How to find A-Player Creative Strategists

Hey guys,

One of the biggest questions I get asked is how to find top creative strategists.

And for good reason, I think it is the hardest hire to make in a growth team.

Everyone's looking for one, and there are so few good ones.

We now have seven full-time strategists at Adcrate. Today I'm gonna be sharing with you what I've learned after interviewing hundreds of creative strategists over the last few years.

But first, here's what I've found interesting this week:

• Cody Plofker shared his thoughts on how ad creative is evolving, from the death of DR UGC to the rise of creators as strategists.

• My friends Loukas and Olly dropped the full playbook for surviving Meta’s creative diversity update.

• If ChatGPT agrees with you too much, this person on X just found the fix.

Here’s my favourite ad that I’ve seen this week:

This week I'm going to cheat and show you an ad that we actually made for one of our clients. I love this ad because of how organic it is. It feels like something you'd see on your organic feed.

In 2026, I really do see the creative that wins being either super produced, scripted content or ugly, authentic content like this.

Shoutout to Hannah Houg who executed this concept very well!

Before we get started, a few of you have been asking me if we will be offering discounts for the AI Creative Strategist Blueprint and AdCreativeOps over BFCM. I was going to keep it a secret, but yes, we are going to be offering discounts. So if you're considering investing, hold off for a couple more weeks, we might be able to give you a deal. 😉

How to find A-Player Creative Strategists

Hiring for a creative strategist is so difficult because you’re looking for someone to be the brain behind your ads.

They literally need to be good at everything: psychology, research, copywriting, trends, reading ad account data. All of these skills have to combine to make good ads.

That's why 99% of strategists aren't good enough. And why the good ones get paid so much.

Our best strategy hires have come from two methods:

1. Referrals

2. Poaching

Let’s dig into each one…

Referrals

A friend of mine who used to work at consulting.com gave me hiring advice that stuck with me. He told me to think of the best strategist in my network and try to convince them to join us. If they say no, ask them who the best three strategists they know are and try to convince them. Keep doing this until you find someone who says yes.

I've done this for multiple roles now at Adcrate, and it's been very helpful.

We also offer our team bonuses for bringing us referrals in their network. We haven't had a referred employee leave yet.

Poaching

The best talent is already employed, especially in this role.

We have a HR manager who scrapes all of the best brands and agencies at paid social with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and periodically reaches out to their strategists to ask them if they're open to a new role. If they are, she jumps on a call to screen them, then they get sent to our Creative Director for a second stage.

Poaching is a volume game. The more you reach out, the more interview calls you book. If you're reaching out to the right people, you will inevitably get good talent booking in.

Hire people already in/around the industry

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.

Don't just hire on experience alone

We poached someone from True Classic and it was one of the worst hires we ever made. So always have a trial task.

Ours is to write a script and explain who you wrote it for and why. You can tell if someone has chops within 3-4 lines.

💡 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?

How much should I pay?

My parting piece of advice is to push the limit with what you can afford to pay a strategist.

Whatever you think you can pay, ask yourself how to make it work if you doubled it.

No-one has a bigger impact on the outcome of your ads than this role. They’re the lifeblood of your creative operations.

If there is one lesson I’ve learned, it’s buy it cheap buy it twice.

Announcements:

We are hiring for a Senior Account Manager / Head of Accounts to lead our Account Management function and elevate the client experience at Adcrate.

If you want to join one of the fastest-growing creative teams in the space and work with some incredible DTC brands, click here to find out more and apply :)

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See you next week,

Alex

P.S. If you're spending $100k+ monthly on paid social and want help implementing strategic creative systems like these, my team at Adcrate is accepting applications to work with us. Check out our case studies at adcrate.com.