7 key lessons from one of the best creative strategist in DTC

What's up, Marketers! This is Aazar.

This newsletter is about leveling up your paid growth marketing skills by analyzing the best brands' paid strategy, tactics, positioning, and value props.

This newsletter is divided into:

• Sharing what I've learned

• Sometimes sharing some other performance marketers’ lessons with you (this issue)

• And I analyze & compare the best ads on the internet

I desire to bring my readers the best information about advertising — at zero cost. In keeping with this theme, I’d like to thank our sponsors Motion for today’s newsletter.

This week's edition focuses on enhancing our creative skills, featuring insights from one of the top DTC creative strategists, Mirella Cresipi, who shared her expertise during Motion's online event.

Here are the best 7 lessons I learned from her.

1/ Industry benchmarks are bullshit

Many times they see that the creatives that have low CTR and hook rates are giving good results and cost per acquisition.

Since every account is different. Make sure while you research that you have a benchmark for that specific account, not industry benchmarks.

Focus on the account benchmarks.

2/ Comments are the goldmine for research

My research contained reviews, interviews and insights. But mostly it never occurred to me that TikTok comments, ad comments, and Reddit comments would be a gold mine.

When you’re creating ads, make special time for researching comments.

Another one of my favorite DTC advertisers also takes the same approach and talks about how he is leveraging that:

Some more insights about this here. 

3/ Stop mimicking, understand from a strategic POV instead

Most advertisers are copying competitors' ads because they have been running for a long time. (Oops Guilty!)

Mirella’s recommendation is to:

• Find formats that are working

• Find emotional motivators

• What angle is working and put your spin on it

• Observe outside verticals other than your competitors (this means stay subscribe to The Performers’ newsletter) 😂

4/ Don’t focus on trend moments, instead trendy forces

Drawing from TikTok’s research into how trends evolve on the platform, Mirella’s team looks at three patterns: 

• Trend moments: These are creative prompts (such as a trending audio clip or meme) that quickly gain buzz and adoption. Many creative and social teams chase these moments but they burst fast. 

• ‍Trend signals: These are an emerging user behavior or interest revealed through new content patterns. These can be useful for creative angles. 

• ‍Trend forces: These are enduring large-scale behavioral transformations. This is where Mirella’s team often aims as you can create ads with enough longevity to scale and handle spend. 

Since trends die fast, you need to focus on creatives that will scale for a longer period of time.

“You want to focus your time on understanding the behavioral changes 

and language of the platform you are advertising in—not just jumping on 

minor trend moments.” 

Mirella’s team studies how trends inform creative execution including the types of camera angles, transitions, and use of sound.

So, focus on larger behavior changes, not minor trends.

5/ Creative diversification isn’t just about different formats

Many have heard about “creative diversification” in ads from the Performance5 guideline by Meta.

Sure, formats are there like image, video, catalog ads, carousel ads, 30-seconds videos and 1-minute videos. 

But creative diversification is also about:

• Level of awareness (unaware, problem aware, solution aware, product aware and most aware)

• POV – Brand vs Customer

• Tone of voice: Humorous, educational, provocative, question-based, statistical, empathetic, format, etc.

• Visuals, voiceovers, AI, font treatment.

• Hi-fi and low-fi ads 

One good infographic from Motion and Mirella on creative diversity: 

6/ Your sound-on is more critical than you think

Here's an eye-opener: 95% of TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts users keep the sound on! Sound isn't just background noise—it's a crucial part of capturing your audience’s attention.

While many of us focus heavily on perfect visuals, hooks, and scripts, only to slap on stock music at the end, Mirella points out a missed opportunity. “We often overlook how pivotal sound can be, settling for stock when we should be innovating,” she notes.

Contrast this with how your typical TikTok creator operates, starting with a killer sound—maybe a catchy snippet from a celebrity chat, a viral tune, or a quirky sound effect—and crafting their video around it.

Mirella’s team has shifted gears over the past six months, embracing an audio-first approach. The results? “Custom sounds have consistently delivered better performance than our business-as-usual creatives,” reveals Mirella.

So, let's take a cue from the creators: start with sound, and let it drive your creative process. The impact? Audibly awesome.

Here are some examples of audio-first ad she created:

Look at how audio was used to make user feel “confident”:

Here’s another ad where she matched sound of alarm, payments, etc. to convey how the user changed since N26:

Based on these, you will be able to create the ear-stopper, not just the scroll stopper.

Here are two resources from Mirella to find good sound to steal from:

• TiKTok sound library

• Meta sound library

7/ Creative refresh to fix the ad fatigue

When your scaling creative hits fatigue. Don’t pause your ads. Refresh the creative based in the same adset.

Here are the recommendations from Mirella to refresh the creative of the winning ad.

Here’s the takeaway: To truly amplify your growth, you’ve got to play a dual strategy—optimize what’s already performing and hunt for the next breakthrough–all within separate ad sets.

That’s precisely why it’s critical to keep exploring new audiences. This approach ensures you're not just riding the wave of current successes but also actively seeking out fresh waters to conquer. Keep this balance, and you're setting yourself up for continuous momentum.

If you want to get the latest scoop on creative strategy. Mirella is speaking in one of the Motion’s events again. Don’t miss out on these. I love their events so much that I don’t miss out on any, and I always learn a thing or two.

They have a new live event series called Make Ads That Convert.

This free, virtual training series will take you deep into the mechanics of making Facebook and TikTok ads that convert like crazy.

It runs from May 23 to June 20, with new 1-hour live sessions dropping every week. 

Check out the details and get your free ticket here 👀

Here’s the speaker line-up: 

• Mirella Crespi - The Performance Ad Mastermind (you just got 7 lessons from her)

• Jess Bachman - The Creativity Machine

• Savannah Sanchez  - The TikTok & Meta Creative Force

• Dara Denney - The Ultimate Creative Strategist 

• ALL of these speakers together on one mega stage 

One virtual stage. 4 marketing mega-minds. 5 straight weeks of creative strategy 🔥

Each speaker has real clout (I’m fan of all of them). 

They’ve managed hundreds of millions of dollars in ad spend, turned unknown DTC brands into household names, and are now joining forces . . . to teach you everything! 

Sessions include: 👇

1️⃣ Setting the foundation: creative operations and planning

2️⃣ Ramping up ad production: ship new creative with speed and scale

3️⃣ Mastering creative hooks: must-try ad formats and endless inspiration 

4️⃣ Tracking performance: creative analytics deep dive

5️⃣ Spitting Creative Fire: How to scale spend with creative testing and giant wins

BONUS: Attendees will receive the Make Ads That Convert workbook. 📕 A guide to help you put your learnings—making incredible ads, analyzing data, and scaling your accounts—into action.

Get Your Free Ticket 💜

Can’t make every session? No stress. Register anyway. You’ll get recordings, the Make Ads That Convert workbook, and secret bonuses 👀

Footnotes, credits and resource:

• Mirella’s Twitter where she is active

• The video content I learned some key lessons from

All credit goes to Motion and Mirella for this content.

Happy Growing with Paid Social,

Aazar Shad

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