What's up, Marketers! This is Aazar.
This newsletter focuses on helping you with your creative strategy skills by analyzing the strategies, tactics, positioning, and value propositions of top brands. It is divided into the following sections: sharing my insights, occasionally sharing lessons from other performance marketers, and analyzing and comparing the best ads on the internet (in this issue).
A little side note: I hope you, your family, and friends are doing well. The world has gone a little crazy with all the conflicts in the last two days. Sending a message of peace and calm to you.
Momentum Market Fit
Ads don't build momentum. They expose whether you have any.
I've watched brands with average creatives scale past $2M a month. And I've watched brands with world-class creative teams hemorrhage cash every single month. Same budget. Same platform. Same agency. Worlds apart in results.
The founders of the losing brand always blame the same things. The creative. The targeting. The algorithm. They never look at the actual problem.
After auditing dozens of ad accounts, the pattern is always the same. The brands that scale aren't running better ads. They're sitting in a better position before the ads even launch.
There's a variable most founders never measure. It determines almost everything about how your ads will perform before you spend a single dollar.
Today I'm breaking down exactly what that variable is, which position you're in right now, and what to actually do about it.
So, let’s talk about these…
Quadrant 3: Good Product + No Buzz
This is where most brands actually live.
The product works. It's fine. But it doesn't travel on its own. No word of mouth. No organic pull. Nobody's posting about it unprompted.
Here, the ads have to do all the heavy lifting. The product won't help you. The algorithm won't save you. Everything depends on your creative system.
Growth here is entirely manufactured. You need:
Sharp hooks
Strong offers
Tight funnels
A creative testing operation that never sleeps
If this is your situation, the job is becoming world-class at advertising.
There are many ways to approach this. Here are some formats that actually move the needle:
1. Product in Action
Show exactly what the product does, no fluff, just a clear and compelling demonstration with benefits.
Psychology behind this: Removes ambiguity. The brain buys what it can clearly visualize in use
2. UGC Social Proof
A real customer sharing their honest experience in their own words
Psychology behind this: People trust people. A stranger's genuine story carries more weight than any brand claim
3. Borrowed Credibility
A doctor, scientist, or relevant professional validating the product
Psychology behind this: Authority triggers subconscious trust. A white coat or a title lowers resistance before a single word lands
4. Unexpected or Absurd Hook
Open with something visually or verbally shocking that stops the scroll cold
Psychology behind this: Pattern interrupts force attention. The brain is wired to investigate what doesn't make sense
5. Raw Shocking Demonstration
An unscripted, unpolished demonstration that feels like something you accidentally stumbled across
Psychology behind this: Authenticity disarms skepticism. The less it looks like an ad, the more people believe it
6. Exaggerated Humor
Use comedy to oversell how good the product is in a way that's obviously playful
Psychology behind this: Humor lowers sales resistance. People buy from brands they enjoy, not just brands they trust
7. Micro-Targeted Persona Ads
Speak directly to one specific type of person and their exact situation
Psychology behind this: Specificity creates instant relevance. When someone feels like an ad was made for them, conversion follows
Tools worth checking out:
Atria: You're only as good an advertiser as your swipe file. Atria saves and analyzes ads, with AI to create concepts and scripts in seconds. Try it for free. It offers ad analytics, a swipe file, an AI creative strategist, collaboration tools, asset management, and competitor tracking. I’m not an ad genius, but Atria makes me one.
Quadrant 2: Great Product + Low Awareness
This is the most underrated position in advertising.
Retention is strong
Reviews are really good
Customers would recommend without incentives
The product genuinely solves something
The only problem is that nobody knows it exists yet.
This is where creative strategy actually feels good. The proof already exists. Your job is to put it in front of the right people in the right way.
