---
title: Diagnosing an ad account's creative gaps before producing new ads
slug: creative-account-diagnosis
summary: Dara Denney's audit for a new brand — persona gap (ads vs reviews), a 1–2 sentence diagnosis, then checks on awareness levels, spend mix by format (partnership ads 30–50%), 3–4 messaging pillars carried to the landing page, and why "UGC doesn't work for us" usually means a creator problem.
domain: marketing
tags: [ad-creative, creative-strategy, audit, personas, partnership-ads, meta-ads]
related: [creative-strategy-fundamentals, creative-diversity-levels, partnership-ads-and-creator-selection, teep-funnel-stage-creative, customer-research-for-ads]
sources: [yt:4wM-i1cxtAM, yt:ZydGeio1DGQ]
updated: 2026-10-24
---

# Diagnosing an ad account's creative gaps

## TL;DR
- Dara's 3-step start with any brand: **personas → diagnosis → creators/formats**.[^1]
- Persona check: compare **who the live ads target** with **who the reviews say buys** — there is almost always a gap, and it is the opportunity.[^1]
- Write a **diagnosis**: 1–2 sentences explaining the why behind everything on the roadmap. Without it you only have testing.[^2]
- Check: awareness levels (most brands lack unaware/problem-aware ads), spend mix by format (**30–50% on partnership ads**), 3–4 fed messaging pillars, landing-page message match, creator fit.[^3][^4][^5]

## Details
**Real diagnoses Dara has given (2026):**[^6][^7]
- All live content aimed at one persona; reviews showed **two other personas** more dominant → focus on opening those audiences.
- After 6 months of persona tests, the **older segment** had better video retention and site conversion → next quarter only that age group, with **40+ creators**.
- Top performers were all **promos or product launches** → not enough evergreen content to last.
- Good learnings but **not iterated** into other formats or handed to creators.

**The "onion-peeling" checklist:**
1. *Awareness levels* of all live ads. The usual finding: too little unaware/problem-aware content, so the brand "bleeds its top of funnel"; winners are solution/brand-aware or offer-based.[^3] Ads that work for 1–2 weeks then fall off a cliff are typically product/solution-aware ads that exhausted that pool.[^8]
2. *Personas* — do this before the diagnosis.[^4]
3. *Content gaps* — % of monthly spend on images, video, carousel and **partnership ads**; is messaging diversified across formats?[^4] On sales calls Dara asks the partnership-ad share first; she likes **30–50%**, and brands under 25% (often under 5%) are "in trouble".[^5]
4. *Messaging pillars* — 3–4 core content buckets constantly fed, and the winning bucket's message carried onto the landing page.[^9]
5. *Creator diagnosis* when "UGC doesn't work for us":[^9][^10][^11]
   - creator profiles don't match personas (not 1:1 — a 55+ customer may aspire to someone else);
   - content not **aspirational** (bottom-of-the-barrel marketplace creators "with nothing going on behind the eyes");
   - budget only on big or only on small creators (see [[partnership-ads-and-creator-selection]]);
   - weak delivery, low volume, or **no personal storytelling**.

## Disagreements / caveats
- Awareness strategy depends on category: for a crowded collagen product Dara went *more* solution-aware (why we beat competitors); for a little-known product, more education up-funnel.[^8]
- The 30–50% partnership share is Dara's e-commerce benchmark, not tested for apps.

## See also
- [[creative-diversity-levels]] — the same audit as a maturity ladder
- [[teep-funnel-stage-creative]] — Sarah Levinger's funnel-stage coverage check
- [[people/dara-denney]]

[^1]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 01:35 — Dara Denney
[^2]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 02:21 — Dara Denney
[^3]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 04:39 — Dara Denney
[^4]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 05:27 — Dara Denney
[^5]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 00:00 — Dara Denney
[^6]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 03:07 — Dara Denney
[^7]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 03:52 — Dara Denney
[^8]: yt:ZydGeio1DGQ @ 04:47 — Dara Denney
[^9]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 06:14 — Dara Denney
[^10]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 07:02 — Dara Denney
[^11]: yt:4wM-i1cxtAM @ 08:42 — Dara Denney