Creative Audit Masterclass: 5x Your Creative Output with a Winning Strategy

Webinar Replay

March 27, 2024

Lauren Schwartz

Founder, The Loft325

Lauren is the CEO and Founder of The Loft325 Creative Agency, a seasoned expert in boosting e-commerce brands through top-notch creative execution, paid and organic social campaigns, and email marketing & automation. With 16 years in the marketing field, she has mastered the art of increasing conversions and customer loyalty across various platforms.

What you'll learn

Transform Your Audit Insights into Creative Gold! Completed your Creative Audit and wondered what's next? Unlock the power of your findings and pivot from mere compliance to unparalleled creativity and innovation. This revolutionary approach redefines audits as a cornerstone for creative brilliance, strategic advantage, and sustainable growth. Merge analytical depth with creative genius to craft a strategy that not only wins but dominates. Ready to turn audit insights into your competitive edge? Let's make your creative strategy unstoppable.

Key Takeaways:

Turning Audits into Your Creative Superpower:
Mixing Facts with Imagination
Growing Smarter, Not Harder

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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:20:24
Unknown
Hey, everybody. Welcome to this iteration of the fireside chat. I know it's been, a couple weeks, since you've had one of these, so I'm super stoked to get these rolling again. and I'm super happy to see a bunch of familiar faces, in the chat already. as always, everybody in the chat right now. go and, like, spend a chat.

00:00:21:03 - 00:00:43:14
Unknown
Let me know where you're from. and I always like to see kind of where everybody's calling in from. But today, we have, like, an incredibly, amazing presentation from Warren, on, you know, performing creative audits that can actually move your, move your creative strategy and your advertising, forward. and how to actually use those creative audits to get value from them?

00:00:43:16 - 00:00:58:21
Unknown
I took a look at the presentation. That's absolutely killer. So I'm super excited for all of you guys, to be getting this value. And so, without further ado, I'm going to bring in Lauren, and, we'll take it from there. As always, if you have any questions, put them in the chat and we'll do Q&A at the end.

00:00:59:02 - 00:01:25:03
Unknown
See you guys. Awesome. well thanks, Jack. I'm excited to be here. Excited to share. again, to some, you know, input in terms of creative strategy ad creatives. yeah. So let's get started. so just in case you don't know who I am. my name is Lauren Schwartz, and I'm the owner of the loft 35.

00:01:25:05 - 00:01:53:13
Unknown
Excuse me. We're a performance creative agency, and we specialize in meta and TikTok ad creatives. So I have been working within the e-commerce space for over 16 years now. working a lot with, you know, top tier clients and agencies. you know, able to build their strategies for them. So, yeah, we've been able to attract, you know, top tier clients, grow 10% year over year.

00:01:53:15 - 00:02:23:07
Unknown
and, you know, really been able to work with a lot of amazing brands within the DTC space and are just listed below. but excited to share kind of the value that I found. And, you know, just the strategies that we found within my team, when it comes to performing your audit and your strategy. So in terms of a creative audit, I think there's, you know, a lot of misconceptions in terms of what exactly you should be looking for.

00:02:23:09 - 00:02:49:08
Unknown
how it actually helps your strategy. So in terms of a creative audit, what are some of the things that you need to look for in with strategists, media buyers and, your designers on your team? So first off, making sure that you're aligned with your clients on their expectations when it comes to defining their KPIs. Obviously, that's a huge, huge thing when it comes to you starting with a client doing your audit.

00:02:49:10 - 00:03:13:01
Unknown
starting with your strategy. So when we review with our client, we obviously specifically, especially for creative, we aim to focus on their click through rate CPA engagement rates. And some of our clients, we obviously focus on our Roas depending on what it is you are looking for. Each client is different. when it comes to their KPIs, obviously, but these are just some of the things that we speak with, when we're going through everything.

00:03:13:03 - 00:03:38:19
Unknown
So in terms of the actual audit, in order to generate your strategy, the things that we look for is, on the creative side. So all of our creative assets. So what sort of content do they have? How much UGC does the brand have? Do they have product photography, lifestyle, imagery, testimonials, you know, kind of everything that's going to encompass what you can work on within their ad account.

