The "secret ingredient" of the world's best ads 🧪

How a real ad gets created (for a real client)

Today’s post is written by a guest:

SHLOMO GENCHIN is a Creative Director who makes ads for tech unicorns and shares everything he learns along the way. He’s also the creator of the course Boring Products, Fun Ads, loved by 500+ creatives from companies like Apple, HubSpot, and Semrush.

Let’s go 💡

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“Feel like you’re being watched?”

That’s a real Facebook ad I made for my client, ExpressVPN:

Today I’ll show you exactly how I created it, step-by-step, with AI.

Zero creativity needed ↓

Step 1: Pick a Problem ⭐️

We need to find a relatable problem that ExpressVPN solves.

To do this, I use my 3-second research prompt.

You can copy the prompt template to try it for yourself:

Go to [YourBrandURL.com] and create a two-column table.
Column 1: Practical problems the product solves.
Column 2: Personal problems the product solves.
Each row should pair a practical problem with a personal problem.

It shows what happens without our product.

The left side is technical. The right side is human.

So let’s use this problem:

When people don’t use ExpressVPN → they feel like they’re being watched online

Now we’ve picked a problem. Next is the most interesting part: finding the right visual.

Step 2: Find Analogies 🎣

The secret ingredient of the world’s best ads is a visual analogy.

So for ExpressVPN, I asked Claude to find analogies for “feeling watched”.

These were the results:

Number eight REALLY grabbed my attention.

A wall outlet that looks like a face staring at you… I can imagine it immediately!

This feeling even has a name: PAREIDOLIA.

So I go ahead and Google “pareidolia” and find some great images for my ads.

And now, it’s time to add some copy.

Step 3: Write Copy 🧠

Copywriting is the most important skill (by far). My own formula is below, exactly how I run it for clients:

• ✍️ My 10 favorite copywriting techniques, stolen from real ads by Framer, Wise, Vanta, and Lemonade

• 🎯 How to pick the winning copy (the clever one almost never wins)

• 🔁 The exact formula to repeat this for YOUR product (however “boring” it looks)

• 💻 A free Claude tool: type a problem → get 20 ad visual ideas back

Here’s everything I know about writing killer copy: