Ad Creative Research Tools You Need To Know

Author

Jessie Healy
June 05, 2025

Hey Founder,

Ever stared at a blank screen thinking:
“I know my product is great… but what the hell do I say in my ads?”

Today, I’m giving you the exact creative research system I’ve used across $50M in ad spend.

The same one we teach inside our programmes to help founders create scroll-stopping ads without relying on guesswork.

Most of these tools are free.

📚 What You’ll Learn in This Issue

  • Where to find high-converting ad ideas

  • How to use Pinterest, Google, TikTok, and competitor ads like a pro

  • How to build a research stack that saves you hours every month

Start by seeing what your audience is already thinking about.

Use Pinterest Trends and Google Trends to uncover seasonal patterns and spikes in interest.
Example: Search “sunscreen” or “body oil” — you’ll see traffic spike in spring/summer.

What to look for:

  • Keywords on the rise

  • Visuals that are getting saved or shared

  • Emerging aesthetic or lifestyle trends

Pro tip: Pinterest is gold for female-focused or family-centric brands.

🔎 Step 2: Validate Your Keywords

It’s not just about trends — you need to know people are actually searching for what you’re selling.

Use Google Keyword Planner and AnswerThePublic to check search volume.
This tells you whether you’re targeting a product-aware audience or if you’ll need to educate first.

For example, when researching campaign messaging for a skincare brand, we found high intent around “dry skin in winter” and “eczema cream for babies” — this helped us prioritize angles that matched urgent, solution-aware searches, instead of vague wellness terms like “nourishing” or “natural.”

🕵️‍♀️ Step 3: Spy on Competitor Ads

Head to Meta Ads Library (or tools like Atria or MagicBrief) and search your competitors.

What to look for:

  • Ads that have been running 30+ days (they’re working)

  • Hook styles and visual types (UGC, talking-head, demo, static)

  • Headlines, CTA structure, and landing page layout

Pro tip: Pay attention whitelisted influencer ads — they often convert better than polished brand videos.

📱 Step 4: TikTok = The New Ad School

TikTok isn’t just for Gen Z. It’s a goldmine of real-time consumer language and behavior.

Search your product niche, e.g. “sunscreen,” and find videos with 100K+ views.

Study:

  • The opening 3 seconds (hooks)

  • Visual tone (aesthetic vs. raw)

  • Comments — these are a goldmine for objections, benefits, and slang

This is especially crucial if your brand targets under-35s or plays in wellness, beauty, or fashion.

🧠 Step 5: Build Your “Creative Intelligence Stack”

Now pull everything together:

  • Trends + Keywords = Messaging Direction

  • Pinterest + TikTok = Visual & Hook Ideas

  • Competitor Ads = Structure & Formats

Save it all in a swipe file or research board you can build on each month.

This becomes your plug-and-play library when you need fresh ideas fast.

I hope that helps!

x Jessie

ps.

Want more ideas?

Check out my YouTube Channel where I make easy-to-follow videos about how to run your DTC marketing better.

x

Jessie