Ad Creative vs. Media Buying: The Divide That’s Costing You Sales

Let’s talk about a common frustration for small business owners running paid ads:

You’re investing in ads, working with a media buyer and maybe even a creative agency, but the results just aren’t there.

The problem?

It lies in the disconnect between ad creative and media buying.

If these two areas of paid advertising don’t work together, you’re leaving money on the table.

Why This Divide Exists

Most businesses either:

➡️ Work with a media buyer who optimizes ad performance but has little say over the creative.

➡️ Hire a creative team that produces beautiful visuals but doesn’t understand how ads work.

When these two teams don’t collaborate, you get creatives that don’t convert and media buying that struggles to fix underperforming ads.

The result? Wasted ad spend.

A Small Business Owner’s Reality

Imagine you’re an eCommerce store owner selling handmade jewelry.

You hire a media buyer who sets up campaigns and optimizes targeting, but you also work with a creative agency that designs your ad visuals.

Here’s what could go wrong:

❌ The creative agency makes stunning imagery and videos that aren’t designed to stop scrolling or highlight product benefits.

❌ The media buyer gets those creatives and tries to optimize them, but they can’t fix the fundamental problem—weak visuals or ad copy messaging.

📉 Sales remain low, and you’re stuck wondering why your ads aren’t converting.

I see this a lot in the Romanian market.

I had clients who worked with a creative agency. The visuals were great but...

The ad copy, messaging, and ad optimizations were totally off.

For example, an eCommerce store we took over had one single traffic campaign running for over 2 years.

What a waste of money.

The Solution: Align Media Buying & Creative

Let’s dive into how you can align these two important areas.

Solution 1: Make Them Work Together

The first solution is to make them work together, or you should be the link between the two parties.

This can be time-consuming, but it can work.

Here’s how:

👉 Create a Feedback Loop Between Teams

If you’re working with separate agencies, make them communicate!

Here’s what you can do:

🔹 Set up bi-weekly calls where media buyers and creatives discuss performance.

🔹 Share data on which ads are working so creatives can improve future assets.

🔹 Ensure both teams understand your business goals and audience.

👉 Test Creatives With Performance in Mind

Not all creatives perform the same.

The best ads:

🎯 Grab attention in the first 3 seconds.

🎯 Have a clear message and CTA.

🎯 Are optimized for different placements (Stories, Reels, Feed, etc.).

Make sure your creative team understands these principles, and have your media buyer test multiple versions to find what works.

Solution 2: Have an In-House Team

Another solution is to have an in-house creative team that works with the media buying agency.

This way, your team can create daily raw material from which they can produce ads (and social media content) based on the media buying agency’s requirements.

This can also work the other way around.

If you have great media buyers, they can collaborate with a creative agency that helps them produce ads that convert.

Solution 3: Work With an Agency That Does Both

This could be a great option for small business owners who want to outsource everything and entrust an agency to handle both aspects.

Usually, this yields the best results.

Working with an agency that handles both media buying and creative production ensures that:

✅ Ad creatives are designed for conversion, not just aesthetics.

✅ The media buyer has direct influence over creative testing.

✅ There’s no back-and-forth confusion between two separate teams.

This is what we do at my agency.

We get raw material from the client (which, of course, could be good or bad), then we create ads, test different angles, and iterate based on what works.

We request more raw material for the best-performing ad types.

For local clients, we sometimes shoot raw videos and imagery to ensure we have high-quality content to work with.

The Bottom Line

A small business owner doesn’t need the world’s best media buyer or the most stunning creative agency.

What you need is alignment between the two.

When creative and media buying work together, your ads are optimized from the start, leading to lower costs and higher returns.

⚡️ Snackable Challenge

If you’re running ads, make sure you, as the SMB owner, have insight into both aspects of paid media.

✅ Either ensure your media buyer and creative agency are aligned, or work with an agency that does both.

✅ Or, if you have an in-house team handling either aspect, make sure they understand these two extremely important aspects of paid media.

This could make or break your paid ads!

📩 Know someone struggling with their media buyer or creative agency?

Forward this to them—they’ll thank you later!