Josh C. | Creative Strategist

I help DTC brands generate more revenue by turning what their buyers are already saying into conversion messaging that sells.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

Simon Squibb is running my ads with his own money.

Simon is running a free business competition with a $1M prize fund. My coach, Sean Ferres, made it a sprint for his CMB students. The top one third of the ads go to Simon’s CMO, to be launched on the ad account.

All 3 of mine are live now.

Each one is built on a real story from Simon’s own videos.

A delivery driver Simon stopped on his route in London. Two years later, he pitched to a millionaire investor.

Simon himself, who knocked on 112 doors in one day and got 11 customers.

Twins who didn’t wait until they had money to start a business.

Before I wrote a word, Claude did the ICP research for me by reading 1,012 comments on Simon’s YouTube videos and 750 posts from people who signed up.

Claude also read the transcripts from some of Simon's YouTube videos to gather the origin stories.

That’s where the angles came from.

Then every line got checked against the video timestamp, the competition terms or the landing page.

Sean’s note on the 3 ads: “three different people, three different angles, long native copy that reads like Simon talking. this is the standard.”

So if you run ads, here’s what I’d take from this.

The best story for your next ad is probably already sitting in your comments, your reviews and your own videos.

Someone just has to go and read them.

The story was already there.

My job was to tell it straight.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

@revilooo10 just sent you a DM

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

@mariagudelis Thank you! 🦆

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

"Quack!" An ecom founder slumps in his chair as he refreshes the Ads Manager for the ninth time.

It's 2am on Black Friday. Cost per sale has doubled since dinner, and $60,000 of stock is still in the warehouse.

There's no new ad to switch on.

This is one of an ecom founder's worst nightmares.

And it's usually not because they don't know what works.

Most ecom founders know exactly which type of ads to launch. They just run out of them.

In Q4, ads burn out faster.

My 3 Black Fridays in a supplement company spending $2M a month on ads taught me that you need a lot of ads for Q4.

In fact we were already preparing for Q4 in September.

Many brands are hiring creative strategists right now.

They need hands.

But a good hire could take weeks to find, and Black Friday is just over four weeks away.

If I were running a brand and short of hands 4 weeks before Black Friday, I wouldn't wait on a full-time hire.

I'd bring in a creative strategist for a short stint.

Someone who can take what already works and turn it into new ads this week.

Because a brand with no spare ads on Black Friday is a sitting duck.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

Woke up to some good news on a Saturday morning. GM

[jack @jackorgbuild]

Brand owners hiring creative strategists listen up

A cracked CS is not determined by their past performance

I repeat...

A CRACKED CS IS NOT DETERMINED BY THIER PAST PERFORMANCE

I am speaking to 7-8 fig /mo founders who are agreeing to pay senior strats $10K+ base & performance.

Based on their past success...

Only for them to underperform.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

@faberxco Well I'm more of a gangsta creative strategist if ya don't mind

https://t.co/bquc76kAXU

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

My 3 ads for Simon Squibb have brought in 33 leads averaging £2.64 each.

Simon’s team only starts losing money at £5 a lead. Mine cost about half that.

On Tuesday I posted that Simon was running my ads with his own money. This is what that money has got back so far.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

@zackhubz Hey Zack I just sent you a DM

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

@charlesdksr hey Charles I sent you a DM

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

Looking for a gangsta creative strategist to help you print this Black Friday? Slide into my DMs.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

My 3 ads for Simon Squibb have brought in 33 leads averaging £2.64 each.

Simon’s team only starts losing money at £5 a lead. Mine cost about half that.

On Tuesday I posted that Simon was running my ads with his own money. This is what that money has got back so far.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

Simon’s CMO says Sean is “training some gangsters”.

Well that makes me a certified G, and I'm finna make it rain for some clients this Q4 and Black Friday.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

A lucky ad and a smart ad look the same in a portfolio.

If you're hiring a creative strategist, one question tells them apart.

Brands are hiring creative strategists fast right now.

Most get judged on a portfolio of winning ads and how much spend they've scaled.

Both matter. They show you a win happened.

But what you're paying for is the next one.

"Why did it ad win?"

Here's mine.

The client sold a $15,000 course to real estate agents.

One of our winning ads was a 10-slide carousel telling the founder's own story.

He'd spent $18K on courses and another $50K putting them to work, with no results.

Then he locked himself in his room for two months and built his own strategy.

He went on to be the #1 agent in his agency 3 years running.

Why it won: the agents seeing that ad had also paid for courses that didn't work, so they saw themselves in his story.

I scaled ad spend from $2k a week to $10k a week, and at $10k a week it hit 36x ROAS.

A strategist who can't say why will guess at the next ad.

Sometimes the guess works. Sometimes it won't.

So what are you paying for? Guesswork, or insights?

Anyone can show you a winning ad. Work with the one who can tell you why it won.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

@theodosislaspas Hey Theodosis, just submitted the form

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

@Salifsibane16 hey Salif, sent you a DM

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

If your ads keep getting rejected, DM me one. I’ll tell you how I’d rewrite it to fit Meta’s rules and still give people a reason to buy.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

My best client couldn't run a single ad. Facebook kept rejecting them.

That was before we started working together.

Champs Realtor Academy sold a $15,000 course to real estate agents.

That's a niche that needs extra care when making claims.

So I wrote compliant copy.

It still converted well.

Within 6 months I scaled ad spend from $2k a week to $10k a week.

At $10k a week, it hit 36x return on ad spend.

A lot of brands think a compliant ad has to be a "weaker" ad.

So when one gets rejected, they tone it down until it loses its persuasive power.

The rules only stop certain claims. You can still give people a reason to buy.

My 3 years of creative work at a supplement company spending about $2M a month on ads taught me a lot about compliance.

The product was effectively a weight loss product.

But we did not market it as a weight loss supplement.

Instead, we watched our customer reviews and one of them said that "menopause hit her like a truck".

Then we started marketing it as a way to help manage menopause symptoms naturally.
Right now the Q4 ban wave is hitting brands hard.

People are getting ads rejected and accounts shut down, just weeks before Black Friday.

The easy fix is to tone your ads down until they say nothing.

The better fix is sitting in your reviews.

Somewhere in there, a customer already told you why they buy, and you can say it without breaking a rule.

Compliant doesn't mean you weaken your ads.

It just means you need a different way to communicate a point.

Has one of your ads been rejected this Q4?

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

So if you run ads, here’s what I’d take from this.

The best story for your next ad is probably already sitting in your comments, your reviews and your own videos.

Someone just has to go and read them.

The story was already there.

My job was to tell it straight.

[Josh C. | Creative Strategist @creativebyjosh]

Before I wrote a word, Claude did the ICP research for me by reading 1,012 comments on Simon’s YouTube videos and 750 posts from people who signed up.

Claude also read the transcripts from some of Simon's YouTube videos to gather the origin stories.

That’s where the angles came from.

Then every line got checked against the video timestamp, the competition terms or the landing page.

Sean’s note on the 3 ads: “three different people, three different angles, long native copy that reads like Simon talking. this is the standard.”