00:03:38:21 - 00:04:00:16
Unknown
That's what you need to know in terms of the audit and then obviously analyzing their social media email and landing pages. So when we do our creative audit, which then will inform our creative strategy, we take a look at, you know, a top view of everything. So what exactly are they presenting. How are they presenting it. And then making sure that everything is aligned.

00:04:00:17 - 00:04:23:17
Unknown
So this is ensuring that, you know, we do a deep dive of all of their content because in terms of content, especially for designers and strategists, there is a huge, huge, gap, I think in terms of what the strategist looks at and then what the obviously the editors look at. So making sure you're doing a deep dive of everything.

00:04:23:19 - 00:04:42:01
Unknown
So in terms of, again, going through everything, that's kind of more on the editor side, I would say, and how to kind of pull that into it. in terms of what we're looking for on the creative strategist side is what is, you know, what, having access to the ad accounts. so what's being run in the ad account?

00:04:42:03 - 00:05:02:20
Unknown
What's their top performing creative low performing? Creative? Are there angles that are being tested? What copy has been being tested. So again like these are things that obviously the media buyer and the strategist need to be aligned on when it comes to their audit. being able to measure, you know, the data from the KPIs that has been set within the relationship.

00:05:02:22 - 00:05:25:12
Unknown
And then from there they can start to break down the patterns within that so they can understand what needs to be, tested when they are going to conduct their creative strategy. So essentially, once we kind of get this full view of what assets the point has to work with what is being run in the ad account, how are we going to take all of this information and actually pull it into a strategy?

00:05:25:12 - 00:05:57:12
Unknown
And how are we going to, you know, find the opportunities from that? So I think in terms of obviously taking all this information and translating it into your creative, making sure that you, again, with all of the information that you're pulling from creatives that have already been pulled or creatives that the brand has already created, and then in terms of the media buying again, kind of taking all this information and starting to build it out into your strategy and build it out into your, your audit.

00:05:57:14 - 00:06:29:02
Unknown
So essentially, once you've done understanding the audience, then from there you need to pull the pain points, the copy these, which then can translate to your audience. And then how are you going to take those and pull those assets to use them. to really help you with what exactly you need to create within your ad creatives. And then obviously, if there's any sort of gaps, if there is UGC that's missing, if there's static, that's missing, things like that, you can start to pull it in.

00:06:29:04 - 00:06:57:12
Unknown
So after we kind of pull all this data, pull this information from here is where we can essentially start to build our roadmap in terms of the creative strategy. So creating new angles, creating new hook variations, copy for testing briefs for the creators, building out if we need to split videos. UGC static GIFs, things like that. this is where we can start to focus in on our creative messaging to drive results and then work with our media buyer to kind of simplify the campaign structure for testing.

00:06:57:12 - 00:07:30:03
Unknown
So I know this is kind of a lot of information, but just of pulling everything in on how we expect an audit into a strategy and then pull it into creatives. So to kind of give you what we've seen when, you know, I conducted a lot of audits, hundreds of audits and I would say internal, especially now, the biggest thing that I've identified is that there are obviously missing gaps within any brand.

00:07:30:03 - 00:07:57:11
Unknown
But I would say without within all the audits I've done, the social proof is probably the biggest thing that I've been seeing in terms of what's missing in most ad accounts recently. So social proof and then very in their style of creatives. So many brands right now are focused so heavily on UGC that they're starting to miss just the simpler things in terms of statics, similar things in terms of social proof.

00:07:57:13 - 00:08:18:17
Unknown
so many brands are obviously focused heavily on top of funnel, which isn't bad. But again, they kind of start to neglect the middle of the funnel, which is, again, where I think most of the creative audits that we've done, we've started to implement more of this, top of funnel approach, but then obviously mixing in this middle funnel approach within it.

00:08:18:17 - 00:08:43:23
Unknown
So if you have a brand that has a higher AOF, obviously there is a longer consideration period, which leads to brands needing more social proof in their ad creatives. So just to give you an example, we worked with this brand talentless and again, similar thing. It's a pretty expensive branch and apparel company. Obviously. Again, there are things that it's an apparel brand.

