😭 Are you struggling to turn your winning ads...into MORE...

😭 Are you struggling to turn your winning ads...into MORE winners?

Here's how to use ITERATION to help...
✅ Decrease costs
✅ Increase sales
✅ Build MORE WINNING ADS.

🛑 STOP

Three of the biggest Creative Strategy mistakes I see brands make...

❌ Thinking they're building iterations...when they're really just variations.
❌ Iterating from the wrong ad element.
❌ Not iterating at all...

Let's define what an iteration is...

An ITERATION varies the winning elements of an idea to create an end product that's superior to the rest:

🛞 ➡️🚲 ➡️ 🚗 ➡️ 🏎

Iteration allows us to combine several winning elements into one ad to produce a super potent, radically superior ad.

On the opposite side, a VARIATION alters the base concept only, and rarely improves upon the last version...leading to a somewhat pointless result:

🛞 ➡️ 🛟 ➡️ ⛔️ ➡️ 🎾

Variation allows us to test base concepts in different forms, but usually doesn't produce superior results.

😱 Research shows that iteration activates a stronger psychological response in people: “[just] a 16% differentiation is enough to make a [top 50 Billboard] song move up one notch in the charts.”

TLDR: Customers want novelty, as long as it is based in the familiar.

🏆 Generating GOOD iterations starts with recognizing performing patters.

So, how do you take winning ads and ITERATE your way to success?

Here's how I do it...

Every ad is built from 4 parts:

1️⃣ Layout
2️⃣ Color
3️⃣ Photography
4️⃣ Message

⭐️ Before we start iterating from performing ads, we have to know WHICH parts of the ad worked. Tracking these elements across all your winning ads will help you make better iterative decisions.

For each performing ad:

➡️ Check the layout - are they all the same, or similar?
➡️ Check the color - what do they have in common?
➡️ Check the image - what similarities do they all have?
➡️ Check the message - what similarities are we seeing?

For example, I recently worked with a brand that found a winning ad and wanted to iterate more winners. During our initial audit, I noticed the original ad had:

✅ Centered layout.
✅ Important text highlighted in green.
✅ Striking imagery.
✅ Community-focused messaging.

So I produced a similar iteration that had:

✅ Centered layout...with more focus.
✅ Important text highlighted in green...with improved copy.
✅ Striking imagery...with more movement.
✅ Community-focused messaging...with a core motivation.

The second iteration performed way better than the first, even though their layout, color scheme, images and messaging were very similar. Pulling the BEST elements lead to a better ad, better performance, and a better result.

⭐️ Overall the goal of iteration is not to produce a completely NEW concept...but to improve on a concept that's already VALIDATED.

Some tips to help you design better ads...

🚨 In general (if you're in an English speaking country and you're not centering your content) you should ALWAYS layer your elements left-to-right. Since we read left to right, the eye starts top left and moves to bottom right. I try and keep the SHOP NOW button bottom right.

🚨 ALWAYS create movement within the ad. Create a colored border to help stop the eye. Break out of the ad edges with your photo, or even better...use circles to help the viewer mentally break out of the platform grid.

🚨 The more poignant (targeted) your message, the better your ad will perform. Put the most important copy in a different color, font, format (bold, italicized etc.) to help the reader pick out the core message FAST.

There's nuance to how I go about producing iterations at scale, but in general this is how I like to build them! How do you produce iterations?

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