Why Your Ad Creative Is Your Biggest Performance Lever (Not Your Targeting)

Why Your Ad Creative Is Your Biggest Performance Lever (Not Your Targeting)

Claudia Giraldo
Performance Marketing, Digital Advertising, Growth Strategy

Most marketers assume that poor ad performance is a targeting problem. When campaigns underperform, the instinct is to tweak audiences, add exclusions, or chase ever more specific segments. But after managing over $2M in monthly ad spend and analyzing thousands of campaigns across SaaS and performance-driven brands, a different pattern emerged: targeting was rarely the real issue.

In many cases, the targeting was already precise, data-informed, and well-structured. What was failing was the creative. Generic stock imagery, predictable messaging, and low-effort visuals were quietly killing performance before targeting ever had a chance to work.

The Future of Performance Marketing: Combining Human Storytelling with AI Intelligence

The Future of Performance Marketing: Combining Human Storytelling with AI Intelligence

Claudia Giraldo
Performance Marketing, AI & Marketing Strategy, Digital Advertising

The future of performance marketing is not a battle between human marketers and artificial intelligence, it is a strategic collaboration between the two that unlocks stronger, more scalable results. The highest-performing campaigns today are built on human insight, emotional intelligence, and creative judgment, amplified by AI’s ability to generate scale, speed, and advanced pattern recognition across platforms. This article explores how modern marketing teams and agencies can combine human storytelling with AI execution to achieve faster testing, smarter optimization, and sustained competitive advantage, without sacrificing strategy, creativity, or long-term brand integrity.

5 Fintech Industry Trends That Will Shape 2026

5 Fintech Industry Trends That Will Shape 2026

Claudia Giraldo
Fintech, Digital Marketing, Industry Trends

The fintech industry is entering a more disciplined and mature phase. As rapid disruption gives way to infrastructure, trust, and long-term value creation, growth in fintech will look very different in 2026. Embedded finance will become the standard, compliance will shift from a constraint to a competitive advantage, and AI will move from optimization tools to core decision-making systems. At the same time, fintech brands will be forced to rethink how they market and position themselves, moving away from feature-heavy messaging toward financial wellness, transparency, and measurable outcomes. This article explores the five key trends shaping the future of fintech in 2026 and what operators, product leaders, and marketers must prepare for now to stay competitive.

Why SaaS Companies Need Different Creative Than E-Commerce (And How to Get Both Right)

Why SaaS Companies Need Different Creative Than E-Commerce (And How to Get Both Right)

Claudia Giraldo
SaaS Marketing Strategy, Performance Marketing

One of the most common mistakes brands make is assuming creative is interchangeable across business models. SaaS companies are not e-commerce brands, and treating them the same in paid media, content, and conversion strategy can quietly stall growth. SaaS buyers require education, trust, and long-term consideration, while e-commerce shoppers are driven by immediacy, emotion, and product clarity.

In this article, we break down why applying the same creative playbook to both models often leads to underperformance, and how to build creative strategies that align with each customer journey, protect positioning, and drive real, measurable growth.

From Luxury Fashion to Digital Marketing: Why My Background Makes Me Better at Performance Ad

From Luxury Fashion to Digital Marketing: Why My Background Makes Me Better at Performance Ad

Claudia Giraldo
Digital Marketing, Professional Insights, Marketing Leadership

Most performance marketers come from data-driven backgrounds, but my path was different. I started in luxury fashion, a world obsessed with aesthetics, brand storytelling, and emotional connection. When I transitioned into digital marketing, I quickly realized that my "unconventional" background wasn't a disadvantage; it was my secret weapon. While others focused solely on metrics and optimization, I understood something crucial: performance ads don't just need to convert, they need to captivate. In this post, I break down why my luxury fashion experience gives me an edge in creating high-performing campaigns that blend compelling creative with data-driven strategy.