00:08:43:23 - 00:09:02:07
Unknown
So most of the time it's either do you like it or you don't like it. But with this specific brand they are very high. LV their price points start from $100 plus. And so in terms of making sure that not only are we talking about the product, but we're also giving proof in terms of why you should buy this.

00:09:02:09 - 00:09:32:15
Unknown
So within this sort of social proof creative testing, we did we took all of the content that they had looked to see. Okay, these are, you know, for instance, this lounge pant, this is a higher priced, item. It's, you know, over $100. Why would you spend a $100 on a lounge pant, making sure that we're showing why you would purchase this product again is something that we started to test with in terms of social proof.

00:09:32:17 - 00:10:05:22
Unknown
and then making sure that not only are we talking about the social proof, but we're also identifying why you should purchase something that is so comfortable. So these are just some of the variations that we did in terms of the creative testing. again, kind of this super ad where it's, you know, PR mixed with reviews, mixed with talking about the product and then obviously just your general review, five star, copy pulling in, you know, great review results and then this sort of, text message style.

00:10:05:24 - 00:10:23:23
Unknown
Scott Disick is, was the owner. He's I don't know if he's the owner anymore, but, pulling in, you know, copy from him as well. And then again, sharing this. So from here, just kind of pulling in the social proof in terms of what we found was missing within the creative audit. And then what we found was missing within the ad.

00:10:23:23 - 00:10:47:19
Unknown
So this is just an example of that. So then from there you can start to build out your creative building blocks when you're building your strategy. So for this specific brand, obviously the social proof was the main focus in the audit. It was missing. There was not enough information. They were trying a lot to talk about the actual product, when more people wanted to know exactly why they should purchase this.

00:10:47:21 - 00:11:17:17
Unknown
So from there, we were able to build out different formats in terms of static videos. UGC, which was really kind of helping to lean into this concept of how we're going to take this social proof and build on top of that. And then from there, not only did we build it within the ads, then we started building it within the landing pages in the emails to make sure that as you're going from the top, then you start to go all the way to the actual customer journey when you want to actually purchase the product.

00:11:17:19 - 00:11:40:21
Unknown
And then from there, we were able to build iterations, again, same concept. Social proof was again missing. Now we wanted to build off of how can we start building these iterations for testing to then start building out winning format? So again, these were some ads that we tested in terms of, social proof that we then were able to translate into ads.

00:11:40:23 - 00:12:06:03
Unknown
So this is just kind of again, an example of how you can, you know, start from the top with your creative audit, which then finds the holes in the missing gaps. And then you can build that into your strategy, which then you can start to build into your ad creatives and then go from there. So again, data informs creatives, in terms of media buyers, obviously media buyers know a lot about performance.

00:12:06:05 - 00:12:28:02
Unknown
but as a creative designer, you know, performance designers understand the target audience. They work with the media buyers. They need to take the information that is given to them from the media buyer, which then can translate down into all these different examples in terms of copy new ad creatives, you know, in for and informing the audience.

00:12:28:02 - 00:12:55:07
Unknown
So again, placement level awareness making ads. this is a great example. Again, just from taking this brand specifically talentless, pulling in a static, going with a Gen Z copy cozy as the hoodie you dream about. So again, just kind of focusing on that Gen Z audience. And then we had millennials and the boomers again, which kind of breaks down the different functions of how you are building out your creative.

00:12:55:09 - 00:13:28:12
Unknown
So in terms of, you know, takeaways with this, when you're doing your creative audit, again, understanding what assets you have, what needs to be sourced are there missing gaps in it from there, pulling out the key elements, pulling in the strategy to, pull in those insights, which then will help develop your strategy, and then working with your performance designer to lead with their expertise in terms of editing and then what to craft, how to crafted, working with them to make sure that they understand with the information and the assets that they have.

00:13:28:14 - 00:13:43:22
Unknown
And then from there, you can develop your creative roadmap for testing and ensuring you're taking the data from your audit. So that's all I have in terms of slides. yeah.

