Branching out - Meta Ads

Naively, I never connected the dots between having an eye for photography and videography and having an eye for creative ad generation.

“Making ads? That’s a corporate marketing thing. I don’t want to do that!”
But I was wrong.

Creating ads is a lot like creating a good movie. It needs to hook you, keep you hooked, and pay off in the end. Otherwise, you're just left scrolling or switching channels.

These days, I’m lucky enough to be creating ads for some great businesses and I’ve genuinely come to enjoy it. Not just because it strengthens my service offering, but because it’s helped me build a deeper understanding of storytelling and attention hacking.

Few mediums give you access to micro-data on attention the way ads do. It’s fascinating, and it’s powerful.

So, what makes a good ad?

They all follow the same core principles:

✅ A punchy opening hook
✅ A focused, scroll-stopping narrative
✅ A clear CTA or irresistible offer
✅ A design that’s testable, tweakable, and repeatable

Meta’s own data shows that 47% of a campaign’s impact comes from the creative itself - not targeting, not budgets, but the actual content.

The best ads are built like modular blocks:

If the hook isn’t working? Swap it.
If people drop off midway? Rework the narrative.
If they’re not clicking? Test a new CTA or offer.

And here’s the part most brands overlook - You don’t always need a new shoot to make a great ad.

Most founders already have gold sitting on their phone, in Google Drive, or on a dusty external hard drive. With the right creative eye, that’s more than enough to build something brilliant.

I’m genuinely grateful to have discovered this new creative avenue and to be in a position where I can offer it to clients as part of what I do.