How To Improve Creative Performance In your Meta Ad Account

“Test, test, and then test some more!” is a common mantra thrown around in the realm of creative testing. But it’s time to rethink that approach.

Instead of getting caught in a web of repetitive testing cycles that eat away at your resources, you need a more effective strategy that helps you improve your bottom line.

This article is a crash course on our approach to creative testing. We share hard-earned lessons from years of running Meta ad accounts.

But First…What Even Is Creative Testing?

Creative testing isn't just about trying different ads anymore. It's about strategically using your limited ad slots to discover what resonates with your audience. 

Think of it this way: You've got 1,000 total ad slots to work with. It’s about how you use those slots to test new creative concepts, scale winning ads, maintain consistent performance, and work with Meta's algorithm preferences. 

When we talk about creative testing at Kynship, we're talking about a systematic approach to: 

• Maximizing ASC campaign potential (150 ads per campaign) 
• Strategic use of BAU campaigns when needed 
• Testing within Meta's preferred structure 
• Maintaining efficiency through cost controls 

For example, a single video asset might become multiple ad variations through: 

• Different hooks and CTAs
• Various social proof combinations 
• Multiple offer angles 
• Landing page combinations 

But here's the key difference: We're not just throwing everything at the wall. Every variation needs to earn its spot in your limited ad inventory.

Why Practice Creative Testing?

Here are four reasons:

1. Testing different ad versions lets you invest in what works and cut what doesn't

2. Creative testing helps you understand how your audience is behaving and what resonates with them

3. Creative testing enables you to double down on ads that are working and run more effective and profitable campaigns

4. Creative testing helps you regularly update and improve the performance of your ads

Creative testing sounds simple in theory. But there are a lot of moving parts and nuances you have to consider to achieve success. And at Kynship, we do things a little differently.

5 Differences Between Traditional Creative Testing vs. Kynship’s Creative Testing

There are certain standard ‘best practices’ in the creative testing world that aren’t necessarily…the best. Here are five things we do differently at Kynship (and why we take that approach):

1: Cost controls campaigns (instead of unrestricted spending)

Many agencies and internal teams prefer setting a daily budget on Meta and letting it ride — regardless of performance. This is the default approach because it maximizes reach, even if it has inefficiencies here and there.

But at Kynship, we believe in holding the line on efficiency. We want to keep profitability front and center and avoid waste. That’s why we use cost controls (like cost per result goals) to ensure performance is constant and spend is what flexes. Cost per result goals or “cost caps” come with built-in flexibility and work with CPA averages instead of fixed limits — giving Meta more freedom to find efficiency.

We primarily use Cost Per Result Goal (CPRG) for our campaign optimization because it best aligns with the forecasts we create.

CPRG calculates an average Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), providing more flexibility than a strict bid cap.

While Target Return on Ad Spend (tROAS) is effective, it relies on accurately predicting two variables: Average Order Value (AOV) and CPA. This dual prediction requirement introduces more potential for variance. However, tROAS becomes valuable in specific scenarios:

1. When driving traffic to collection or home pages
2. For brands with extensive product catalogs
3. When purchase values can vary significantly

For example, if we set a $100 cost per result goal expecting a $200 air fryer purchase, but the customer buys a $40 pan instead, we risk losing money. tROAS helps manage these AOV fluctuations.

For most accounts, we prefer CPRG because customers typically purchase directly from Product Detail Pages (PDPs) with predictable AOVs, allowing us to set precise CPA targets.

Think about it this way: The mall on a Wednesday afternoon is quiet and has minimal buyers. But on Sunday afternoon, the story is flipped. Your ad account functions in the same way. You want to spend more when demand is high and allow spending to be reduced when demand is low.

2: Unified campaign approach 

The standard approach is to have two campaigns: one to test creatives and one to scale your campaigns. But this resets the optimization process, causing you to lose momentum and efficiency built in the testing phase.

In the typical approach, there are going to be either of two scenarios:

A) You take out your winning creative and put it into a scaling campaign. But now, you’ve removed a top-performing ad from your ad account. And you’ve reset the optimization for both testing and scaling campaigns. You brought them back to the learning phase. Bad move across the board.

B) You dupe your winning creative from the testing campaign into your scaling campaign. This is directly against Meta’s recommended best practice of never having the same creatives run in two different campaigns. 

At Kynship, we maintain one unified campaign system where Meta's algorithm naturally allocates budget based on performance. Well-performing ads receive more budget, while underperforming ones see reduced spend. This approach:

• Prevents disruption to learning phases
• Maintains optimization momentum
• Creates a more efficient path to sustained success
• Aligns with Meta's best practices

3: Little to no manual tinkering (instead of continuous optimization)

It’s tempting to believe you can manipulate the machine and outsmart the system with just a slight human adjustment. However, in our experience, there are no drastic differences between ASC and BAU campaigns.

