How to turn customer reviews into an ad brief

A repeatable brief needs a source that does not run out, and most brands already have one in an export they never open. The method below follows Omniconvert’s guide to the same job, with the step that turns it into something an editor or a designer can use.¹

Start with four sources, not one

Reviews are written after the decision, so they are strong on the outcome and weak on the hesitation. The hesitation went elsewhere: a question asked again and again in support, or the free-text box on a return form.¹ Add post-purchase survey answers if you collect them.

Then delete most of it. Keep the sentences that name a worry, a comparison, a trigger or a near-miss. “Love it!” tells an editor nothing. “I assumed this would feel cheap” is a whole ad.

Tag in their words until themes repeat

Read once, and tag each kept sentence with a short name in the customer’s language, reusing a tag the moment it repeats. A new tag per sentence gives you a list as long as the export and no themes.¹ A theme is a claim several customers make independently.¹

Mark each theme as a reason to buy or an objection. Omniconvert’s advice is to make the ones that are both first.¹ These are your angles, and they differ from each other in the way a new idea has to differ, which is what makes them worth producing separately.

From a theme to an opening and its proof

State the objection back to the buyer in the fewest words that still land, and name the one piece of proof that sits beside it. An opening with no proof is only a claim.¹ The example below is invented for a sample running shoe, so the shape is visible; use your own customers’ lines.

Write the brief so someone else can make it

• The theme, with two or three of the customers’ own lines.
• Who it is for: the person with that worry, in a sentence.
• The opening, and one alternative.
• The proof, and where it comes from: a photo, a clip, a number you can stand behind.
• The shapes and placements it has to run in.
• What must not change: the legal line, the price, the name.

Making an ad from a brief picks up from here, and one creator video is often the cheapest way to film it. Before it goes out, check the claim is one you can make: Meta’s standards prohibit misleading ads,² and a customer’s line should be something they really said, used as your own terms allow. Write the claims you may not make into your brand rules. To see how other brands open on the same worry, look through the ad library. When a set of themes is ready, how many new ads brands launch a week gives you a feel for the pace, and static or video helps you choose the form for each.