Performance creative that's judged on profit, not ROAS
We find out why your customers buy, make the ads, and test them against sales. Statics, creator videos, founder videos and motion ads for D2C, CPG and SaaS brands, built by the team that runs your media.
From $5,000 a month. Creator fees are budgeted separately.
Your ROAS looks fine. Your bank account doesn't.
Most creative gets judged on the dashboard. Spend goes up, platform ROAS stays green, and the business doesn't grow with it. Three things usually sit behind that.
ROAS isn't profit
Platform ROAS counts orders Meta takes credit for, including customers you already had. We judge ads on new-customer cost and contribution margin.
Not enough new ideas
You can't scale spend faster than you can ship new concepts. When winners wear out and nothing is ready to replace them, costs climb.
Tests that teach nothing
Resizing an old winner isn't a test. Each concept should answer one question about why people buy, so the next brief gets better.
What we make
Four formats, picked per concept. The format follows the reason to buy, not the other way round.
Static ads
The fastest way to test a message. One clear claim, the product, and proof. We use statics to find the angle before spending on video.
Creator (UGC) videos
Real people using the product, scripted from what customers say in reviews and interviews. We brief, cast and edit. Creator fees are budgeted separately, so you see what goes to talent.
Founder and spokesperson videos
When the story or the science needs a credible voice. Good for products people need explained before they trust them.
Motion and edited video
Launches, offers and product demos cut from existing footage. Quick to make, so a winning static can become a video in days.
How it works
This is the creative side of the Spark Growth System. Every step feeds the next round of ads.
- Work out what a customer is worth. Before any ads, we set how much you can pay for a new customer and still make money. That number judges every test.
- Find why people buy. We pull the language and reasons from reviews, interviews and support tickets, then map them to motivators, messages and visuals. That gives every concept one job.
- Size the pipeline. We calculate how many concepts your budget can test each month and how many winners you need. Try it yourself with the creative velocity calculator.
- Test, then scale what proves itself. New concepts get their own budget so each gets a fair read. Winners scale, losers get cut, and each test ends with one line on why. Here is the testing framework we use, and the learning phase calculator for sizing ad sets.
Results from creative and media run together
More on our client results page.
"First Spark is like a creative director meets CFO. They took over our creative production and media buying strategy and 10x'd our business in 2 years."
450% ROAS
Komuso, across the account, while scaling paid social spend 5x.
+327% online store sales
Muddy Bites, from Meta campaigns, alongside a 908% lift in direct traffic.
23% lower acquisition cost in 30 days
Copper Moon Coffee's ads weren't mapped to different buyers. We rebuilt the creative around their motivators across Meta and Google.
Read the Copper Moon case study
600% return on ad investment
A fast batch of ads built around one motivator, free product, sent new customers into stores, with every receipt tracked.
Read the EBOOST case study
Worst Target stores became their best
Geo-targeted Meta ads and a pre-sell page turned Willa's weakest doors around. Five stores ran at more than twice their goal.
Read the Willa's case study
300%+ growth in one year, then an exit
Worldwide Meta campaigns with creative built for serious cyclists grew Hammerhead over 300% in a year before SRAM acquired it.
Read the Hammerhead case studyPerformance creative starts from $5,000 a month
The scope comes from your numbers: how many concepts your spend can test, how fast winners wear out, and which formats your buyers respond to. You'll see the plan before you sign.
Included
- Customer research and a concept plan tied to your target cost per customer.
- Scripts, design, editing and creator briefs.
- A testing plan and a readout after every round.
- A running log of what won and why, which shapes the next brief.
Priced separately
- Creator fees for UGC videos.
- Ad spend, paid directly to the platforms.
- Media buying, if you want us to run it. Meta ads management also starts from $5,000 a month.
- Landing pages, if a test shows the page is the bottleneck.
Comparing agencies? Our guide to what a performance creative agency does covers what to expect at each price level, and the agency pricing guide covers retainers more broadly.
Is this the right fit?
A good fit if
- You spend around $30,000 a month or more on ads.
- Your winners wear out faster than your team can replace them.
- You want ads judged on new customers and margin, not platform ROAS.
- You sell DTC, through retail, or a SaaS product with a trial or demo.
Not the right fit if
- Your budget can't yet test more than a couple of ads a month.
- The offer, margin or tracking is the real problem. We'll say so, and the Funnel Reset may suit you better.
- You only need a batch of files without testing behind it.
Questions about performance creative
How much does performance creative cost at First Spark?
Performance creative starts from $5,000 a month. The final scope depends on how many new concepts your ad spend can test each month and which formats you need. Creator fees for UGC are budgeted separately so you can see exactly what goes to talent.
What kinds of ads do you make?
Static ads, creator (UGC) videos, founder and spokesperson videos, and motion ads. Each concept is built around one reason to buy, so a test tells you which message works, not just which file got lucky.
Do you also run the media buying?
We can. Most clients have us make the ads and run Meta, because each new round of creative is then built from the last round's results. Meta ads management starts from $5,000 a month. If you already have a media buyer, we work alongside them and share the testing plan.
How many new ads will we get each month?
It depends on your spend and how quickly your winners wear out. We size it with the same math as our free creative velocity calculator: how many winners you need, your hit rate, and how many concepts your budget can test properly. Concepts count, resizes don't.
How long until we see results?
Plan on about three months. Starting from scratch, month one is building, month two is learning what works, and month three is scaling it. On an existing account, month one is stabilizing, month two is testing and month three is scaling the winners.
Do you work with CPG and SaaS brands, or only DTC?
All three. For CPG brands we have tied Meta creative to in-store sales at retailers like Target, and for SaaS the same research and testing process applies to demos and trials instead of orders.
Who is a good fit?
Brands spending around $30,000 a month or more on ads, where new creative is what limits growth. If the real problem is the offer, the margin or the tracking, we will tell you, because more ads will not fix those.
Find out if creative is what's holding you back
Tell us about your brand and where growth is stuck. We'll look at your current ads and spend and tell you whether more creative is the answer.
Talk to our teamAlready know what you need?
- The Funnel Reset: for DTC brands spending $30K+ a month on Meta. We rebuild your offer, page and ads in 14 days and beat your CPA, or you don't pay.
- The Closed-Loop Funnel trial: ads, landing page and email sequence in 14 days for brands spending $30K+ a month on ads.