At Kynship, we run Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC), leveraging Meta's advanced machine learning capabilities while maintaining active strategic oversight. Our Media buyers are inputting creative into a system that allows us to test mass volumes of creative to get the best creative in front of the most relevant audiences and if we cannot do that at the target CPA, we won't spend on those creatives. 

From the creatives that do convert at the target, we can advise on what creative is working and iterate, brief, and create content that speaks to target audiences well. 

When we need to scale spend while maintaining performance, our media buyers employ several strategic levers:

• Expanding creative volume and diversity
• Improving creative quality based on performance data
• Introducing compelling offers (both discount and persona-based) specifically with Fermat funnels
• Adjusting copy and messaging to better connect with profitable new customers

4: Focus on new customer acquisition, not just new visitors

Many companies focus on increasing their new website visitors and worry when that percentage drops. But it’s natural for the new visitor percentage to shrink as your brand matures.

Think about it: In the beginning, your ad spend is a low-hanging fruit — where you reach audiences in the buying mindset (because they are the cheapest to reach). But as you spend more money and expand your business, you’ll get in front of people who are interested, but not ready to purchase right away. Now, you need to sell to an audience that has multiple touchpoints.

At Kynship, this transition is expected for all our clients. So, we know that if we do our job right, the new visitor percentage will dip and the new customer acquisition percentage will increase. After a certain stage, Meta will prioritize converting buyers who have visited your website but haven’t purchased anything.

5: Efficient creative testing with downside protection (instead of holding on to poorly performing creatives)

When you’ve invested a lot of time and resources in building a creative, it’s hard to let it go — even when it’s not performing well. This often leads to a sunk cost fallacy where you keep putting in more and more money in an underperforming creative, expecting a different result.

At Kynship, we’re quick to kill our darlings. Any creative that’s not performing ideally gets cut loose and new creatives get a fair shot by getting the backing of higher cost controls. And if the new creatives don’t deliver within two weeks, out they go. It’s about protecting your budget and scaling what works.

The differences between traditional agencies and Kynship highlight our fundamental ad account philosophies, but the next section contains a few more lessons and approaches that don’t fit this bucket.

How We Run Ad Accounts at Kynship

First, let’s cover how exactly we run our ad accounts. Then we can dive deeper into our reasoning behind the practices we chose. When we set up ad accounts at Kynship, we follow a strategic hierarchy based on account limits and business type.

Our Framework:

1. ASC Campaign Priority

• 8 ASC campaigns (maximum allowed per account)
• One ad set per campaign
• 150 ads per ASC campaign
• Maximizes Meta's latest optimization technology

2. Business-Type Structure

For Single-SKU Businesses:

• Campaigns organized by offer
• Each major offer gets its own campaign
• Examples: Landing page campaigns, product page campaigns

For Multi-SKU Businesses:

• Top performers get ASC campaign priority
• Additional SKUs run in BAU campaigns
• BAU identifies new scaling opportunities

3. Performance-Based Flexibility

• High-performing campaigns naturally scale up
• Underperforming campaigns become testing grounds
• Cost controls ensure efficient spending

4 Core Principles of Kynship’s Ad Account Philosophy

1: Use financial forecasting as the foundation of your paid media strategy

Successful paid ads start with the groundwork of accurate financial forecasting.

• Do you know the financial goals for your business? What’s your aim with growth & profit? If & when are you going to sell, etc.?
  
  
• Do you have a crystal clear understanding of your unit economics? This includes knowing your AOV, blended COGS, LTV, contribution margin, ROAS, CAC targets, etc.
  

Before you touch Meta Ads Manager you need to determine your financial goals and current profitability before you can begin creative testing. Clarity here will allow you to sustain success with your creative strategy.

Before launching any ad campaigns, our team conducts a thorough business analysis:

• Understand your overall business profitability goals
• Deep dive into your business lifecycle metrics:some text
  • Cost of delivery
  • Operating expenses
  • Customer retention rates
  • Churn metrics
• Analyze your baseline returning customer revenue
• Calculate required acquisition revenue to meet business goals
• Determine appropriate acquisition targets across all advertising channels
• Translate business targets into specific ad account metrics
• Use this comprehensive analysis to set proper controls and execute campaigns

This holistic approach ensures our advertising strategy aligns with your complete business ecosystem rather than just focusing on ad metrics in isolation.

Remember growth is first made in the books, not in the ads manager.

