Sports
Creative Optimization for a First-Year Golf Event
Paid social and display creatives
30%
of the layout for text
The challenge
The event was new, so the ads had to explain what it was, when, where and who was playing, at a glance. The early creatives were ambitious but visually dense: several logos, long headlines and wide compositions that looked strong on desktop but collapsed on mobile. Engagement lagged, and the event's story wasn't clear.
Two examples showed the problem:
An overcrowded layout. Large, competing text blocks left little breathing room, and the key takeaway was unclear.
A low-contrast offer. Dark tones and low-contrast text left a Black Friday offer barely visible, and an oversized decorative graphic distracted from the main conversion goal: ticket sales.
Our approach
We restructured the creative direction around five principles:
Clarity over complexity. Every ad should communicate one idea instantly. If the message takes more than two seconds to understand, it's too crowded.
Contextual storytelling. The visual should tell the viewer where they are, what's happening and why they should care, before any copy does.
Conversion-driven composition. Every layout should guide the eye toward a clear, measurable action.
Adapt by phase. Awareness creatives should spark curiosity; conversion creatives should trigger urgency.
Mobile-first design. If it doesn't work on a three-inch screen, it doesn't work.
In practice, we:
Simplified the headline to the essentials: new tournament, date, location and athlete name.
Reduced text to 30% of the layout for breathing space, in line with our guideline to keep text within 20–30% of total design space.
Highlighted one key message, whether the athlete's name or the event offer.
Used high-contrast, dynamic background imagery of players and the course to signal context instantly.
Brightened typography and made sure every call to action was mobile-legible.
Removed distracting elements and kept text away from the edges.
Used sharper, more vibrant player images to add personality and motion.
The results
The optimized versions had a clear hierarchy, with the event name, date and offer visible at once, sharper athlete imagery and stronger colour contrast. The source reports that the ads achieved far greater engagement and audience recall. It records no engagement, conversion or ROAS figures, so we don't quote any.
What it shows
Targeting, bidding and audience segmentation can all be right, and a campaign can still underperform if the creative is confusing. Clear hierarchy, one message per ad and mobile-first design turn creatives into assets that sell, not just look good. We direct creative to spec, whether it runs on Google, Meta, YouTube, ChatGPT Ads or another channel.
Read more in our Insight on optimizing paid media creatives, and see our creative direction service and live events work.
FAQ
What was wrong with the original creatives?
They were visually dense, with several logos, long headlines and wide compositions that collapsed on mobile. Key details were unclear, and an offer was barely visible against dark, low-contrast tones.
What did we change?
We simplified the headline to tournament, date, location and athlete name, reduced text to 30% of the layout, used high-contrast imagery, brightened typography and made every call to action mobile-legible.
How much text should an ad creative have?
We keep text within 20–30% of total design space. For this event, we reduced text to 30% of the layout.
What results did the new creatives deliver?
The source reports far greater engagement and audience recall, but records no figures, so we don't quote any.
Does this apply beyond golf?
Yes. The same five principles apply to any paid media creative: one clear idea, context first, composition that leads to the call to action, creative by funnel stage, and mobile-first design.
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Related: Creative optimization · Creative Direction · Case studies