How to Find (and Hire) Performance Creative A-Players

Hey there,

In this week’s episode of Creative Corner, I’m sharing what I’ve learned from reviewing job applications from over 1,000 creative strategists, over 1,500 creators and at this point, probably over 3,000 video editors.

If you’re looking for A-Players to help you make better performance creative, this will be well worth a read.

(and if you’re not, then save it for the next time you’re hiring).

First off, creative strategists - as it’s the most difficult role to hire for.

Great creative strategists are usually solid copywriters.

Copywriting is the backbone of direct response advertising, which makes it the primary technical skill to screen for during the hiring process.

• Does their copy flow from one line to the next?

• Are they able to create compelling hooks/headlines?

• Can they speak to your audience in their language?

Anecdotally, I’ve found that pretty much all of the strategists that have done well at Adcrate were already in or around the industry.

E.g. they already read Motion’s newsletter, watched Dara Denney on YouTube or followed accounts on DTC Twitter.

They weren’t good because they consumed those things, they were good because the type of person who consumes those things without being asked just is someone who lives and breathes creative strategy and is constantly looking to improve.

It’s usually a pretty good indicator.

As for where to find them, unfortunately, I don’t have a useful answer as most of ours have come through my personal brand/referrals.

Although I have had some luck with LinkedIn job posts and poaching - so those would be my next options.

Next up, hiring creators.

I don’t care about big followings or fancy edits. I just want someone who can turn the camera on, yap about a product and make it feel natural.

People can spot a UGC creator from a mile off nowadays. Authenticity is the number one trait to screen for.

Barry Hott is the best I’ve seen at this…and his ads absolutely crush.

As for where to source creators, we generally get the majority of ours from TikTok/Instagram. I dropped a full tutorial on our creator sourcing process on YouTube recently.

Finally, the most time consuming of them all, hiring video editors.

As with both of the above, it’s easy to get distracted by unnecessary frills (captions, transitions, sound effects), but technicalities can be trained.

It’s FAR more important to look for the editors who have strong clip selection.

I want to know if you understand why this clip goes after that one…or why we use this clip as the hook.

Show me that you can tell a story.

What makes hiring for an editor tough is that you have to do HIGH volume. Whatever you think is a reasonable amount of job postings, 10x it.

We’ve got 5-10 active postings in 5 different countries ongoing at all times.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of exactly what this system looks like logistically:

TLDR - when hiring for a performance creative team, look for people who already have the skills that are hardest to train.

And oftentimes this isn’t the person with the most experience.

Copywriting for strategists.

Authenticity for creators.

Clip selection for editors.

Storytelling for all.

That’s all for this week. If you enjoyed it, send it to a friend! And let me know what you want to see more of from now in these newsletters!

Thanks,

Alex