Most brands using AI for ads start with the prompt. Will Sartorius says that's the last thing you should touch.

Will runs SelfMade, a New York agency that raised around $19 million as an Instagram posting app, nearly went under after a bad acquisition, and got rebuilt into an AI creative engine when Will took it over at 28. His clients don't get creative brainstorms. They get three analyses that decide what gets made before anyone opens a tool.

Social listening on your own reviews.

A gap analysis on what your competitors run that you don't.

A time series on your own Meta account to resurface winners you killed and forgot.

Then the split: 80% AI-generated creative for volume and bottom of funnel, 20% fully human for the top, because that's where connection still does the work.

In this episode:

- The 3 analyses Will runs before a single ad gets made

- Why the prompt is the very last part of the equation

- The 80/20 rule for AI creative volume

- The persona, angle, emotion tree that replaces the creative brainstorm

- How to run the whole system from zero in a day with Claude and a folder of reviews

- Why Will refuses to run AI UGC even though he sells AI creative

- Authority, equal, or aspiration: the three positions every ad takes

- Why Grüns ran 45 separate landing pages, one per angle

- How team structure changes when AI does the analysis

- The most overrated thing brands do with their winning ads

Chapters:

00:00 Grüns ran 45 landing pages, one was about pooping

01:22 From Deutsche Bank to a DTC shoe brand

05:21 SelfMade: $19 million raised, then nearly dead

07:27 The ChatGPT moment that turned the agency around

09:13 The 3 analyses behind every great ad

12:01 Why "generate 100 ads with AI" is not a system

12:31 The prompt is the very last part of the equation

12:54 Why AI still needs a human in the loop

17:22 Can you train AI to have taste?

19:07 The AI stigma that shows up on sales calls

21:33 The 80/20 rule for AI creative

22:10 The free tool that finds the holes in your creative

23:23 Why people are starved for human connection

25:17 Why Will refuses to run AI UGC

26:27 Authority, equal, or aspiration: pick one

27:38 Top of funnel human, bottom of funnel AI

28:11 Message match from ad to landing page to email

29:40 Grüns: 45 angles, 45 landing pages

32:27 Starting from zero: the first three things to do

33:01 Step 1: your reviews folder plus Claude

34:49 Step 2: find the gaps in what you're running

35:12 Step 3: connect Meta and tag every ad you've run

37:13 How team structure changes

39:44 Rapid fire: the most overrated thing in creative

42:16 Where to find Will

Connect with Will:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willsartorius/

SelfMade: https://selfmade.co/

Ad Lib, his free creative gap analysis tool: https://adlib.getskipper.ai

X: https://x.com/will_sartorius

Ecom Growth Insider is the podcast for e-commerce founders who want to scale profitably. Subscribe for episodes on paid media, CRO, offer strategy, and the operating systems behind brands that actually grow.

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