Every paid social team wants the same thing: creative that stops the scroll, that pleases the algorithm, but consistently protects and enhances their brand image.
So we went looking for the brands that are nailing it. These five campaigns come from our book, Life Goals, and they're the ones our team keeps coming back to. Each has something you can borrow for your own ads (don’t worry, we won't tell).
Life Goals features 75 brands from the world of hobbies, pastimes and everyday rituals, all chosen for their creativity and storytelling. From those, we've picked the five whose paid creative we'd happily put in front of any head of ecommerce.
The short version
- SURI: product-led Meta creative with hooks that land the USP in seconds.
- Cricut: a shift from performance to brand-first, with community and UGC (user-generated content) at the centre.
- Assembly Coffee: calm, tactile creative that sparks curiosity rather than demanding attention.
- Bird & Blend Tea Co.: a well-priced advent calendar, great creative and smart targeting that doubled view-through conversions.
- Ancient + Brave: brand storytelling and product proof working side by side, plus a Davina McCall partnership.
1. SURI: Best Meta Creative
SURI (short for Sustainable Rituals) is a London-based oral care brand founded in 2022 by Mark Rushmore and Gyve Safavi. Their goal was to redesign the electric toothbrush from scratch, to transform oral care for people and the planet.
The product is beautiful and brilliant - an everyday essential designed for life. An aluminium body, plant-based recyclable brush heads, a 40-day battery life and a modular design you can repair rather than replace.
Their Meta creative is a cut above the rest. Every element is built to engage viewers within seconds.
Static ads are clean and product-led, showing off the long battery life, pressure sensor and sustainable materials. The hooks are simple and striking, like "Make your first electric toothbrush your last one." Video mixes things up with unboxings, side-by-side comparisons, interview-style content and influencer collaborations. Partnerships with dental professionals add real authority.
Why we love it: every single ad comes back to one promise, which is fixing what traditional electric brushes get wrong. SURI reaches multiple audiences without losing coherence, so it's building awareness and trust at the same time.
What you can take from it: use as many formats as you like, but focus on one message to carry and maintain brand integrity throughout.
2. Cricut: Best Paid Social Strategy
Cricut (think cricket, not cry-cut) makes smart cutting machines, tools and software that turn everyday materials into personalised designs. With its crafting machines, it created its very own market segment.
At the start of 2025, Cricut made a bold call. They opted for a brand-first approach, so it could scale more effectively and focus on customer acquisition and sales.
On social, that meant putting more investment into reach, prioritising scale over conventional sales or traffic campaigns.
The creative strategy changed too. Branded partnerships and UGC came into the mix, showing what Cricut machines can do in the hands of creative people. Their community became the heart of the story.
Why we love it: going brand-first is a big decision, and proving it works is harder still. Cricut partnered with Fospha as its main non-biased source of truth and completely changed how it allocated budget. It also used Meta's first-party brand lift tools as a second source to confirm the strategy was driving engagement and brand demand.
What you can take from it: if you need your board to back reach over short-term sales, decide how you'll measure it before you spend a penny.
3. Assembly Coffee: Best Product Discovery Campaign
Assembly Coffee is an award-winning, B Corp certified specialty roaster in Brixton, founded in 2015. Its founders wanted something that felt less like a coffee chain and more like a creative studio.
In paid social, Assembly stands out precisely because it refuses to shout. While plenty of brands chase bright colours and "look-at-me!" hooks, Assembly goes the other way. Its creative is simple, tactile and beautifully lit. Beans being ground. A cup being poured. It feels less like an ad and more like a moment you want to step into.
Coffee lovers know their stuff, so Assembly earns authority through product walkthroughs, roasting demonstrations and invites to its in-store brewing experiences.
Why we love it: Assembly knows exactly who it's talking to. Urban, design-focused people who value integrity and visual storytelling. Its ads sit naturally in their feeds while keeping a strong identity.
