Briefing hack: ask these 3 questions before you go live
You’re full of ideas. You know which channel you want to use. And yet: before you know it, you’re stuck in an endless revision loop with your creative team.
Chances are it goes wrong at the briefing. Because whether you make ads for e-commerce, run campaigns for corporates or need scalable output as an agency – everything starts with three simple questions.
At Banny.io we deliver complete ad sets every day. And we know: when these questions are answered upfront, your creatives fly through the studio and you can go live without frustration.
“A good briefing prevents hassle. With three clear questions, you’re live in no time.”
What do you really want to achieve with this – and how do we measure it?
Choose one main goal and attach one clear KPI to it. A good briefing starts with focus. Do you want clicks, purchases, playtime or just views? Pick one. And immediately attach a concrete success threshold: for example “≥ €3.50 ROAS on TikTok” or “At least 100 new sign-ups in week 1”.
That way everyone involved knows what to steer toward. The designer knows whether the CTA should pop, the copywriter knows whether urgency matters, and you know when it is working.
For JD Sports, everything revolved around playtime. Not CTR or reach. Their KPI: at least 5 hours of game time per day. That focus led us to build a visually strong 3D game with instant rewards. Result: 5,231 unique players and 92,568 hours of play in no time.
Where will your ad run – and what outfit does it need to fit?
Specify upfront in your briefing which channels your ad will run on, in which formats, and how many variants you need. Too often this only surfaces after the creative process. While these specs determine everything. Is your ad running on TikTok, LinkedIn, or a DOOH screen at Rotterdam Central Station? Does it need subtitles? Does it need to exist as both video and static?
And how many versions do you want to test? With the right format matrix in your briefing – think channel, dimensions, file size and number of hooks – we can prepare everything in one batch.
Boels wanted to go live in 7 countries with dynamic HTML5 banners. Because we had their entire format matrix upfront (300×600, 728×90, per language, per country), we could deliver all assets within 24 hours. No all-nighters. Full coverage.
When do we check the numbers – and who pushes the button then?
Plan your measurement moments, define your decision rules and name the button-pushers. An ad is never truly finished. You have to follow it, learn and adjust. But that only works if you know upfront what you will measure, how often, and when you will change something.
For example: “If CTR drops below 0.8% → new hook. If ROAS goes above 4 → double the budget.” And perhaps even more important: who decides? Put it in the briefing, so there are no awkward silences when the numbers start pouring in.
For the Samsung Z Flip campaign, the rules were set out in black and white. If engagement dips below 5%, a new TikTok dance; if it rises above 15%, we scale up. Thanks to those upfront agreements, the campaign reached 12.7 million views and a Lovies nomination.
Live faster, less hassle
A briefing doesn’t have to be a novel. But if you answer these three questions – your goal, your formats and your measurement plan – you get creatives that go live faster, perform better and need fewer revision rounds.
