Creative Strategy Paid Social Case Studies
View project
Client feedback…
What collaborating on winning DTC ad creative looks like
Sauce Shop are Nottingham born condiment brand stocked in supermarkets such as Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Morrisons’ and Asda and produce 50k bottles of sauce a week.
MoFu ad, customer proof angle
The Problem
- The paid media agency Sauce shop were transitioning away from was underdelivering on creative strategy
- Their creative was heavily BoF and had very minimal ToF
- ROAS in the audit period was 0.7 (UK food & beverage benchmark closer to 2.5)
- A product catalogue feed was consuming approx a third of monthly spend and returning only 76p for every £1 spent, while also relying on broad targeting with little strategic messaging
- Some UGC ads had CTRs up to 3.26% but hadn’t been given spend to test properly
The Strategy
- I audited 125 Meta ads using Motion and Claude Pro and wrote a creative audit and diagnosis deck for the founder/ marketing team covering funnel messaging, awareness mapping + funnel gaps
-The strategy I created translated the audit into a testing roadmap and 10 production-ready paid social briefs for static and short-form video which included both campaign concepts and BAU creative
- Cross referenced Motion data with 14k customer reviews and went deeper into psychology behind what their customers were expressing, including problems they had not yet known themselves
-Assigned each of the 10 briefs to a specific funnel stage, deliberately prioritising TOFU to address gaps that had been identified in the audit. Each brief included a defined testing plan with specific variables
- Leveraged existing celeb chef partnership strategically in a third of the briefs as a teaching, education demo tool
-Restructured the creative tagging framework
The Solution
-Each brief translated the strategic direction into detailed production guidance, including the ICP, funnel position, angle, format, hypothesis, hooks, CTAs, copy, visual direction, UGC script, b-roll, editing, audio and asset specifications
-Copy was written audience first, using customer language, social proof and third party observer perspectives
-All briefs included a defined production and approval process, with specific timelines and talking points
The Impact
Full project was delivered in 4 week sprint (awaiting results)
Juniper is a telehealth medical weight loss platform primarily aimed at women, with a €400k per month Meta ad spend. I joined as their Interim Creative Strategist to support the German team with audience and creative research and develop their creative pipeline whilst they recruited a perm DE based Creative Strategist.
The Challenge
- The account required a steady pipeline of new ad formats and iteration briefs during a perm hiring sprint
-A new oral weight loss pill launch needed dedicated competitor research and a fresh DE market strategy
- Deep customer research existed across the business but there was minimal framework that connected insights directly to briefs
-A key challenge was navigating strict HWG regulations. Standard direct response tactics such as efficacy and eligibility were heavily restricted, which required shifting the strategy toward compliant and symptom led ad concepts
The Strategy
- My role was particularly research heavy. Key projects included: 1) An audit deck on underperforming Meta UGC video ads using Motion/MagicBrief 2) A paid social edutainment content playbook specifically tailored to resonate with the German market and 3) A 50 slide UK and US competitive analysis deck to guide positioning for their new product launch, the oral weight loss pill
- Created an emotional territory matrix for existing customer personas
- Established a DE hook framework
- Wrote iteration briefs that swapped a single thing on winning ads to refresh creative
- Wrote AI avatar podcast briefs for designers to scale one of the account's existing winning ad formats
- Mapped out end to end creative strategy workflow to ensure a seamless handoff for the incoming growth/performance teams
Worked alongside the Head of Growth and creative performance team on Slack daily to fix ambiguous briefs
Louise Carter is an e-commerce jewellery brand selling luxury gold pieces to 25 to 35 year-old women across the US and UK markets and have a focus on primarily scaling the US.
The challenge
My brief was to move away from advertising individual rings/ necklaces on their own and transition toward high converting bundle offers that drive higher order values
The Strategy
- I created a system to generate a pipeline of ad variations based on historic performance data
- Analysed a winning ‘3 Things’ ad concept and used Claude AI to rewrite script options testing specific angles, for example high luxury quality vs everyday durability
- Designed pattern interrupt hooks, for example ‘How Louise Carter ruined all my jewellery’ to open story loops and drive thumb stop rates
- Leveraged AI tools throughout the process, generating realistic voiceovers using ElevenLabs then selected clips from their raw footage to match concept with product benefits like 14k gold and waterproof wearability
- Edited short form video ads and added captions to maximise retention for sound off viewers on paid social platforms
The Win
- The ad framework supported a core campaign format that generated over $348,000 in sales from $219,000 in ad spend while hitting strong performance metrics like 37.98% scroll stop rate, 4.13% click rate and 8.37% add to cart rate
- 18% hook rate on $15 of test spend which proved to media buyers that the creative worked before increasing budget
GrowTropicals is a UK e-commerce brand based in Yorkshire selling rare and unusual indoor houseplants. Their target audience focuses on UK based millennial plant enthusiasts and collectors seeking rare tropical species.
The Challenge
- GrowTropicals needed to scale ToF paid social performance during a key testing phase, requiring me to step in as their first hybrid Creative Strategist and Content Creator
-The brand relied on BoF static ads with repetitive angles instead of a clear ad strategy or creator content system
-GrowTropicals needed a complete paid social UGC video creative strategy, there was no existing framework in place, so I took sole ownership of the entire UGC process on-site, managing every brief, script, shoot, edit, and performance data analytics
- Tone of Voice came across as too scientific
The Strategy
-Took end to end ownership as the hybrid Creative Strategist and Content Creator on-site at the Leeds nursery, managing creative strategy, scripting, camera direction, editing and performance data analysis
-Tested 20+ new top of funnel creative angles to address core buyer friction, including plant care for mental health, rare pink plants and plant nursery packaging tutorial/demo
-Introduced a founder led ad strategy and scripted videos that included multiple hooks/CTAs for variations for the co founders to build authentic trust
-Scripted and presented direct to camera videos in the nursery, breaking down complex topics into simple and engaging video assets
-Pairing high volume video testing with website updates ensured that cold ad traffic landed on a simple, friction-free website that converted
-Made the product page and home page copy less technical matched the approachable tone of the videos, which kept first time buyers engaged
Key Wins
-Generated an 8.37x overall return on ad spend over all campaign briefs from August 2024 - April 2025
-Scaled founder led video ads to a peak 12x ROAS
-Filmed and presented a educational short form video asset that went through Alocasia plant/ care tips and home origin which generated 300 to 400 conversions
-Scaled ToF short form video ads that reached up to 10.45x ROAS by testing new angles for cold audiences
-Increased Shopify website conversions by 30% in 2 weeks by making product page copy simpler and less technical
