Making Ad Creative: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Over the years, I’ve made and studied over 200 ad creatives across Meta and TikTok. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: Good ads stick to clear rules. Bad ads ignore them.

If you’re done wasting money on ads that flop and ready to create ones that actually convert, here’s my honest take on the good, the bad, and the ugly of ad creative.

The Good vs. The Bad

Clear vs. Clever

It’s tempting to get clever with your ads — throw in a witty line or something that feels “cool”. But if people have to think twice to get what your ad is about, you’ve already lost them.

Most viewers on social platforms are half-scrolling, half-distracted. If your message doesn’t land in the first 3 seconds, it doesn’t land at all.

Take a look at these 3 identical video ads — the only difference is the hook.

The clearer the message, the better it performs.

Ad #3 is the clear winner, pulling the highest thumbstop rate (the % of people who actually stopped scrolling to watch).

Why? Because it got straight to the point. The other two tried to be clever, but made people work harder to get it.