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