Commentary

Creative Not Converting? Fix Your Messaging Fast

by Kelli Krenek , November 7, 2025

If your campaigns are underperforming and your buyers seem confused and disengaged (or worse, unreachable), Q3 is your final window to pivot before year-end results are locked in.

“Creative” covers everything from messages and visuals to format and placement—and when performance dips, every element deserves interrogation.

Start with strategy, not surface metrics.

The first step in this creative review is brutally honest goal-setting. Clicks and impressions are easy to chase and easy to misread. If they’re not tied to revenue, they’re vanity metrics. Work backward from end-of-year goals to determine how many net-new customers or deals are needed, your conversion rate, and what that means for targeting, spend, and creative volume.

Avoid mismatched execution. You can’t run an awareness campaign and expect lead conversion. If your company needs to close 100 new logos but your team is optimizing for impressions, you’re off-course.

Diagnose before you test.

Don’t test blindly. When creative underperforms, find the fault line. Is the issue creative, targeting, landing page, or funnel stage mismatch? You can’t fix what you haven’t identified. Isolate the problem, then design your test strategy to match.

Test smarter—and faster.

Once you know what to test, focus on clean experiments. Test one variable at a time—images, headlines, or CTAs—so you know what’s driving performance.

You can run multiple tests simultaneously:

Test image A vs. B in one ad set.
Test headline A vs. B in another.

Then combine the winners to build your strongest unit.

If you suspect messaging or targeting issues, test accordingly. Let ad platforms auto-optimize—but give algorithms two to four weeks to learn.

When time is tight and performance is tanking, incremental A/B testing won’t cut it. Develop multiple net-new creative directions—distinct messages, visuals, and angles—all on brand. Once a winner emerges, shift into precision testing. Think fast, then focused.

Use your most powerful lever: messaging.

Most performance issues stem from misaligned messaging, not weak copy. Polished headlines won’t help if your value proposition doesn’t resonate. “All-in-one solution” won’t land if consolidation isn’t your buyer’s priority.

High-performing messaging is persona-aligned, funnel-aware, clear, in your buyer’s language, and simple—one main message per asset, never more than three. Placement matters too: if your best point hides behind “See more,” it may never get read.