Here are the formats that work best when the product is genuinely great:
1. Real Time Street Demonstration
Show the product being used in the real world, raw and unscripted
Psychology behind this: Authenticity in a real environment makes the product feel accessible and immediately credible
2. Aspirational Identity Building
Show a lifestyle where your product is quietly central, without ever saying "people love us"
Psychology behind this: People buy who they want to become, not just what they need. Gymshark mastered this completely
3. Celebrity + Data
Pair a recognizable face with hard numbers or clinical proof
Psychology behind this: Celebrity creates attention. Data creates belief. Together they close the gap between interest and action
4. Honest Product Explanation
Walk through exactly what the product does, compare it to what people are currently using, and let the difference speak
Psychology behind this: Don't oversell. Just show the gap between normal and your product. The contrast does the convincing
5. Social Proof + Strong Guarantee
Lead with volume proof (sold out, 50,000+ customers) and back it with a risk reversal (90 day money back)
Psychology behind this: Social proof removes doubt. The guarantee removes risk. Both objections handled in one ad
If your customers already love you, paid traffic multiplies that love. This is leverage.
These products have believers. It just needs reach.
If your customers already love you, paid traffic multiplies that love. This is leverage.
I’d also like to thank CreativeOS. All these image ads in this newsletter were created with the help of CreativeOS.
Creative strategy is about speed, volume, iteration, and systems, not just one great ad. CreativeOS provides instant access to thousands of high-performing ad, landing page, and email templates from top brands. Start with proven structures, customize, and launch quickly.
It's the fastest way to produce winning creative without burning out your team or sacrificing quality. Whether testing new angles, scaling successes, or building workflows, CreativeOS makes it happen.
Check out CreativeOS (I also share my proven winner templates with them so you can steal without the guesswork).
Quadrant 1: Great Product + Organic Buzz
Full acceleration.
Word of mouth is already moving
LTV is strong
Direct traffic is climbing on its own
People defend the brand publicly without being asked
ChatGPT and Tesla are great examples of this.
Ads here aren't persuading anyone. They're expanding their reach for something that already has pull. Creatives compound faster. Scaling feels cleaner. You're adding fuel to a fire that's already burning.
At this stage, the advertiser's job is to dominate, not to convince.
Quadrant 4: Weak Product
Don't touch the ad account.
I've seen accounts burning $50k a month with 40% refund rates. No hook fixes that. No offer structure saves it. No amount of creative testing outpaces a product people regret buying.
Warning signs:
Reviews are weak or suspiciously absent
Refunds are climbing
Retention makes no sense
Nobody recommends you unprompted
Pause everything. Fix the product. Fix the promise. Fix the post-purchase experience.
No strategist on earth can scale a broken product. The ones who say they can are just helping you lose money faster.
The Signals That Actually Matter
Revenue won't tell you which quadrant you're in. Momentum shows up in:
Repeat purchases without discounts
Unsolicited testimonials
Organic mentions you didn't engineer
Direct traffic that keeps growing
Customers who argue with your critics in the comments
If those are weak, you're in Quadrant 3. That's not a death sentence. It just means you need a serious distribution operation, not an amplification strategy.
The Diagnostic I Run Before Any Scaling Brief
Do customers return without heavy discounts?
Are people mentioning this brand without being prompted?
Would someone recommend it with zero incentive?
Is churn stable and predictable?
Does the founder genuinely believe the product is excellent, or are they hoping ads will prove it?
If the answers are shaky, I push back. Scaling budget into an unresolved product problem is one of the fastest ways to destroy a brand's reputation and a media buyer's track record.
The Honest Truth
Ads don't create demand. They expose how much demand was already waiting.
Think of ads as a magnifying glass. Whatever is already there gets bigger:
A strong product gets amplified
A neutral product gets pushed harder than it should
A disappointing product gets exposed at scale
Momentum Market Fit isn't a growth strategy. It's a reality check.
Build something people want to talk about. Everything else gets easier.
Happy Growing with Paid Social,
Aazar Shad
Since this newsletter is free, I do it to follow my curiosity. But I’d love it if you could leave some feedback so I know if I am helping you or not.
Two ways I can help you, whenever you are ready:
Work with me to get your done-for-you creative strategy. Book a call here. I’m open to more clients now.
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