00:13:43:24 - 00:14:03:00
Unknown
All right. Awesome. Thank you, for that. So I see some questions rolling in here. everybody, if you do have any more questions, drop them in the chat. and we'll sort of, you know, start to work through these right now. and so like the first one we have is from Peter, and he's just wondering, like, how often do you perform creative audits?

00:14:03:02 - 00:14:33:03
Unknown
Do you have any like, rules for determining, you know, how often you you're are doing creative and stuff like that? Yeah. I mean, obviously when you're working with a new brand, you want to start your creative audit at the initial start of the task. but we actually start to work with audits kind of within a three and a six month period to just making sure that if there's new information that's being generated, if there's new findings that we're seeing as we're testing, again, start working on the audit.

00:14:33:05 - 00:14:52:23
Unknown
As you start to grow with the brand and understanding what exactly the brand needs, then from there you can start to iterate, get new, creative new, you know, ideas, and then obviously you have to source new content in terms of what exactly you're looking for within your your audit as you kind of start to conduct it as you move along with the brand.

00:14:53:00 - 00:15:13:02
Unknown
And then so like how when you are conducting these creative audits, and you're then you're kind of going through music critics, friends where you're actually producing that new content. How are you kind of like integrating like almost like going back to that audit consistently. Like is there any like, processes you have, for making sure that, you know, it ends up being something that just like doesn't just get put into a folder or something like that.

00:15:13:04 - 00:15:29:00
Unknown
Yeah, it's funny because I feel like a lot of times, especially with strategists that I've worked with, in teams, I do feel like people conducted at the very beginning, and then from there, it's like you just kind of get within the day to day grind, and you do forget about it kind of goes on the back burner.

00:15:29:02 - 00:15:54:20
Unknown
So within our within my agency, we really do focus on making sure that not only are we checking our audit and our creative and our strategy, around the three month period. So every three months with a client making sure that not only are we going off of our roadmap, making sure that we're conducting the tests that we need to conduct, clarifying with our, clients and making sure that everything is staying consistent.

00:15:54:20 - 00:16:13:17
Unknown
So I would say usually about a 2 to 3 month period to just make sure that you're going back, checking it, making sure that you're checking all the information that you pulled originally. And then how are you building off of that within each kind of, you know, three months sprint? Got it. the next one from March, it's kind of on here.

00:16:13:19 - 00:16:35:19
Unknown
So she has a client that has an ad platform in the travel list or selling a membership. she's wondering what kind of forms of social proof would you suggest for incorporating if you're if her client a, has never been mentioned in press, B only has, like, double reviews that aren't really like, you know, those golden nugget reviews that you're trying to find.

00:16:35:21 - 00:16:58:10
Unknown
and she's saying that she could try. UGC but there's a question of like, how ethical it is for creators, to say they'd use the app if they actually do not. How do you, you know, approach that? So in terms of a travel niche, I would say, again, working with the brand and having them work with their actual customers.

00:16:58:10 - 00:17:24:00
Unknown
So again, I think a lot of times brands don't really know how to reach out to their customers and ask for solid reviews. this is something that I actually have an app brand that I'm working with, and this is something that we generated where we actually conducted, surveys with clients, have phone calls with them, spoke with them, tried to understand, okay, what you like about the service, what you don't like about the service.

00:17:24:05 - 00:18:00:00
Unknown
From there, you can start to pull the information and pull the actual great solid reviews that you need in order to use within your creative. So I think, again, it is doing a little bit more, you know, pulling from your actual client and pulling from your customers, it's just actually taking that time to do that research and pull those reviews in order to make sure that you're getting solid reviews, because, again, obviously, you don't want to have UGC that's not valuable if it's just someone who has never used the app or never really used the product, and it's, you know, you kind of look at it as well.

00:18:00:00 - 00:18:24:18
Unknown
It's not really the best form of of content, I would say taking that time to actually, you know, get on a call with, a customer is more valuable than just doing a UGC video just to make a UGC video. Right. And then so who on the team obviously is different working with an agency versus someone in-house? But who do you see is usually the person that's like owning this creative audit on the execution side, but then also the implementation.

