet.

The ad above targets people who are worried about losing their wallets.

The one below speaks to someone who's sick of their wallet taking up so much pocket space.

Same product, different messages. Both winning ads. 

Lean in when performance is down 😵‍💫

Playing it safe is a common mistake when ad performance is down. If you have multiple struggling campaigns, the Operators recommend upping your spend on testing.

Connor Rolain suggested that 20-30% of ad spend might go to testing new concepts when things are going well, but that number can jump to 50% if your account is struggling.

It’s important to understand your benchmarks before you ratchet up your testing budget, though. There are always market factors outside your control that impact ad performance. 

Measure campaigns against your overall portfolio to reduce the effect of external factors. If your entire ad account is down, measure against the same time frame in previous years.

You don’t need a deep dive into the macroeconomic state of the world. Just make sure there are no obvious explanations for poor performance. If there are none, start doing more testing.

Tailor your hook to your audience 🪝

Creative is the new targeting. Use your hook to reel in your target audience or audience segment. Speak directly to them with targeted references, visuals, and language.

Travis Tyler, Motion’s resident ad professor, recommends stealing these three scroll-stopping ad formats...

Consider how you could tailor these hooks to fit your product, and more importantly, your audience.

Tying it all together 🧵

Creative strategy is crucial for anyone running ads on social media right now, and it will only grow more important.

These learnings will make sure you stay ahead of your competition:

• Make a wide range of ads
• Test segment-specific messaging
• Lean in when performance is down

You can also check out the full event recording on our YouTube channel.