> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://dogoodthings.co.nz/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Performance creative

> Creative is the biggest lever in paid media. We run it as an engine, not a deliverable.

Creative is the biggest lever in paid media, bigger than bidding and bigger than audience settings. In the broad targeting era, the creative does the targeting: the ad calls out a specific person, and the platform finds whoever leans in. So we run creative as an engine, not a deliverable.

## It starts with understanding the buyer

Great performance creative starts a long way from the ad account. It starts with understanding the people who should be buying: what they want, what they're trying to achieve, the problems they're living with, the objections that make them hesitate, and the alternatives they've already tried. That understanding, alongside [data & attribution](/system/data-attribution), is the bedrock the whole system is built on.

From there, the job is building creative stories that earn attention and help the right person lean in. The hook calls out a specific situation: 'mortgage over \$800K?', 'over 45 and waking up tired?'. The message underneath stays consistent, same offer, same proof. The call-out is what decides who stops scrolling and thinks 'that's me'.

This is also how you change who you reach. If you want higher-value customers, you won't find them in an audience dropdown. You write stories that speak to their situation, and the algorithm follows the engagement. When we talk about moving upmarket, the first deliverable is a new set of hooks, not a new targeting spec.

## Variety at the top, stability in the middle

Top-of-funnel batches change constantly, because that's where new angles get found and where saturation gets fixed as frequency starts creeping up. Middle-of-funnel creative barely changes, because the offer and the objections don't. A working set of roughly 10 to 20 live creatives per campaign gives the algorithm enough variety to match people with what resonates, without spreading budget so thin that no ad gets a real read.

A long-serving audience is an asset, not a problem. People who've watched your ads for 18 months tend to convert quickly the moment a fresh angle lands. The worst thing you can do with a warm audience is serve them the same static forever. The second worst is throwing the account away to start cold.

## The monthly creative loop

<Steps>
  <Step title="Research the angles">
    Customer reviews, sales call patterns, community threads, and competitor ads, mined with AI doing the heavy reading, for the desires, objections, and situations that make people buy. Every batch starts from a named angle, so when something wins we know why it won.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Script and build the batch">
    Each angle gets multiple hooks and formats across statics, motion, and UGC-style video. We design and script everything, and where founder-shot or creator footage is needed you get shooting scripts and we handle the edit. You review claims and guardrails, not every pixel, as covered in the [feedback guide](/guide/feedback-comms).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Test where the new people are found">
    New creative goes into [prospecting](/system/paid-ads) on a clean structure with enough budget for a real read, judged on cost per qualified outcome, not clicks or the platform's own scorecard.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Read, iterate, retire">
    Winners get pulled apart and re-briefed with new openings and new proof on the same spine. Losers get retired without ceremony. The learnings feed next month's batch, and the frequency dial tells us when an angle has run its course.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  **The ceiling on pain-point creative**

  A lot of performance creative leans on agitating the customer's problems, and it works. Pain points are real, and speaking to them plainly is part of the job. But you can only tell someone their bank declined them so many times. Run agitation as the whole diet and the market saturates on your worst-case stories, the category tunes out, and the brand gets harder to trust. So we balance the mix: agitation where it's true, aspiration and proof alongside it, so the brand people meet in the ads is one they'd buy from twice.
</Warning>

## What we need from you

* **The voice of your customers.** Less the product itself, more what people say about it and why: reviews, testimonials, support conversations, the reasons they chose you, the things that almost stopped them, and what makes your product and brand different. Believable ads are made of this.
* **Brand guardrails, stated once.** The genuine no-gos, up front and in writing. Inside them, let the hooks do their job. There's more on this in [common pitfalls](/guide/common-pitfalls).
* **Fast approvals.** Creative volume is the input the whole system depends on, and a 48 hour turnaround keeps the engine at full speed.