Stop chasing AI tools and start making better ads

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There's a swell of confusion right now.

A million new AI tools launching. Each one promising to supercharge your creative, completely replace your ad production, and revolutionize everything.

And if you're like me, you're feeling it. That gnawing sense of: Am I even doing enough?

If you're really close to what's happening in AI, it feels like a lot. But step back for a second. Most of these tools aren't fully working yet. And most people haven't even heard of half the things that are launching.

The FOMO you're feeling? You're creating it yourself.

I'm writing this newsletter partly as a journal entry to myself. A framework for how I should be approaching new tools and knowing when (or if) to implement them into our process at Goodo Studios.

Because the truth is, we're all drowning in noise right now. And we need to get clear on what actually matters.

I'm going to walk you through our exact process for evaluating tools. Then we'll talk about what's really happening in the AI tool landscape. And at the end, I'll share the one tool that can probably get you 90-95% of the way there without all the complexity.

Let's get into it.

Our Framework for Evaluating New Tools

Here's how we're actually approaching this at Goodo Studios.

We've built a step-by-step process for deciding whether a tool is worth implementing:

1. Detail out the whole workflow

Before we even look at tools, we map out exactly what we're doing. Every step. Every handoff. Every decision point.

You can't optimize what you don't understand.

2. Audit your current tool stack

What tools are we already using in this workflow? Are we actually using them well, or are there features we're ignoring?

Most people have way more capability in their current tools than they realize.

3. Identify the bottlenecks

Where is the workflow slowing down? And more importantly, why is there a bottleneck?

Is it something we can automate? Is something going wrong? Or is it just a hard problem that takes time?

4. Can your current tools solve it?

This is the question most people skip. Instead of immediately looking for a new tool, ask: can we do something differently within our current workflow?

A lot of times, the answer is yes.

5. If not, evaluate new tools through the lens of workflow friction

Here's where most people get it wrong.

They find a tool with cool features and assume it'll work. But then they realize: it takes forever to go from one program to the next program and back again.

If the new tool slows down your workflow more than it speeds it up, it's not worth it. Even if it has interesting features.

6. Ask: Should this tool change our workflow?

Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes a tool is good enough that it's worth rebuilding your process around it.

If that's the case, rewrite the workflow. Figure out the fastest way to use that tool. Then train your team and implement it properly.

But don't do this lightly. Changing workflows is expensive. In time, in training, in momentum.

What's Really Happening With AI Tools

Now let me be direct about what I'm seeing in the landscape right now.

The Problem With Shiny New Tools

You might not be the only end user.

If you have a team, especially a big one, you can't just say, "Oh, this tool is awesome. I saw it on Twitter. My whole team's going to start using it."

Think about it from your team's perspective.

They're deep in work. Actually executing. Creating. Editing. Shooting. And every week, they're getting pinged about some cool new tool they're supposed to learn.

Three things happen:

1. They're confused about what this tool even does

2. They don't have enough time to fully integrate it into their workflow, so they don't get the most out of it

3. They don't have an incentive to change anything, because what they're doing is already working

And here's what I keep seeing: people are so busy looking for something new that they're not asking the right question.

Ask Yourself: What's Actually Broken?

Not "What's the coolest tool I saw this week?"

But: What's actually broken in my process?

Do you need 10 research tools? Or was your research already good enough to write copy?

If that part's not broken, then you don't need to implement it and distract your team with it.

If you didn't have a problem coming up with briefs, you probably don't need a tool that generates 100 briefs in one click.

Start by identifying the actual core problems you're facing in your business. Then, and only then, find tools that solve those specific problems.

The Hype Cycle Problem

Here's something I've noticed: the people hyping up tools aren't always the people using them.

Often, they're hyping them up because they weren't able to do that skill before. But that doesn't mean they're suddenly good at it now.

Take animation tools like Remotion, for example. Everyone's saying, "Oh my gosh. In one prompt, I can do animations. I'll never need to pay an animation editor again!"

That tool is extremely limited. A great animator can still do way more, way better, and quite quickly.

For somebody who's never animated in their life, yeah, sure. It's a cool gimmicky thing. But how often are these people actually animating videos? Or even making videos?

Not very often.

So what you really want to be doing is finding people who are actually doing that type of work and asking them what tools they're using. See what their real workflow looks like.

The Danger of Feeling Busy

There's a lot of risk in spending so much time trying a bunch of different tools.

It's so easy to feel busy. You're trying tools, you're testing things out. It feels like you're doing a lot.

But if you step back, you'll see: you actually haven't done much work.

Instead of trying to find the latest, newest tool, focus on what makes great advertising. What makes great content. And focus on executing there.

AI Won't Replace Execution (Yet)

Let me be direct about this: most people don't want to face the truth.

AI is not going to replace the actual creation of content.

You may have a lot of ideas. But who's going to go out and shoot that? Who's going to edit that? Who's going to actually make those things?

You can't just sit on your computer, tap a few buttons, talk to Claude, and suddenly ads appear. That's not how it works.

Real people have to shoot real products and create real ads.

If you're so focused on all these tools, you're optimizing a part of the process that's not even the longest part of the process.

Yeah. You can get briefing down from a few hours. But shooting and editing still takes 10 to 20x that amount of time.

That part is still there.

So if you have 100 briefs, those still all have to be made. Sure, there's some automation with graphics and things like that. Cool. But for the most part, most of these things can't be automated today.

That may happen in the future. But as of right now, that's not true.

The One Tool That'll Get You 95% of the Way There

Here's what we've actually landed on.

We've been using Claude. We've always used Claude over ChatGPT. And when you see what Claude is doing recently, connecting a lot of apps into the platform, it almost feels like the smart move is to just get really good at using Claude.

Let a lot of the dust settle. Then figure out where these other tools actually fit.

Here's something else to consider: even a lot of these external tools use the same Claude models under the hood.

So in theory, if you're just good at prompting and you save those prompts, you can do a lot of what these tools can do. Yeah, it's not fully automated. But if you really wanted to, you could just get good at prompting in Claude and probably get 90-95% of what you need.

Think about it. All these specialized tools, they're often just Claude with a specific interface and workflow. If you understand how to prompt well, you can replicate most of that functionality yourself.

And you won't have the friction of jumping between 10 different platforms.

The Bottom Line

People are over-complicating all of this.

I think it's because a lot of people are trying to capitalize on this moment. They want to be this big software company that does all this stuff.

But as creatives, as people who are actually making ads, we have to be careful.

Clear out the noise. Look at your process. Understand what you actually need.

Use the framework I outlined. Evaluate tools based on whether they actually solve a real problem in your workflow. And don't be afraid to just master one tool, like Claude, instead of chasing every shiny new thing.

The FOMO is real. But it's also mostly in your head.

Focus on making great work. The tools will follow.

Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it.

Reply here and ask for anything you need.

Make sure to check out the podcast.

Until then, keep creating!

Matthew Gattozzi

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Did you know we had a podcast called In the Cutting Room. Episodes drop every Monday. Make sure to listen to it on Apple, Spotify, or Youtube