I'm going to leave you with clear next steps either with or without Motion - the choice is yours.
Hey - I made you a promise 12 emails ago.
I said that you’d have the tools needed to build a comprehensive creative strategy and increase your ROAS as a result.
To ensure I deliver on that promise, I’m going to leave you with three big thoughts and put everything we’ve covered into actionable steps you can take to implement either with or without Motion.
You're going to want to star this email.
Three big thoughts:
You need to make data-driven decisions about your creatives
The faster your creative flywheel spins, the faster you find your winning ads
More winning ads = more ROAS = scaled spend = more profit
Next steps WITHOUT Motion. 👇
1. Create an ad naming framework
Use this template to construct naming conventions and implement these across all of you current/future creatives on Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.
This will help you track important details in your ads that aren’t always abundantly clear, like the emotion conveyed, video quality (lofi/highfi), influencer talent, video length, etc.
2. Connect data and design
Export all of your ad-level data and plug it into a creative analytics framework (like this one). Use this framework to get to the root of what’s working and what isn’t.
To get started, here are a few major insights to look for:
Thumbstop on videos
Divide 3sec play by reach
Highest CPA/ROAS
Create a composite score based on an average across key metrics
IMPORTANT: Once you’ve analyzed this data, you need to take it out of the spreadsheets and present it to your creative team in a format that they’ll understand. This can be as simple as taking your key findings, and creating a slide deck that highlights your top ads and includes both the data and the associated creative.
3. Use creative data to inform new requests
Don’t make the mistake of submitting new creative requests from the complete unknown. All new creative requests should be built on your existing data. Let the data guide your experimentation.
For example: If three of your best-performing video ads based on Thumbstop (% of viewers that watched the first 3s) have the same hook content, but a different video has an exceptional 15s/3s retention rate — try creating a video script that merges your top hook with your top retention rate (ex hook from Ad #1, body from Ad #6). I would wager the outcome is a new best ROAS.
4. Test quick, kill your darlings quicker
You need to be ruthless about launching creative and killing creative.
Use the following formula to help you assess how many new creatives you should be launching per week:
New Ads per Week = (Weekly Spend / Ad Fatigue Rate) × Creative Rotation Factor
Where:
Ad Fatigue Rate (AFR) = Spend at which an ad becomes ineffective (~$2K–$5K per ad before fatigue for most DTC brands).
Creative Rotation Factor (CRF) = A multiplier that adjusts based on how aggressively a brand wants to test (ranges from 1.2x for conservative brands to 1.5x for aggressive testers).
Using practical values:
New Ads per Week = (Weekly Spend / 3000) × 1.3
This means:
$5K spend → ~2 new ads per week
$10K spend → ~4 new ads per week
$25K spend → ~10 new ads per week
$50K spend → ~20 new ads per week
And run every new creative to precisely 3x your target CPA. Turn off every ad that fails to hit target at this spend cap.
5. Keep the flywheel spinning
Every week, export a new batch of ad data and run the same analysis. Identify new winners, submit new creative requests, and launch new ads from the creative pipeline.
Next steps WITH Motion. 👇
The creative strategy is the same, Motion just takes the legwork out of the process. Here’s what that scenario might look like at your company.
1. Connect your data sources to Motion
If you have the keys to your ad accounts, it takes about 2 minutes to connect them to Motion. Once connected, all of your ad data will pull into Motion.
2. Create visual reports in seconds
I recommend you start with a top ads report.
Here’s the process:
Click “Create report”
Select “Top performing”
That’s it. Check out your top ads, play with different metrics as filters, have some fun. And if you’ve been working in spreadsheets — this filtering process should feel familiar.
And here’s what that report will look like. Plus, this report updates in real-time, so you never have to repeat the building process.
3. Send feedback to your creative team
Select the ad(s) that you want to share with the checkboxes in your table, then click on “Share report” in the top right of your window. Add any comments you have on creative direction, then click “Copy link” to create a public link that you can share with your creative team. A link like this.
At the end of the day — both systems work. I built Motion because I talked to a lot of advertisers who recognized the power of creative, but were desperately looking for a better solution than what they were doing on spreadsheets.
If you want to join HexClad, True Classic, Jones Road, and thousands of other top advertisers on the path to deeper insights, faster creative flywheels, and stronger ROAS, then you know what to do.
