The Herd Agency · Ad Diagnostic
Ad Diagnostic · five minutes
Hi, I'm Fin.

My job is keeping your herd moving. Give me five minutes, mostly taps, and I'll show you where your ads are losing people.

What you walk away with
25questions4optional write-ins1concept brief
  • Whether your numbers holdYour margin and first order value, run against the most you'll pay for a customer. If the math doesn't hold, you'll see the gap in dollars.
  • Whether your tests can be readHow much each new concept can spend before you cut it, checked against your own kill rule. Too little, and a good idea looks like a loser.
  • The belief your ads have to beatWhere your customer sits on the awareness ladder, the belief holding them back, and a first concept brief with three angles against it.
  • What to fix firstSix phases scored, your gaps in order, and how many new concepts your spend can carry each month.

Estimates are fine. The more honest the answers, the more useful the result.

01ICP Research

Who are we talking to?

Your customer, and where what you know about them comes from.

Which best describes your business?
However you'd describe them to a media buyer.
The way you'd say it to a stranger. It goes into your concept brief.
Where does what you know about your customer come from?
Select all that apply.
02Advertising Concepts

What beliefs do we need our ads to test?

Most of any market isn't ready to buy on a given day. Every ad speaks to one rung of awareness.

Which awareness stages do your current ads target?
Select all that apply.
Where does the customer you described sit today?
Which of these sounds most like your customer?
The belief your ads have to change. Your customer's, not yours. Tap a selected answer again to clear it.
None of those quite right? Type it the way you actually hear it and we'll use your words instead of a pick above.
How many different angles against that belief are running right now?
An angle is one reason to change their mind. Ten ads making the same point are one angle.
03Creative Production

How do we build testable ideas at scale?

The platform uses up creative faster than most teams can replace it.

How many genuinely new concepts go live each month?
New ideas, not new cuts of the same ad.
How long from brief to live ad?
When a winning ad starts to fade, what happens?
So your brief doesn't tell you to do what you did last quarter.
04Concept Testing

How do we identify winning concepts?

A test is only worth what it can tell you, and that's decided before launch, not after the numbers land.

Before a new ad launches, is a win defined in writing?
How do new ads go live?
How do you decide when to cut an ad?
Your definition of a win, not ours.
05Post-Click Continuity

Does the page keep the promise the ad made?

Ads introduce a belief. Pages reinforce it. If the message shifts after the click, conversion drops and it looks like a landing page problem when it's a continuity problem.

Does your landing page continue the message the ad started?
Where do your ads send people?
When conversion drops, where does your team look first?
06Compounding

What does this round teach the next one?

A winner is where the next round starts, not the end of this one.

When a concept wins, what happens to it?
Did last round's results change what you produced next round?
When a winner fades, can you say why?
Your numbers

The numbers the arithmetic runs on.

Yours, not ours. We test against them and never set them. Estimates are fine.

A rough figure is fine.
$
The most you'll pay to win one customer.
$
What a new customer spends on their first order.
$
Contribution margin
Your risk tolerance, as a multiple. If you've never set one, put the number that would make you nervous.
Who runs your ads and holds the numbers?
Last step

Your diagnostic is ready.

Enter your email to open your diagnostic. You can save it as a PDF or a file on the next screen. Nothing is sent by email.

Ad Diagnostic · results

of 100

System Health

Where your customer is

Where your ads reachWhere your customer sits

Your first concept brief

One belief, three angles against it, written from your answers.

Six phases, scored

What to fix, in order

If you only do one thing

What it would take

Thirty minutes, free. You keep the plan either way.

We go through your six phases with you, settle the ceiling against your real numbers, and you leave with a written creative strategy and a production budget, whether you work with us or not.

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