When it comes to scaling Meta ad campaigns, most brands jump the gun.

They rush to pump out new creatives, throw a handful of ads into the mix, and hope that something sticks. But if your only strategy is “launch and pray”, you’re not scaling – you’re gambling.

There’s a smarter, more strategic way to grow performance on Meta. And it starts long before you ever open Ads Manager.

At HOC, we work with brands spending upwards of £20K per month on Meta. And the brands that succeed? They all have one thing in common: a creative strategy that’s built around their ideal customer profile (ICP) – not guesswork.

Here’s the exact system we use to turn creative chaos into scalable results.

Step 1: Start with Deep ICP Research

Before a single ad is created, we immerse ourselves in the customer’s world. Not through guesswork, but by digging into the goldmine of insight you already have.

We look at:

• Customer reviews – what language do buyers use when they describe the product?
• Post-purchase surveys – what made them convert? What nearly stopped them?
• Customer support tickets – where do frustrations and objections crop up?

You’d be amazed at how much emotional language, hidden objections, and purchase triggers come through when you take the time to study the data properly.

This process gives us a clear picture of what really matters to your audience – and that insight becomes the foundation for everything that follows.

Step 2: Build Out High-Level Creative Themes

Once we understand what your customer truly cares about, we build creative themes that speak directly to them.

Think big-picture ideas like:

• Confidence through skincare
• Built for everyday athletes
• Gear that moves with you
• Tech that keeps up with your grind

These aren’t just taglines – they’re narrative frameworks. The goal is to anchor your messaging in stories that align with your product’s genuine value and your customer’s deeper motivations.

Each theme becomes a creative lens through which we tell your brand story.

Step 3: Break Themes into Testable Angles

This is where ideas turn into actionable assets.

We take each creative theme and break it down into specific ad angles, each designed to test a different element of your audience’s psychology. These could include:

• Pain-point driven ads
• Before-and-after transformations
• Competitor comparisons
• Product features translated into real-life benefits

These angles are where your creative variety comes from – not by changing colours or copy for the sake of it, but by deliberately exploring different persuasive levers that resonate with your customer.

Step 4: Structure Your Meta Account for Clear Signal

This part is critical. Without proper structure, even the best creative testing gets muddy.

We launch all initial testing in a dedicated campaign, built solely for signal gathering. Here’s how we structure it:

• One ad set per angle
• 3 to 4 creatives per angle

This setup makes it incredibly easy to identify which angle is resonating and why. No confusion, no guesswork – just clean, actionable data.

When a theme-and-angle combo proves itself? That’s when we scale.

We move it into a dedicated CBO (Campaign Budget Optimisation) or Advantage+ Shopping (ASC) campaign, increase spend, and let Meta’s algorithm do the heavy lifting – with confidence.

Rounding Up

Scaling Meta ads isn’t about throwing more ads at the wall. It’s about building a system that consistently uncovers what your audience responds to – and then doubling down on what works.

Here at HOC, this system has helped our clients scale past plateaus, cut wasted ad spend, and unlock new growth in hyper-competitive markets.

If you’re spending £10K, £50K, or even £100K a month and feel like your results are stalling, chances are it’s not your product – it’s your creative strategy.

Get that right, and everything else gets easier.