00:18:24:20 - 00:18:52:14
Unknown
So I actually think that the designers and the creative strategists need to make sure they're both conducting these audits, because, again, the creative strategist not only needs to understand what, assets the editors have to work with, but then similarly to the editors, they need to understand what, you know, assets they have to work with that can then help the creative strategists to formulate these new ideas.

00:18:52:16 - 00:19:14:13
Unknown
So on our side, we have both. We have the strategist who works on it and then our editors, because there are a lot of times where, you know, editors and strategists can be siloed. And if they don't work together, if a strategist comes up and says, we want to make this ad, but they don't have that content, kind of defeats the purpose of actually making the content.

00:19:14:15 - 00:19:40:16
Unknown
Got it. and so John wants to know if you have any formats that you've seen that just have like a really high hit rate. and then, you know, if not, have you found any strategies to kind of increase the hit rate amongst, amongst the team, in terms of like ad creatives or do you like the kind of ones that you always, you know, maybe the brand doesn't have a ton of data, potentially is like a new brand that's, you know, like getting started with a paid social.

00:19:40:20 - 00:19:57:11
Unknown
Do you have kind of some tried and true sort of ad formats that you like? Okay, we're going to do this no matter what. Yeah, definitely. I mean, again, you know, really starting at the top of the funnel, we do really try to focus heavily on the social proof, because, again, I think most brands are missing that.

00:19:57:11 - 00:20:21:12
Unknown
They try so hard to obviously deliver the paid point first, which again is I think you should, but making sure that you're also informing your, you know, your buyers of why someone should actually purchase this with the form of reviews and social proof, I think is very important. So, we usually start to try with statics with, again, a solid product with a great review.

00:20:21:14 - 00:20:42:12
Unknown
and then obviously if there is UGC, depending on kind of what they, they have within their arsenal of creative, you know, we really do try to focus on a kind of informative, you know, problem solution kind of ad. So I would definitely say, obviously static is really great to start with, but then also with video kind of explaining that as well.

00:20:42:14 - 00:21:06:03
Unknown
Cool. and another one exciting is a different John. But what does your ad account look like? from like a format wise effect, like UGC versus branded content, a balance of static figures and carousels. Like if you were to like again, I think maybe with not a lot of platform data or not a lot of historical data, if you're destructuring account, how would you do that?

00:21:06:05 - 00:21:30:23
Unknown
That's a tough question because again, like every ad account is different. I lead mostly with, I would kind of say like a 5050 split, honestly, with like a video and static. again, I do think statics are super important to have within ad accounts, but then I also think video is really important to have as well, depending on kind of what you have within your creative assets.

00:21:30:23 - 00:21:51:03
Unknown
I mean, again, it's it's hard to say. Some clients only have, you know, statics to work with. So kind of taking that creative and doing what you can with it, you know, is, is definitely a challenge for the designer. But I would, I would really try to do a pretty hefty split, a video and statics. Okay.

00:21:51:05 - 00:22:13:20
Unknown
and then Nenad said, one did you do the creative work for the brand that you were featuring in particular, or are you kind of just handing that off to their creative team? no, we actually our team actually did those ad creatives. Nice. And then they had a follow up question. so when they do ads, in a moment, only Facebook, what is the most important thing to focus on?

00:22:14:01 - 00:22:39:09
Unknown
Is the UGC, the thumbnail image, the ad copy, or they all kind of, you know, contribute to the growth. But is there like one thing that you like 100% focus on? I mean, again, every ad account is different, but depending on what you're trying to test, kind of, you know, kind of depends on what it is. For instance, with with that brand in particular, we kind of tested different videos.

00:22:39:09 - 00:23:00:09
Unknown
First of the lounge pant, kind of to see, you know, what exactly would get the most hits. And then from there with that video, then we translated it into, okay, now we got to pull the best copy. So I guess we led, technically led with video first. And then from there we went with, coffee. Right.

00:23:00:11 - 00:23:14:10
Unknown
and then from Marlow, she's. So she's saying that, you know, if you're not a media buyer. And so she's just getting started with this, but she's trying to figure out how to structure her account. I think obviously this, like, example where it's, like, very early on, and let's just say it's, you know, she has, like, statics.

