A paid-social creative brief that asks the useful questions.

Download the blank template

GET THE FREE RESOURCE PACK ↓

The Creative Brief is one of six tools in the free pack. Share your basic details and verify your email to download one ZIP with PDFs and editable offline HTML files. The preview and worked example below remain available to read.

The brief: from goal to approval

1. Goal: what needs to change, and why now?
2. Audience: who is this for, what is happening in their day and what do they know?
3. Offer: the next step, price or commitment, and any conditions.
4. Message: the one thing someone should remember.
5. Proof: what can you demonstrate? Which claims are prohibited?
6. Hypothesis: what does this concept test against the alternative?
7. Assets and rights: which files exist and where may they be used?
8. Deliverables: placements, languages, durations and variants.
9. Measurement: primary metric, source and decision rule.
10. Approval: owner, deadline and agreed revision rounds.

Worked example: an imaginary planning app

An instructional example—not a client, a campaign result or a recommendation to spend a particular budget.

Audience: Freelancers balancing several client deadlines.
Situation: A new job arrives before two overlapping deadlines are noticed.
Offer: Try the planning flow; state any real price or trial conditions.
Message: See conflicting deadlines before committing to more work.
Proof: A current recording demonstrating the conflict view.
Hypothesis: A visible deadline conflict explains the benefit more clearly than a feature list.
Variant A: Open on the conflict, then show the product response.
Variant B: Open on the interface, then explain the benefit.
Hold steady: Audience, offer, destination and event definition where practical.
Primary metric: Verified activation, defined by the product team.
Diagnostics: Viewing and clicks—not substitutes for activation.
Decision: Review against agreed sample, timeframe and attribution limits.
Rights: Approved demo account, licensed assets, no private customer data.

There is deliberately no invented conversion rate. A brief defines how to learn; it does not manufacture a winning result.

A timecoded handoff for the example

Illustrative edit timeline: these are proposed shots for the imaginary app above, not existing footage or measured results. The underlying product flow and every claim would need approval before production.

For a hook-only test, replace the opening while keeping the demonstration, end card and destination consistent where practical. Record “inconclusive” when evidence is insufficient; do not force every test to produce a winner.

Five checks before production

• Clarity: can someone outside the project explain the audience and action?
• Truth: is the proof available, permitted and consistent with the actual product?
• Destination: does the store or landing page continue the ad’s promise?
• Test: are alternatives meaningfully different without changing everything?
• Responsibility: are creative, media buying, tracking and publishing assigned?

Check permission for the intended paid use of music, likenesses, endorsements and customer material—not just possession of the file.

Turn the brief into a scoped project

Choose paid-social creative for campaign concepts, short-form editing when footage exists, or app-launch creative when the product journey needs explaining. Bring your draft to a call; uncertain fields are useful discussion points, not a reason to invent answers.

Ready to ask about production? Use the copyable creative project quote request to summarise your brief, list missing assets and choose the right service before sharing it.

Continue from brief to production

• Video editing brief
• Ad creative testing guide
• App launch asset checklist

Before you brief us