Luxury Fashion Marketing in the Performance Era: Balancing Brand Prestige with Conversion

Luxury Fashion Marketing in the Performance Era: Balancing Brand Prestige with Conversion

Claudia Giraldo
Luxury Marketing, Brand Strategy, Fashion Marketing

A luxury Italian accessories brand faced a dilemma: their brand-building campaigns drove engagement but lacked measurable ROI. When they tried conventional performance marketing, discounts, aggressive CTAs, product-focused ads, sales increased 22% but brand perception dropped 18 points and customer quality plummeted. The CMO asked: "How do we drive conversions without cheapening our brand?" After implementing our luxury performance framework, they achieved 4.7x ROAS while improving brand perception by 12 points. Revenue jumped 67%, average order value rose 31%, and they attracted premium customers instead of bargain hunters.

From Click to Customer: Building Full-Funnel Attribution Models That Work

From Click to Customer: Building Full-Funnel Attribution Models That Work

Claudia Giraldo
Marketing Analytics, Data & Attribution, Digital Strategy

Most marketers are flying blind because their attribution is broken. You're crediting last-click conversions, ignoring touchpoints that actually drove the sale, and making budget decisions on incomplete data. I've managed campaigns with budgets up to $300K+ monthly, and here's the truth: attribution isn't just about tracking, it's about understanding the customer journey so you can invest in what works. Single-touch models oversimplify. Multi-touch models often create more confusion than clarity. In this post, I break down how to build practical full-funnel attribution models that reflect reality and show you how to use that data to optimize spend, prove ROI, and scale profitably without guessing which channels deserve credit.

The Real Cost of Poor Creative in Performance Marketing (And How to Fix It)

The Real Cost of Poor Creative in Performance Marketing (And How to Fix It)

Claudia Giraldo
Performance Marketing, Creative Strategy, Paid Media

Most performance marketers obsess over CPMs and targeting while ignoring the biggest budget drain: poor creative. I've managed campaigns from $10K to $300K+ monthly, and the pattern is clear, weak creative doesn't just underperform, it actively burns money. It drives up CPA, accelerates ad fatigue, tanks ROAS, and erodes brand equity. The hidden costs go beyond low CTRs: wasted impressions on burned audiences, missed revenue opportunities, and long-term brand damage that makes future campaigns harder. In this post, I break down the real financial impact of poor creative and share the strategic framework I use to build ads that convert while protecting brand integrity, because you can't afford to choose between performance and creativity. You need both.

AI-Accelerated Marketing: How We Cut Creative Production Time by 60% Without Sacrificing Quality

AI-Accelerated Marketing: How We Cut Creative Production Time by 60% Without Sacrificing Quality

Claudia Giraldo
Performance Marketing, AI & Automation

For years, creative teams have been forced to choose between speed and quality—move fast and sacrifice craft, or protect the brand and accept slow, bloated timelines. That tradeoff breaks down when AI is applied intentionally, not as a shortcut, but as an operational layer within a disciplined creative system.

By restructuring creative operations and integrating AI at specific, high-leverage points, we reduced end-to-end production time by 60% without compromising brand standards, performance rigor, or strategic clarity. AI didn’t replace creative thinking; it removed friction. Research cycles shortened, concept generation expanded, and iteration accelerated without overwhelming review processes or lowering quality.

Marketing Metrics That Matter: Why Most Dashboards Mislead Teams

Marketing Metrics That Matter: Why Most Dashboards Mislead Teams

Claudia Giraldo
Analytics & Measurement, Performance Marketing, Growth Strategy

Most dashboards are designed to look impressive, not to drive better decisions. They’re filled with charts, percentages, and real-time numbers that appear actionable but often obscure what’s actually happening beneath the surface. Vanity metrics, misaligned KPIs, and shallow reporting can quietly push teams toward the wrong conclusions, wasted spend, and a false sense of progress.

In this article, we break down why many marketing dashboards are misleading, which metrics actually signal sustainable growth and efficiency, and how to rethink measurement so data informs better strategy, sharper prioritization, and smarter decisions, not just prettier reports.

The Creative Brief That Actually Works: Behind the Scenes of a $2M Campaign

The Creative Brief That Actually Works: Behind the Scenes of a $2M Campaign

Claudia Giraldo
Creative Strategy, Performance Marketing

I’ve reviewed hundreds of creative briefs over my 15+ years in marketing, and most are either ineffective or actively harmful. They’re often too vague, leaving creative teams guessing, or so prescriptive that creativity is suffocated before it starts. When done right, however, a creative brief becomes a powerful performance tool.

