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What makes ad creative different
An ad creative is the image or carousel people see in a paid placement on Facebook, Instagram, Google Display or YouTube. Unlike an organic post, it is shown to people who did not choose to follow you, so it must earn attention quickly and make the offer obvious.
Creative and targeting work together. Even well-targeted campaigns struggle with weak visuals, and strong visuals cannot fully rescue a poor offer or audience. That is why we ask about the offer and landing page first: a clear, honest offer presented simply usually does more than elaborate design.
No one can reliably predict which image, headline or layout will perform best. That is why we design ads in sets: several versions that differ in one or two meaningful ways, such as the headline, the main image or the layout. Your campaign then shows which direction your audience responds to, and the next round builds on that.
Who needs ad creatives
- D2C brands running product and offer campaigns on Meta.
- Real estate agencies generating site-visit and enquiry leads.
- Coaching institutes promoting admissions and demo classes.
- Clinics advertising consultations, treatments and health packages.
- Restaurants and cafés promoting launches, delivery and events locally.
- B2B manufacturers running lead-generation or remarketing campaigns.
Businesses that advertise continuously benefit most from a steady creative pipeline. People who see the same ad repeatedly start to ignore it, so refreshing creatives on a regular schedule helps campaigns stay effective without needing to change targeting or budgets.
What a creative set includes
- Several variations per campaign, with different hooks, images or layouts.
- Placement sizes: square and portrait for feeds, 9:16 for stories and reels placements, and landscape or standard display sizes for Google.
- Carousel ads where each card works alone and as a sequence.
- Clear offer and call to action placed where they are seen, not buried in a corner.
- Platform-friendly text: headlines kept short and within each platform’s ad guidelines.
- Exports in RGB (PNG or JPG) named by campaign and variant, plus editable sources.
Every creative should also match the page it leads to. If an ad promises a specific offer, the landing page or WhatsApp chat should show the same offer, in a similar visual style, so people feel they have arrived in the right place rather than having to search for what they clicked on.
How we work
- Campaign brief: offer, audience, landing page and what action you want people to take.
- Angles: we propose a few different messages to test, for example price, quality, speed or trust.
- Design: each angle is designed in the required placement sizes.
- Review and approval: you check offers, prices and wording before anything goes live.
- Iteration: once results are in, we design the next round around what performed best.
Tools
Ad creatives are designed in Figma and Adobe Photoshop, with vector elements in Illustrator. Figma lets us build one master design and adapt it efficiently to every placement size. Product photos are cleaned up and cut out where needed; stock imagery and fonts are licensed for commercial advertising use.
We keep a simple naming convention for every file, such as campaign, angle, size and version. It sounds minor, but it makes reporting much clearer when your ads manager can see exactly which creative produced which result.
What affects timeline and cost
- Number of variations and placement sizes per round.
- Frequency: a one-off launch set versus fresh creatives every week or month.
- Product photography: whether usable photos exist or need retouching or compositing.
- Video versions: if motion ads are wanted, see promotional and ad video editing.
A first set usually takes longer because the style and angles are being defined. Later rounds are faster, since they build on the templates and on what the previous results have shown.
Common mistakes
- Running one creative for months until the audience stops noticing it.
- Testing variations that differ so little the results mean nothing.
- Using the same square image for stories, leaving empty space or cropped text.
- Making claims the platform may reject, such as exaggerated promises.
- Designing ads that do not match the landing page people arrive on.
Frequently asked questions
Can you reuse my existing product photos?
Usually yes. We clean up, cut out and retouch existing photos where needed. If they are too low in resolution or quality, we will tell you before designing around them.
How many ad variations should I test?
Enough to compare a few genuinely different ideas. The right number depends on your budget and audience size, which we can discuss with your ads team or ours.
Do you run the ads as well?
Design is separate, but our ads and performance marketing service can manage campaigns and feed results back into new creatives.
Can you design video ads too?
Yes, through our video editing team. Static and video creatives can be produced from the same campaign brief.
Which sizes will I receive?
The sizes needed for your placements, typically square and portrait feed sizes, 9:16 for stories and landscape or display sizes for Google.
Talk to us about ad creative design
Static and carousel creatives for Meta and Google ads, built to be tested in variations.