00:23:14:10 - 00:23:33:15
Unknown
She has found her stories. UGC how would you structure, that account for testing? Would you want a separate campaign for different creative formats? or would you kind of just put them all into like an event for shopping campaign and like, but that figured out. How would you do that? Yeah. I mean, again, in terms of Facebook, every account's different.

00:23:33:15 - 00:24:04:14
Unknown
But I'll be honest, say meta knows it. It knows what works. So Advantage Plus is obviously a huge driver. I obviously think most accounts just kind of go broad with advantage. Plus, and then we usually have just a creative testing campaign. So it's usually, you know, broad advantage plus in one campaign or testing creatives and another from there we kind of see what winners are working, which then we'll put into the main campaign, which is our advantage plus one to kind of see how it works.

00:24:04:16 - 00:24:25:20
Unknown
but usually it's more so just, you know, what has been kind of a proven strategy. And then we also have our creative testing campaigns as well. All right. Cool. So Gary wants to know is do you have any, you know, tips on getting press or publication sponsorships. if you really wanted to kind of like dive deep into doing something like that, you know.

00:24:25:20 - 00:24:47:16
Unknown
Yeah, I mean, I think again, like with something like this, you know, press I think is valid still, but I don't necessarily know if it's the full driver. I mean, press is great. Obviously everybody wants press. I think you could definitely work with, you know, PR companies. I could get you the press. You can reach out to them yourself.

00:24:47:16 - 00:25:14:23
Unknown
But I truly feel like more people now look at the actual customer reviews as opposed to a press review. just in terms of what I've seen, more people want to resonate with an actual person talking as opposed to like a huge publication. Again, I think it is good to have, but I don't think it's necessary. I think your customer reviews are going to be your main, kind of bread and butter in terms of getting better, results for reviews.

00:25:15:00 - 00:25:42:07
Unknown
Right. And then do you I guess I'm, I'm thinking about those formats like, let's just call it like customer. UGC reviews and things like that. And then you have, you know, publications and things and like that content they can be looked at is the same thing. Are you differentiating those when doing your creative audit? yeah. I mean, again, there's some brands that we have that obviously don't have PR so from there we you know, obviously don't just don't use that in terms of, you know, what we're using for creative.

00:25:42:09 - 00:26:05:11
Unknown
most of the time we're we're just using customer reviews. If they have PR, we'll use that, kind of as like a super ad, which is what I showed in the talentless one, where it was like PR mixed in with reviews, mixed in with, you know, calling out the actual product features. But, we usually lead mostly with customer reviews and testimonials.

00:26:05:13 - 00:26:19:08
Unknown
All right. Cool. Well, that's the end of our questions. if anybody did get them in, where can people, you know, find your online if they have another question or just, you know, potentially, you know, if they wanted you to kind of hop in and do some work on their out account. where can people find you best?

00:26:19:10 - 00:26:38:17
Unknown
Yeah. So, my company is the last 3 to 5, any, you know, handle at the loft, 3 to 5, you can definitely, you know, jump in my DMs and send me a message. I'd love to, you know, chat with you. Okay. Awesome. Well, is there anything else you want to, like, flag or, like, point people to?

00:26:38:19 - 00:27:03:06
Unknown
yeah. I mean, I am actually working currently on, a course which is really focusing heavily on, creative strategy and audit. So, that should be coming out actually in the end of Q2. But, yeah. So more to come, more to come on that. All right. Cool. I'm ready to go follow Lauren to, you know, or get figure out when she's going to be launching her courses.

00:27:03:06 - 00:27:20:02
Unknown
I'm sure it's going to be great. thank you. So much for sharing your time and your knowledge with, like, everybody, in the community. and yeah, I'll see everybody, probably the next two weeks for another fireside chat. appreciate everybody from my for joining and being engaged, as always. and yeah, I'll see you guys soon.

00:27:20:04 - 00:27:21:14
Unknown
All right. Thanks.

Creative Audit Masterclass: 5x Your Creative Output with a Winning Strategy

Lauren Schwartz

What you'll learn

Key Takeaways:

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