The No-Bro-Science Guide to Ad Creation

Hey there, 

Welcome back for some bites to chew on

In this week’s newsletter, we’re talking about creative… 

There’s a lot of bro science out there on media buying and ad creatives. 

Run statics. Run videos. Run Memes.

But in this newsletter - we want to take a step back and dive into what Meta tells us about ad creation and iteration. 

We guess you can call it Meta Science.

COT Community

Before we dive in - we have three announcements to make

• We just released our second episode of Chew On This, Season 3, with Adrianna Carrig from Little Words Project. It’s an absolute killer episode with an exceptional entrepreneur. Go here to listen

• On the 16th of January - we’re hosting our very first Chew On This Event in NYC. RSVP here for good vibes, good people, and good food

• We’re also hosting the official Retail Fest Founders Dinner on the 25th of January in San Diego. RSVP here.

On the Menu

• What is differentiated ad content, and why should you care? 

• A tactical guide to creating differentiated ad content

• How we’re making iterations at Obvi

Bite 1: What is differentiated ad content & why should you care? 

According to Meta - your ad performance starts to tank by about 45% after approximately 4 exposures on average. 

That means - If I’ve seen your ad 4 times, then the likelihood of me converting is almost halved. 

… and this sucks, right? 

As you can imagine, the solution lies in differentiating your ad creatives. 

“But how?” - you may ask. 

That’s what we’ll talk about now… and the best way to explain it is to show it

Example 1

❌Differentiated Ad Content is NOT: Recycling the same ad format (A static ad) with slight variations in the content or colour

✅ Differentiated Ad Content IS: Using the same “winning style” in multiple ad formats such as reels, catalogue ads, etc

Example 2

❌ Differentiated Ad Content is NOT: Using the same background, same format, or even the same model - with slight changes to the visual format

✅ Differentiated Ad Content IS: Showing the product in different settings and testing between polished (high-fi) ads and simpler (lo-fi) ads that look more natural

Example 3

❌Differentiated Ad Content is NOT: Using the same ad copy for the majority of your ads and not tailoring them to the specific target persona

✅ Differentiated Ad Content is: Changing the ad copy based on the target persona that the ad is trying to resonate with

Bite 2: A Tactical Guide to Creating Differentiated Ad Content

Alright - let’s get tactical. 

If you’re reading this and want a very simple and tactical guide to differentiating your ad content - this is it; 

Pre Ad Creation

• Think about different types of target personas within your target audience. For example… 

  • 30-year-old executive who wants to stay lean, healthy, and fit to improve performance and physical appearance

  • Solo mom with 3 kids that are trying to lose weight but struggling with accountability and support from peers

  • Long-time overweight person who has been trying every solution on the market without seeing results

• Create ad content based on these different types of personas 

  • They all care about different things… so you need to speak differently to each of them

  • They all have their unique problems, so if you’re content, don’t talk about those specific problems - they won’t listen

• Test the different “personas” and the different content types in an ad set and let Meta’s system find your best target customer.

Post Ad Creation

• Closely monitor your ad frequency and start changing your creatives when an ad has a frequency of +ad

• Take the winning style of content and the winning messaging - and test it in different ad formats, such as video, GIFS, statics, etc. 

• Use the learnings on the target persona to inform the rest of your ads + your landing pages + your overall offer. 

Bite 3: How we’re making iterations at Obvi

Alright - last but not least… 

Let us show you a few examples of how we’ve done this at Obvi. 

Here is an example of one of our best-performing static ads for a LONG time

At a certain point, performance started tanking - so we needed to iterate it. 

Here’s how

Tool Spotlight

Alright - now let’s talk about our favourite tool for finding winning ads and creating more of them!

Most media buyers and strategists are not equipped with the right tools to help them get a good overview of what’s working and what isn’t. 

For a long time, we wasn’t either. 

We used to have 30 different spreadsheets and 43 different Meta tabs open at the same time. Analyzing creatives was one hell of a mess. 

Until… we found Motion. 

Motion is the tool that all media buyers have been dreaming about for years, but no one really nailed the creation of it - before these guys. (I’ve tried most of them…)

Here’s why we like it

✅ It’s incredibly easy to get an overview of your creative’s performance and analyze the data

✅ We can visually analyze ads and look at correlations between metrics without having to pull it into a excel sheet

✅ It’s 100x easier to work with a team of editors, writers, and creative strategists when you all have one source of truth, easy reporting, and easy feedback and commenting.

If you want to ship more winning ad creatives and save time on creative analysis - we can strongly recommend Motion. 

It starts from $99/month - which is a steal when you consider the profit that ONE winning ad creative can bring in

Anyway - go here to check them out. If you mention that Chew On This sent you, you’ll get a 50% discount on your first month.

PS; If you have additional time and want to learn more about creative analysis - check out this semi-viral video that I posted earlier this week where I show ALL the numbers behind some of my winning ads. 

#ProudPartner

Catchew Later!

We sincerely appreciate every moment you spend with us and reading our work. We’ll see you soon.

All the best,

Ron & Ash