Welcome to Your Content Should Sell, a newsletter that only gives you practicals about how to create content for your brand.

We crossed over 1000 people on this newsletter!

Are you KIDDING ME?!?Thank you so much to every single person that has supported this newsletter.

Also, shoutout to our sponsor for today, Motion!

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here

Sponsored

The ultimate tool for your creation process!

If you want to succeed with your ads, you need a tool to understand your data.

Recently my team has used Motion to easily understand the data and find the creative winners.Simply search the ads based on common attributes.

I am a visual person (hello artist) so getting visualizations of data helps my team make decisions.

Supercharge your team’s workflow to bridge the gap between media buyers and creatives.

Creative strategy is the difference between an average ad account and a great ad account.

For a long time, account structure and media buying were the x-factors for many brands.

With iOS changes, the game is different.

The brands that will win are those that can quickly produce content, look at the data, and then make adjustments.

The faster that creation + feedback loop, the better off you are to have a great ad account.That loop is creative strategy.

Today we will show you how to build a creative strategy system to get better ads.

1. Visualize the Data

If you want to make better decisions on what ads to create, don't sit on a 10-person group call and just come up with ideas.

Look at the data.

We all have our own biases, so what we like might not be what speaks to the consumer that you are trying to serve.

The data can help us show us which ads to make and why.

Most ad platforms are not the easiest to get around to find data because they are complex.

For a creative like myself, I get intimidated.

Luckily Motion makes it very easy for me to see our clients' ad data to make better decisions.

Without Motion, you are stuck going back and forth between ad sets or a bunch of Excel cells.

No Bueno.

If you want to build a faster creation + feedback loop, quickly getting the data is the first step.

2. What does the data mean?

You have the data, but what the heck are you looking at?

There are many metrics you can look at, but here are four metrics that I focus on:1. 3-second Video Plays (Hook Rate).This metric helps us understand if we are getting the attention of viewers or if they just are scrolling away.

2. Average View Duration (Hold Rate)This metric lets you see where people are losing interest in the ad and scrolling away in the ad.

3. Click Through Rate (CTR)A click doesn't mean they will buy, but at least we can see if they are interested to learn more.

4. Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)The goal is to get people to buy, so you want to see the return on your ad spend be positive, not negative. ROAS gives us a good view of purchases from an ad.

I know so much more goes into media buying, but from the creative side, these four metrics allow me to see if this ad is good at a high level.

So we have the metrics to look at, but how do these numbers translate into better content?

If the hook rate is low, I could care less about what is happening at second number 10, nobody is watching past the first 3 seconds. I would need to find a way to grab the attention of the viewer better.

Maybe that is to ask a question or frame the video better.

Maybe that is the first few shots - are they boring or confusing?

You can start to see how data translates to content, but let's dig a little deeper.

Let's say hook rate is good, but the average view duration is only 6 seconds out of the 30 second ad.

What is happening at second number 6 that causes people to swipe away?

The hook might be great, but now you need to retain people's attention.

The average view duration metric can help you find a spot in the ad that is killing off attention and try to change it.

Looking at the CTR - if we have a low amount of clicks, we have to start thinking about how we can get those up.

Can you add the offer sooner to get more people to want to learn more?

Is there even a call-to-action on the video to shop?

Maybe the angle of what you are talking about isn't actually compelling to the viewers. Are you speaking to the consumers' pain points?

Inherently you wouldn't think that numbers and content go together.

Usually, we hear you are either a math person or more of an artistic person.

But the best content is when math and art come together.

If you can be able to see the correlation of data to content, you ad account will improve RAPIDLY!

3. Build the best creative briefs

The last step of a great feedback loop is taking those insights and ideas from the data and putting them into actionable creations.

The best way?

Creative briefs.

But not all creative briefs are created equally.

As someone who can edit content and also manages editors, the difference in creation comes down to the preparation.

1. Start with a visual aidWords are hard to describe what you want to see.

Most likely, what you want to see on an ad has been done elsewhere or similar.

An editor or a creator needs something to work off of because your words might not match what you want to see.

A visual aid makes it clear.

Get in the practice of saving ads so you can use them for future briefs.

2. Focus on the copyThe words will dictate the visuals, so focusing on this part first is important.

Ask yourself, what do you want to the viewer to understand from this ad?

Take that answer and create a script or copy that builds up that takeaway you want the viewer to have at the end.

3. Fill in with a shot listThe video clips or images must enhance what is said in the ad to move the story along.The more detail into what you want to be shown, the easier the creator or editor will have to craft those visuals.

4. Product info/brand infoEvery person in the content creation process must deeply understand the product and brand.I like to have some product education upfront, so the creators or editors aren't searching around trying to understand the product. The more organized you are, the faster your creation loop can be.5. Do's and Dont's ListIt may be evident to you, but not to everyone else, so communicate what you want to see and what you DON'T want to see. This list is a great place to add brand guidelines or any essential design elements you need to see.

This list gives boundaries to creators and editors.

6. Where to create briefsI am beta testing a new briefs feature on Foreplay, but my team currently does all of our ad briefs on Milanote. You want to use a program that makes it easy to have video examples because that helps the most with creating and editing.

4. Let's bring it full circle

Q4 is upon us, and you need this process nailed down if you want to win today and moving forward.

The slower the creation-feedback-creation loop is, the harder it will be for you to scale your ad accounts.

This process IS NOT EASY.

I repeat this is not easy.

So take time to figure out who will be in charge of each step internally.

If you do need help, happy to jump on a call and take a look at your process (for free because I just freaking love you all).

Y'all - I am just blown away by the support on this newsletter.

I want to thank every single one of you for being here.

My goal is to show you how I think about content to help your brand grow.

Keep creating!

Matthew GattozziPS. We have some openings for content creation, TikTok, and editing, so if you need anything, reply here to chat.

In Other News

📷 Walmart's New Try-On Tech Works With Customers' Own Photos

📇 Facebook debuts Reels API for sharing from third-party apps

💰 Purple receives takeover bid

🤑 YouTube Outlines New Monetization Program for Shorts Creators

Resources

We do get a commission from some of these links, but I wouldn't share anything that I didn't think was worth it to you.

Foreplay - I love saving all the amazing ads I have found. Foreplay allows you to save great Facebook ads with a click of one button on Chrome. It is incredible.

Triple Whale - Have an attribution problem? Triple Whale is doing some incredible things to help you get your data all in one place to make the best decisions for your brand. Get 15% off using the code GOODOOddit - If you’d like to improve your site, you can try out Oddit yourself with GOODO10 for 10% off any Oddit report or grab a free month of Oddit Club - a private community for founders, marketers, and designers.

Wonderment - Make the customer experience better with real shipping updates. Control the most important part of customer journey after a purchase with real time data. Get a FREE 30-day trial when you use the code: goodos