What you can take from it: use curiosity as a tact to stop the scroll, providing you know your audience inside out.
4. Bird & Blend Tea Co.: Best Use of Demand Gen
Bird & Blend Tea Co. is an independent, award-winning tea company on a mission to spread happiness and reimagine tea. Think herbs, flowers, caramel, and even cake sprinkles.
Their Christmas advent calendar has a tight sales window. Interest builds from September through to November, and the stock needs to sell in a couple of months. Advent calendars have faced plenty of backlash over eye-watering price tags. So Bird & Blend did something refreshingly sensible. It built a fun, well-priced calendar packed with tasters (including matcha to froth with its new magic whisk).
That product was promoted through Google's Demand Gen campaigns, with eye-catching video, beautiful creative and clear messaging, backed by strategic targeting.
Why we love it: they made something customers really wanted, then showed it off brilliantly. In September 2025, the brand saw a 100% increase in view-through conversions year on year, and the matcha calendar sold out completely in early November.
What you can take from it: great creative can't rescue the wrong offer. Get the product right for your audience first, then let your ads do the talking.
5. Ancient + Brave: Best Celebrity Collaboration
Ancient + Brave is a female-founded wellness brand, started in 2018 by Kate Prince. It combines ancestral wisdom with modern science, and it's B Corp certified.
Its paid social is diverse and striking, balancing brand storytelling with product focus across images and video. High-production brand videos show products fitting into everyday rituals, like adding collagen to your morning coffee. Creator-led content captures similar moments at home, outdoors and in interview-style formats.
Then there are the conversion-focused statics. Emotive colour palettes and bold visuals combine customer reviews, ingredient details and subtle nods to clinical research.
Why we love it: the Davina McCall partnership shows how well the brand understands its audience. Davina has spoken openly about her own health journey, so the collaboration feels credible rather than bought. It's elevated and accessible at once.
What you can take from it: you don't have to choose between brand and conversion creative. Run both, and make sure they sound like the same brand.
What These Five Campaigns Have in Common
Look across all five and a few patterns jump out.
- One clear idea per brand. SURI's promise, Assembly's calm, Bird & Blend's well-priced treat. Nothing muddled.
- Real people in real moments. Dental professionals, Cricut creators, Ancient + Brave's morning rituals. The product is always shown being used.
- A sharp sense of audience. None of these brands is trying to talk to everyone.
- Confidence in a point of view. Whether it's Cricut backing reach or Assembly refusing to shout, each brand made a call and committed to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does good paid social creative look like?
Good paid social creative is built around one clear message and makes it land within the first few seconds. It works across several formats, from static images to video, without the message getting muddled along the way. And it feels like it belongs in the feed rather than interrupting it.
How do I prove the value of brand awareness campaigns to my board?
Agree how you'll measure success before you move any budget. In-platform numbers tell only part of the story, so back them up with an independent source of truth and, where you can, a brand lift study. Showing your board two sources that point the same way is far more convincing than one platform marking its own homework.
Is UGC worth using in ecommerce paid social ads?
For most ecommerce brands, yes. UGC shows real people using your product, which builds trust in a way polished studio content often can't. It doesn't need to replace your brand-led creative, though. The strongest accounts run both and make sure they sound like the same brand.
How can my brand stand out on paid social without the biggest budget?
You don't need to be the loudest brand in the feed. You need to be the most relevant one to the people you're targeting. Get clear on who your audience is and what they care about, then make creative that speaks to them directly. Specific beats generic every time.
How should I promote a seasonal product on paid social?
Start with the offer, then the creative. If the product or price isn't right for your audience, no amount of ad spend will fix it. Once the offer's nailed, plan for the full window. Interest in seasonal products often builds weeks before the peak, so the brands that show up early tend to have the advantage.
Want Paid Social That People Actually Remember?
If you'd like to talk about what this could look like for your brand, your team and your growth targets, our paid social specialists would love to hear from you.
Get in touch with us today.
