How to Brief Your Design Team to Create High-performing Ads

Ever had a brilliant ad idea you were sure would work?

You pass it on to the design team, but it doesn't quite turn out as you expected. Maybe the idea wasn’t as solid as you thought, or perhaps the designer just couldn’t capture your vision. Or, it could be that you didn’t give them clear instructions.

Where does the bottleneck actually happen in creating high-performing ads and what can you do to eliminate it?

Why is the Ad Creation Process a Struggle?

After speaking to lots of B2B marketers these past months, one thing continues to come up: the ad creation process is a struggle when it shouldn't be. Especially when sending the ad ideas over to the design team. This is where the biggest bottleneck happens and it ends up with ad creatives that just don’t hit the mark.

So, without pointing any fingers, let's try to understand why this could happen.

🎨 What happens with designers:

A lot of times, designers are overwhelmed with their workload, which has a direct impact on how they develop ad creatives. This leads to delays in campaign launches, a decrease in quality, slows down the testing and experimentation process, and decreases the agility needed when designing at scale.

On top of that, not all designers are ad specialists. Many designers are responsible for broader creative tasks like web design, graphics UI design, etc. So, it´s hard to bring a new ad creative idea to life when they're not trained on that specific subject. Beside being visually engaging, the ad creatives should also effectively convey the marketing message. So this type of designer must combine marketing knowledge with their visual skills. 

🚀 What happens with marketers:

Marketers struggle to transfer their ideas and knowledge to designers. The marketer needs someone with marketing skills to give their idea a visual form, while the designer needs more straightforward instructions. It’s almost like a middleman is needed to translate the marketing brief into design terms. Think of it as if you need a translator when traveling to a country where you don´t speak a lick of the local language. 

When you don´t close this ¨translation¨ gap, it´s visible in the final product, and you get unsatisfying results, continuous back and forth (not the good kind), long feedback loops, and frustration from all parties.

Closing the Gap Between Marketing and Design when Creating Ads

While it’ll take a lot of learning, training and collaboration between both departments to improve the communication and quality of work, there are three things you can start implementing today.

Make Your Brief More Specific

Take the time to clearly explain what you want the ad to accomplish. Be specific about the main message you want to convey and the effect you want to achieve - whether it’s to spark curiosity, make a bold statement, tell a story or be thought-provoking. Then define the tone you’d like to use, if it’s authoritative, humoristic, edgy, inspirational, etc. 

For me, it helps the most when I take the ad as close to the final version as possible. To do this, don't limit yourself to the marketing brief, but try to visualize the ad on your own and then detail your vision. So if you want your designer to, let’s say, illustrate the problem, define if this should be a literal illustration or for instance a metaphor. Whenever possible, create a simple sketch to clarify your vision. I usually create some sort of a lo-fi design the designer then uses as basis. 

Another thing to keep in mind is visual hierarchy. This is primarily the designer’s responsibility but as a marketer, you know which elements need to be in focus and in what order. The designer will work with this information and create a layout that allows the content to be scanned with ease and also leads the eye to the right elements. For example, specify which part of the testimonial should be highlighted for better readability.

Finally, you could outline the design direction you have in mind. For instance, do you want the ad to look professional, or are you going for a more raw, unpolished look? Are you aiming for a realistic look or hand drawn?

Share Your Swipe File

Create your own swipe file - a collection of ads from other brands that have worked well in your industry and that you admire. Use these examples to inspire your designer and give clear direction. Just be sure to point out exactly which parts of these examples you like, otherwise they can quickly miss the point. What you notice in an ad may not be what a designer notices.

Another helpful tip is to explore Adfolio’s library. It’s filled with carefully selected ads along with commentary that explains the thought process behind them. Exposing your designer to great examples and explanations can help them sharpen their skills, gain a better understanding of the marketing side of it, and improve ad design using proven techniques. 

Give Clear Feedback

Be transparent with the feedback on your designer´s work. Take some time to dig into why it doesn’t meet your expectations. Then, explain again what you were hoping to see.

It works the same for the aspects you do like - point out what you like and why you think it´ll resonate with your audience. Help your designer understand your thought process to strengthen your collaboration and make future projects as smooth as possible.

Encourage Teamwork

Working together throughout the whole ad creation process can be a great way to get marketing and design on the same page. Consider incorporating workshops into your workflow, where you can brainstorm and create together. This will help you understand each other's perspectives and thought processes.

How it Looks in Practice (from someone who does this for a living)

Ad design is our bread and butter. We’ve spent years perfecting our process for creating impactful, high-performing ads. And we want to share with you a step-by-step guide outlining our whole approach. Use it to optimize your own creative process and start creating winning ads.

1. The brief

The brief is a non-negotiable when creating ads for our clients, but we also prepare one when working on internal projects. Seeing our knowledge in a structured way greatly supports our creative process.

To extract the right information from our clients, we created a template in Figma where we collect product and problem specifics, such as features, capabilities, benefits, pain points, objections, use cases, etc. We also ask them to identify which content pieces, landing pages, and offers they´ll be using in the campaigns.

2. Ad angles

The angles depend on the product's strengths, what the target audience responds to, their level of awareness, the offer, campaign goals...
The marketer (me in this case) studies the brief and selects the most suitable ad angles.

The most common ones that I use:

• Before/After (to illustrate your impact)
• Comparison (to fight the status quo or substitute)
• Problem-solution (to raise awareness)
• Feature overview (to show off your differentiation)
• Capability first (when function > benefits)
• Benefits first (to simplify features into tangible results)
• Objection-handling (to help ease concerns)
• Use cases (to personalize your ad to a specific persona)
• Testimonials (to build trust)
• Case studies (to prove what difference you can make)

If I’m promoting an event, report or any resources like templates, checklists etc, I treat them as separate products. I focus on their features, benefits and pain points they're solving.



A few angles I usually use are:

• Question (the one you answer in the resource)

• Product overview (what the resource is + features)

• Teaser (a key detail like a fact or finding)
• Pain point (the one the resource solves)
• Benefit (what's in it for them)

3. Conceptualization

This is also something the marketer should do - prepare the copy and the early stage design concept.

This is what my approach looks like. First, I get inspiration from www.adfolio.design and our internal swipe files. Then with the help of creative thinking techniques like brainstorming, reframing, and mind mapping I identify concepts that will successfully communicate the main message. 

I usually work with:

• product images

• metaphors and analogies
• problem illustrations
• familiar UI elements
• post it notes, billboards, signs
• charts and diagrams

The result of this stage are sketches, lo-fi designs clearly showing the concept behind the ad.

4. Design style

At this stage, the marketer and designer will ideally work together on deciding the right design style for the ads.

Here are our designer's favorite ones:

• Flat design
• Minimalist
• Art deco
• Collage
• Neo-retro
• Neo-brutalism
• 3D
• Doodle & Hand drawn
• Psychedelic
• Abstract
• Pixel art
• Pop art

5. Final designs

Now the designer takes over. I brief him using my lo-fi designs, give him inspirational ideas (e.g. a mood board), and then explain the main messaging and effect I want the ads to have. With a few feedback loops, we drive this campaign home. 

I’ve worked alongside our designer for 7+ years and have picked up a lot of design tips and tricks while he, in turn, has learned more about marketing which has really helped our communication.

Putting it All Together

In short, creating high-performing ads requires strong communication between marketers and designers. Start by improving your briefs, providing clear instructions, and sharing your vision in detail. Have examples in your swipe file ready to guide your designer, and don´t forget to give thoughtful feedback on what works and what doesn´t. By implementing these strategies, you´ll bridge the gap between marketing and design and get better results and improved collaboration. 

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