💡 Want to learn more about financial forecasting? This article dives deep into what it is and part 2 shares an actionable step-by-step guide on creating a forecast for your business.

2:  Test everything, control costs

While some might suggest being selective with testing, the reality is most brands aren't producing enough content for this to be a concern. We leverage our systems to test everything possible—it's about maximizing every opportunity while maintaining profitability through careful cost controls.

Rather than limiting what we test, we focus on optimizing how we test through smart budget management and performance monitoring. This allows us to uncover more potential winners while keeping spend efficient.

3: Lean on the Meta machine

Meta is investing heavily in ASC for a reason. We've aligned our entire strategy with Meta's clear preference for ASC campaigns, structuring them exactly how the platform performs best: one campaign, one ad set, 150 ads. 

This isn't just following rules— it's working smarter. By minimizing manual optimizations and letting the algorithm find efficiency within our cost controls, we're partnering with Meta's machine learning instead of fighting against it. 

The result? Better performance with less tinkering.

4: Adapt your ads based on performance

Your ad account should breathe with your business, expanding and contracting based on real performance data. We let successful ASC campaigns scale naturally, giving them room to grow while maintaining their efficiency. 

When campaigns underperform, we don't just shut them down, we transform them into testing grounds for new creative approaches. This dynamic approach means we're constantly adapting our creative strategy based on what works, all while maintaining consistent cost controls. 

The spend might flex, but our performance standards don't.

The big shift here? We're not just thinking about what to test, we're thinking about how to maximize limited resources for the best possible results. Every ad slot is valuable real estate, and these principles help you use that real estate wisely.

The next section will put a spotlight on what happens when you apply all of these creative testing principles to your ad account.

Kynship’s Creative Testing Principles in Action

This is the story of how one creative completely transformed our client’s ad (and bank 😉) account.

The Starting Point:

When this client came to Kynship, they didn’t know their ROAS targets for scale or even aMER targets for profitability. They were running 94 ads with 75 unique pieces of content.

The Kynship Transformation:

First, we did our financial forecast with them and established solid profitability targets — aMER at 2X, with the goal to driving more spend, and increasing contribution margin.

Next, we switched them from high volume campaigns (HV) to cost control campaigns (CC) — keeping the new ROAS target in mind. Here’s how it went:

• 15 days before the CC launch (still using all HV): They spent £71,032.86 at a 2.31 ROAS.
  
• 15 days after the CC launch (now half HV and half CC): The spend increased to £85,140.56 and ROAS dropped to 1.69.
• 30 days after the CC launch (now all CC): The spend dropped to £77,357.82 (temporarily) and ROAS came back up to 2.08.
  
• 45 days after the CC launch: The spend dropped again to £52,304.38 (again, temporarily) and ROAS dropped to 1.92.
  

Why the dip in spend from day 30-45? It occurred from uncovering hidden costs in their finances that had been unaccounted for previously. The powers of financial forecasting, y’all.

• 60 days after the CC launch: The spend rose significantly to £192,450.42 and ROAS came back up to 2.01.
• 120 days after the CC launch: Spend increased to £448,978.61 and ROAS stayed at 2.00.
  

At the 45-day mark, we found the unicorn ad and doubled down on it. Now, they're starting a new category of ads from their unicorn creative.

During this process, we quadrupled their ad creatives without adding any net new assets. It was time to expand creative volume.

The existing content was all existing brand content. So we introduced UGC, seeding, our full creative suite — whatever we could in the first month of the partnership.

Not just this: One creative we recommended led to a whopping 400% revenue increase.

We informed their team about what kind of creative had worked previously — founder-led, product in the background, educational angle. So the founder went and shot exactly that. It’s exactly the power of leaning on the Meta machine and adapting your ads based on performance we discussed in the previous section.

The above case study is the ultimate proof that creative testing (and our approach to it) isn’t all talk. It. Actually. Works. A strategic approach to paid media — as opposed to the spray and pray method — can help you maximize profitability and achieve ad spend efficiency.

Bringing It All Together: Your Next Steps

1. Audit Your Current Setup

• How many ads are you currently using?
• Are you maximizing ASC campaign potential?
• Do your campaigns align with Meta's preferred structure?

2. Plan Your Transition

• Start with financial forecasting
• Map out your ASC campaign structure
• Identify opportunities for strategic BAU usage

3. Implement Systematically

• Begin with top-performing products/offers
• Maintain cost controls throughout
• Monitor performance during the transition

Remember: This isn't just another "best practices" guide. This is a practical framework shaped by Meta's actual platform limitations and preferences. It's about working smarter within the constraints we have, not just testing more.

Want us to get your ad account set up for growth for 2025? Let’s chat.