It can be the difference between a $2M campaign that drives $8M in revenue and one that delivers mediocre results and endless revisions. After managing millions in ad spend across hundreds of campaigns, I’ve learned which elements actually drive performance and which are just noise. In this article, I’ll walk through a real creative brief from a campaign that generated just over $2M in tracked revenue on a $350K investment (5.7x ROAS), breaking down exactly what mattered, and how you can apply it to your own campaigns.

Web3 Marketing Isn't Dead, It Just Grew Up: A Guide for Mainstream Brands

Web3 Marketing Isn't Dead, It Just Grew Up: A Guide for Mainstream Brands

Claudia Giraldo
Web3 & Blockchain, Brand Innovation

In late 2021, Web3 was everywhere. NFTs were the future, the metaverse inevitable, and every brand scrambled to define a crypto strategy. Then the crash hit. Crypto winter arrived, NFT prices collapsed, and Web3 fell out of favor. What most brands missed: while the hype disappeared, the infrastructure didn't. The technology matured. The ecosystem professionalized. Use cases shifted from speculation to real utility. Brands that stayed engaged during the quiet period are now better positioned as adoption accelerates. Having worked in Web3 marketing before the hype, through its peak, and into maturation, I've seen what actually works. This article breaks down how mainstream brands can engage with Web3 strategically in 2024 and beyond, not through gimmicks, but through value-driven initiatives that matter.

The Metrics That Actually Matter: Moving Beyond Vanity Metrics to Revenue

The Metrics That Actually Matter: Moving Beyond Vanity Metrics to Revenue

Claudia Giraldo
Growth & Performance, Revenue & Analytics, Data-Driven Metrics

You're tracking 20+ metrics, spending hours in analytics, and still can't answer the one question that matters: "Is this working?" The problem isn't lack of data, it's data overload. When everything is a priority, nothing is. I've audited countless ad accounts where brands optimized for clicks when they needed conversions, celebrated engagement when they needed revenue, and made decisions based on metrics that had zero correlation with growth. The solution isn't more sophisticated tracking, it's radical focus. In this post, I reveal which metrics deserve your attention at each growth stage, which ones are distracting you from real progress, and how to build a lean measurement system that drives profitable decisions.

Meta vs. Google vs. TikTok: Choosing the Right Platform for Your Growth Stag

Meta vs. Google vs. TikTok: Choosing the Right Platform for Your Growth Stag

Claudia Giraldo
Digital Advertising, Funnel Strategy, Paid Media

Choosing between Meta, Google, and TikTok shouldn't be a guessing game, yet most brands make this critical decision based on trends or competitor activity rather than strategic fit. The result? Misaligned campaigns, disappointing ROAS, and budget drain. After years of testing and optimizing across all three platforms for businesses at different stages, I've identified clear patterns: certain platforms excel at specific growth phases. A bootstrap startup has different needs than a funded scale-up, and a mature brand requires a different approach entirely. In this post, I'll show you exactly how to match your growth stage with the right platform strategy, so you stop wasting money and start seeing real results.

What Fashion Brands Taught Me About Storytelling in Performance Marketing

What Fashion Brands Taught Me About Storytelling in Performance Marketing

Claudia Giraldo
Performance Marketing, Digital Marketing

There's a perception in marketing that brand storytelling and performance marketing are opposing forces. Brand marketers craft beautiful narratives about aspirational lifestyles. Performance marketers optimize click-through rates and test button colors. But this is a false dichotomy. And my background in luxury fashion taught me why. In fashion, every campaign has to accomplish two things simultaneously: build the brand's cultural cachet while driving people into stores (or online) to make actual purchases. A fashion campaign that's beautiful but doesn't sell clothing is a failure. A campaign that drives transactions but erodes brand equity is equally a failure. Fashion has been solving the "brand + performance" challenge for decades. And the principles that work in fashion advertising translate remarkably well to performance marketing, if you know how to apply them.