Social media advertising has become increasingly saturated, with brands struggling to break through the noise despite having solid strategies. Many companies find themselves copying competitors rather than innovating themselves, inevitably creating a sea of similar content that fails to engage audiences effectively. Jacob Beau, a creative strategist with experience at Facebook and major Fortune 100 brands, has developed a unique approach that combines his film production background with deep algorithmic knowledge to create campaigns that stand out and convert.
Blending Creativity with Tech
Jacob didn’t start in advertising. His career began in film production and motion graphics before moving into Silicon Valley’s tech scene. “I come from a creative background, a film producer, motion graphic designer, and then was brought in to the Silicon Valley tech scene as a producer and started working on different marketing initiatives with companies like Salesforce,” he says. Facebook eventually recruited him specifically for his creative skills, hiring him as a producer to develop ad content for their platform.
This combination proved powerful. “I think by learning the marketing side and combining with the creative side, I was able to blend those two things together to produce direct response ads that really convert,” Jacob explains. His unique approach helped him advance quickly at Facebook, where he earned recognition as what most called “the human cheat code for social media marketing.”
Breaking the Copycat Cycle
The problem with modern advertising isn’t lack of strategy. It’s lack of originality. “A lot of brands struggle to stand out because they’re just looking at what other people are doing and trying to replicate that, and then that creates this sea of the same ads over and over again,” Jacob observes. Everyone copies trending hooks and formats until they become meaningless background noise. Jacob’s approach through his agency Concept focuses on understanding each client’s specific audience rather than following generic formulas. “We really help our clients dig into who their audience is, how we’re going to sell their message, how we’re going to sell the results of their product or service, and then find innovative strategies on how we can target that audience.”
Using Interactive Ads to Drive Sales
One campaign perfectly illustrates Jacob’s innovative thinking. United Airlines wanted to remarket discounted Maui flights to people who had already shown interest in Hawaiian travel. Instead of typical travel ads, Jacob created an interactive game using Instagram Stories’ carousel feature. Most advertisers don’t realize the platform’s full potential. “Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories is actually an interactive platform, meaning if you do certain things when watching the ad, you get different outcomes,” he explains.
The campaign simulated spinning a globe to randomly select vacation destinations. Users would tap the spinning globe, see various locations flash by, then tap again to “randomly” land somewhere. Except the outcome was rigged. “When you tap, it goes and says, boom, you landed on Maui. And it switches and says a little motion graphic pops up and says, congrats, you landed on Maui. Swipe up to book your discounted reservations to Maui right now,” Jacob describes. The genius was in the targeting. “The beauty of it is this is a retargeting ad campaign that we only targeted this to people who were already looking at Hawaii as a destination.” Users felt like fate chose Maui for them, when really Jacob’s team predetermined that outcome. The campaign generated a million dollars in sales within one month.
Three Principles Behind Creative Success
Jacob’s success comes down to understanding three key elements:
- Master the Algorithm: Knowing how algorithms actually work provides the technical foundation. “Having that deep understanding of how the ad algorithm works, I can build out ad creatives and messaging strategy that I know will work on the social media platform,” he says.
- Remember Your Audience’s Mindset: People aren’t on social media to see ads. “You have to imagine they’re not on social media to be advertised to. They’re on social media to scroll through cat videos or whatever. So, you have to put yourself in their shoes and how you can build out ad creatives that will stop their thumbs from scrolling.”
- Create Genuine Experiences: Focus on delivering positive interactions rather than obvious sales pitches. “People don’t want that talking head approach and that doesn’t work. So, you have to be creative with how you’re approaching them and how you’re delivering your message to them.”
Leveraging AI with Purpose
He sees artificial intelligence as advertising’s future, but warns against blindly following trends. His agency creates custom AI models for each client, feeding them conversation transcripts and strategic insights. “We automate everything so we transcribe all the calls, it goes into ChatGPT, it gives us a breakdown and then every call after that just keeps building in more and more data.” The key is using AI strategically rather than copying what everyone else does. “You don’t want to just blend into what everybody else is doing. You want to figure out how you can leverage AI to stand out and do something better than what everybody else is doing.”
Jacob’s message is simple: stop copying and start innovating. The tools exist to create genuinely engaging advertising experiences. Success comes from understanding both the technical possibilities and human psychology behind why people actually want to interact with content.
Follow Jacob Beau on LinkedIn for deeper insights into building innovative, results-driven ad campaigns.
