Paid Social Creative: Balancing Brand vs Performance

We all know that creative is the most important part of paid social. But knowing that and actually getting it right? That’s a whole different ball game. From ideation and planning, to generating enough assets and managing lightning-fast turnarounds, the paid social creative process comes with its fair share of challenges.

One challenge we see time and again, across clients big and small, is balancing brand vs performance. And today, that’s exactly what we’re going to unpack.

Brand vs Performance: What Do We Actually Mean?

When we say “brand vs performance,” it’s all about who’s shaping the creative and what their priorities are. We work with multiple teams - performance marketing managers, designers, CEOs, founders - and each has a slightly different view of what “effective” creative looks like.

• Performance marketing managers often love direct calls to action, bold text, and imagery that grabs attention.
• Brand managers lean towards more artistic, aesthetic content that tells a story and reflects the overall brand identity.

More often than not, creative production sits with the brand team. Their focus is often maintaining brand image and top-line storytelling. Think longer-form videos, campaign-level imagery, high production value content. Stuff that works beautifully on TV or print.

Here’s the snag: this kind of creative often needs to be trimmed, edited, and optimised for mobile and social feeds. Some brand teams can struggle with elements like product shots, text overlays, or voiceovers, because, in their eyes, it “dilutes” the brand experience.

How We Blend Brand Equity with Performance

That’s where we come in. Our job as paid social specialists is to brief creative that does both: keeps brand values intact and drives performance. Some practical ways we do this:

• Add text, USPs, and calls to action to give context to an image or video without overpowering it.
• Keep brand fonts, colours, and logo placement consistent to maintain brand identity.
• Make lo-fi, UGC-style videos work for brands by adding subtle branding like logos, taglines, or overlays.

For example, dynamic product ads with plain white backgrounds are a brand’s bread and butter. But let’s be honest, they’re not the most exciting content. We elevate these using branded overlays or by collaborating with a creative feed partner, so they look as good as they perform.

At the end of the day, we aim to leverage the best of both worlds: creative that reflects brand values and is optimised for performance.

Setting Up for Success from Day One

We don’t leave this to chance. At the start of every client relationship, we run brand immersion sessions, discuss ways of working, and explore how ideas will be shared visually. This ensures everyone’s aligned from the get-go - performance, design, and brand teams all on the same page - so there are no creative clashes halfway through a campaign.

The Big Picture

Paid social creative is a balancing act. It’s about:

• Representing your brand authentically
• Driving performance results
• Appealing to social users.

When you get that balance right, magic happens: creative that’s beautiful, engaging, and converts.

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