This is the cold email plan we'd run for an ad creative agency that makes ads for brands in one category. The Meta Ad Library shows all the ads a brand runs on Facebook and Instagram and the date each one started. That is most of your research done.
Your market is every brand in your category spending real money on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. Ads wear out. A brand spending each month needs a steady supply of new ones and few can make enough in house.
These are the signals worth looking for.
The Meta Ad Library shows how many ads a brand has live. A brand spending seriously with only a few ads is leaning hard on creative that will wear out.
Check the start dates. When the newest ad is months old nobody is making new ones.
All image ads and no video. Video is a whole format they haven't tested.
TikTok Creative Center shows the top ads in their category. Competitors running there while this brand doesn't means a whole channel is untouched.
A launch needs new ads fast. Their site and their social posts announce it.
A job post for a designer or a creative strategist on LinkedIn or Indeed means they know they need more ads and don't have the people.
At smaller brands the founder decides. At bigger ones it is the head of growth or the paid social manager.
All their live ads next to the top performers in their category from TikTok Creative Center and the Meta Ad Library with the formats they are missing marked.
It works because they see what their market runs and what they don't.
Walk through it on a 15 minute screen share. The gaps worth filling first depend on their margins and their best product and the call is where filling them becomes your job.
Short scripts for creator style videos about their best seller. The hook and the middle and the call to action for each.
It works because a script makes the ad feel real before anything is filmed.
Read the hooks to them on a call. They know which claims they can make and which customers they want to reach and picking the first scripts leads straight to filming.
Make a small batch of new ads for their best product at no charge. They run them with their own ad spend.
It works because the ad account reports how the new ads do against the old ones. If one wins the retainer is more of the same.
It starts with a 20 minute call to pick the product and the angles and collect their brand files. Deliver within ten days of that call.
Each segment gets its own email because a specific email gets more replies than a general one. Split each segment by sub-industry too so the examples in the email fit the reader.
Keep each email under 100 words with one reason for writing and one line of proof and one offer and one question. The proof lines are examples of the kind of result to use. Swap in real results of your own before anything goes out.
Lead with how many ads they have live. Offer the scripts.
Hi {{first_name}},
{{company}} has {{ad_count}} ads live on Meta and the newest one started {{newest_ad_date}}.
We make ads for {{category}} brands only. Wrote scripts for new ones around {{product}}.
A brand that went from 4 live ads to 20 with us cut its cost per purchase from $41 to $27 in two months.
Want me to walk you through them?
{{sender_first_name}}
Lead with a competitor running video while they run images. Offer the free batch.
Hi {{first_name}},
All of {{company}}'s live ads are static images. {{competitor}} is running video and creator ads for the same kind of product.
Happy to make a few video ads for {{product}} free. You'd run them with your own budget.
The first video batch we made for a client beat its best static ad within two weeks.
Interested?
{{sender_first_name}}
Lead with the top TikTok ads in their category. Offer the gap report.
Hi {{first_name}},
Pulled the top TikTok ads for {{category}} from TikTok Creative Center this week. {{company}} isn't running any.
Marked the formats your competitors use there and the ones missing from your own ads.
A brand we launched on TikTok last year made back its ad spend in the first month.
Want me to walk you through it?
{{sender_first_name}}
Lead with the job post and ask for a call directly.
Hi {{first_name}},
Saw {{company}} is hiring a {{job_title}}.
We make ads for {{category}} brands and nothing else. A brand that paused the same hire last year got 20 new ads a month from us and found four winners in the first quarter.
Worth 15 minutes to compare the two?
{{sender_first_name}}
Send two follow ups in the same thread three to five days apart.
Each reply should end in a booked meeting that actually happens. The lead magnet and the offer get delivered on that call and never go out as a file to read later.
The replies below cover the three ways people say yes.
They asked for the scripts. The call picks which ones get filmed.
Hi {{first_name}},
Happy to. The scripts are more useful once I know which claims you can make and which customers you want more of. Fifteen minutes is enough to read the hooks and pick the first two to film.
Does Tuesday at 10am or Wednesday at 2pm work?
{{sender_first_name}}
They want the free ads. The call picks the product and the angles.
Hi {{first_name}},
Great. I need 20 minutes with you to pick the product and the angles and grab your brand files. The ads are ready within ten days of that call.
Does Thursday at 11am or Friday at 3pm work?
{{sender_first_name}}
They said yes to a call. Tell them what they'll leave with so they show up.
Hi {{first_name}},
Perfect. I'll bring the ads your competitors are running and what a month of work from us looks like next to that salary. You'll leave able to compare the two properly.
Does Monday at 1pm or Tuesday at 9am work?
{{sender_first_name}}
Results aren't guaranteed and nobody honest can promise a number before the first emails go out. A few things decide how a campaign does.
The first few weeks show how the market responds. The list and the copy and the offer get sharper from there.
We build and run this campaign for one agency per industry.
This page is a starting point and a strategy we'd happily test ourselves. Working together gives us more context on your agency. That context lets us add better strategies and build better lists and offers and automations for you.
Thirty minutes on your market and how we'd reach it.