Episode 215 – Smart Marketer Show Winning Ad Creative: What Works Now & How to Measure It Episode Description

What makes an ad actually perform in 2025? In this episode, John Grimshaw and Ben Bennett pull back the curtain on the creative process that drives real sales—from emotional resonance to performance metrics. You’ll learn why good creative starts with empathy, how to identify your strongest hooks, and which numbers really matter.

Plus, we introduce a brand-new metric (yes, we named it), and show you how AI is changing the creative game—without replacing your team.

“If your ad doesn’t have a heart, it will not perform well.” —Ben Bennett

You Will Learn

The 3 key metrics that reveal if your ad creative is working
How to identify and fix poor-performing ads (without guessing)
Why emotional hooks beat flashy tactics every time
How to use AI image tools like ChatGPT to speed up creative
The “thumb stop ratio” metric you should be tracking (and how)
A 30-minute Action of the Month to sharpen your creative instantly

Links & Resources

smartmarketer.com/hyros – Hyros attribution tool
Smart Marketer Free Resources – smartmarketer.com/free-resources
Smart Marketer Agency – smartmarketer.com/agency

Timestamps (Chapters)

02:05 – Meet Ben Bennett: Creative Director at Smart Marketer 03:15 – Top 3 Metrics That Matter for Ad Creative 07:24 – Metric 1: Unique Link Click-Through Rate 11:54 – Metric 2: Conversion Rate & Ad Scent 15:51 – Metric 3: Thumb Stop Ratio 19:00 – How to Set Up and Benchmark Your Thumb Stop Ratio 21:07 – AI for Ad Creatives: How ChatGPT-4 is Changing the Game 26:32 – Action of the Month: Add Heart to Your Hooks 27:27 – The Heart Behind Your Creative 29:30 – If Your Ad Doesn’t Have a Heart, It Won’t Perform 30:33 – The Hook and the Hand: A Smart Marketer Analogy 34:01 – Making Facebook Ads People Don’t Hate 36:24 – Hooks vs. Heart: What's Missing in Most Ads 40:57 – A Simple Exercise 42:56 – The Nine Motivators That Move People 45:12 – Building Visual Hooks Around Real Situations 45:39 – How to Think About Hooks, and How They Fit Into Existing Ads 48:08 – How to Create Really Good Problem Hooks 56:48 – Here's How to Copy This Win

Call to Action

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Matthew Lewis — The Path of Longing