How to Hire a Creative Strategist for Your eCommerce Brand
Your ads decide whether your brand scales.
Get creative strategy right, and a lot else can be forgiven. Get it wrong, and you might never scale, even if everything else is on point.
That’s why creative strategist is one of the roles founders ask us to fill most often. It’s also one of the hardest. Demand for great creative strategists is far higher than supply.
This guide covers what we’ve learned hunting them for 8- and 9-figure eCom brands.
In short, wait until you’re at about $2M a month in revenue, poach from brands that run the same kind of ads as you, and let a paid test make the final call.
At a glance
| When to hire | From about $2M/month in revenue (~$25M/year) |
| US base salary | $80-150k (creative director: $150-250k) |
| Europe base salary | $50-85k |
| Bonus | A set amount per winning ad |
| Equity | Rarely offered |
| Where to find them | Brands running the same ad type as you, and performance creative agencies |
| Response rate to expect | About 30% in the US; ~50% elsewhere |
| Time to find the hire | 2-3 weeks |
| Best test | A paid assignment: 2 ad scripts with 3 hooks each |
What does a creative strategist do?
A creative strategist finds new ways to show why your product is worth buying. Then they turn those ideas into ads.
Day to day, they:
- Review performance data to double down on what’s working
- Dig into customer reviews and competitors’ ads
- Write ad briefs, scripts, and hooks
- Review the work of your video editors and UGC creators
A creative director leads a team of strategists. They spot bigger trends, test new creative directions, and own the creative targets.
Directors are usually hired in the US because the title is rare elsewhere.
When should you hire a creative strategist?
We don’t recommend hiring one until you’re at about $2M a month in revenue (around $25M a year).
Before that, creative strategy is usually the founder’s job, and for good reason.
Getting to $2M a month means figuring out what your brand is really about and what makes customers buy. That discovery is very hard to hand off.
Past that point, you need a creative strategist. The more you scale, the more ads you need.
Many founders stay involved in creative up to $50M a year or so. But sooner or later, the volume calls for a full-time owner.
How much does a creative strategist cost?
| Role | US | Europe |
|---|---|---|
| Creative Strategist | $80-150k base | $50-85k base |
| Creative Director | $150-250k base | Rare title |
The usual bonus is a set amount per winning ad. You define what a “winner” means for your brand.
For example, a winner might be an ad that spends $100,000 at a 2.0 ROAS. That means every $100 in ad spend brings back $200 in revenue.
Equity is rarely part of the offer for this role.
Senior people cost more. In one recent search, the client wanted a senior strategist, so we set the range at up to $170k - to ensure we get the best talent.
That’s above market for the title, but about right for a creative strategy lead. It turned out to be the right level for our client.
Where to hire: US or Europe?
Strategists in Europe earn less. So hiring there can look like a great deal.
Some brands do it, and there are strong creative strategists all over the world.
But a strategist has to know your customer in their gut, including what will land with them and what won’t. That cultural feel is hard to put a price on.
That’s why brands selling in the US usually hire their creative strategists in the US or Canada.
Step 1: Find brands to poach from
The best candidates already do this job at a brand like yours. Start by matching your ad type.
- If you run UGC ads (creators talking to the camera about the product), poach from brands that win with UGC ads.
- If you run mini-VSLs (short video sales letters that explain why the product works), poach from brands that win with mini-VSLs.
You’re probably already spying on competitors’ ads. Use the same tools, like Foreplay and Gethookd, to list the brands that run your ad type at scale. Then find their creative strategists on LinkedIn.
Add performance creative agencies to the list of your target companies. Their strategists have worked across many brands, personas, and levels of customer awareness. Just check that they’ve also owned creative for one brand. That matters if your team is small.
Step 2: Pitch the role
Great creative strategists have options. You need a reason for them to pick you.
The pitch that works best is a brand that’s already winning, with creative that’s still underdeveloped.
- A struggling brand is a risk. Why join a sinking ship?
- A brand whose creative is already great gives them little to gain. If they keep it up, nobody notices. If they slip, everyone does.
- A winning brand with room to grow is the sweet spot. The business already works, so joining isn’t a gamble. And since creative is the weak spot, their work shows up in the results, and they get the credit.
In one search, the brand had reached $80M in revenue with only one or two new ad concepts a week. So our hook told candidates exactly that. The brand was crushing it despite underdeveloped creative strategy, and we wanted their help to unlock its full potential.
A few more things raise interest:
- Name the company. We see about 4x more candidate interest when the brand is named.
- Show the salary range up front.
- Offer focus. Strategists who’ve worked at agencies know how hard it is to do great work while juggling many brands.
- Mention remote work if you offer it.
Our sample creative director job description shows how we write these.
Step 3: Reach out in rounds
Reach out in rounds of 30-40 people and learn from each one. As a rule of thumb, approach 100-150 people to get 15-25 interviews.
Response rate shows how many people reply. Interview rate is the number to watch. It shows how many of the people you approached got on a call.
Here’s one of our searches: two creative strategists for a DTC brand that hit $80M in revenue in its second year.
- 159 of the most relevant creative strategists approached
- 37.1% response rate (about 30% is normal in the US, and closer to 50% elsewhere)
- 14.5% interview rate (about 15% is normal)
- 22 candidates reviewed or interviewed
- 2 strategists hired, who started two weeks later
The winning candidates usually show up in the second or third round, so 2-3 weeks.
If a round comes in well under these numbers, fix the candidate list or the message before you send more.
Step 4: Check the portfolio before the first call
Ask for a portfolio before you book anyone. The ads speak for themselves. If they’re weak, no interview can save the candidate.
When you review it, look for:
- Ads in your ad type, ideally for a similar product
- Original angles and hooks, not copies of what already runs in your niche
- Results they can explain, like the spend and ROAS behind each ad
- What they did themselves, as opposed to the editor or the creator
- Experience with ad budgets at your scale or higher
Have someone who knows your customer look too. In one search, that’s how our client caught a strong candidate we had nearly passed on (more in Step 5).
Step 5: Don’t hire the best interviewee
Interviews reward people who talk well about ads. You’re hiring someone to make them.
In the search above, our first favorite was a 10/10 interview. He was nuanced, strong on metrics, and had done his homework on the brand. The founders loved him too.
He didn’t get the job. His test assignment was good, but others were better.
We nearly passed on another candidate. But the client saw her ad angles and called them close to genius. Then she smashed the test, and they hired her.
What matters is the ads they make.
Step 6: Give a paid test assignment
Write a brief with the context they’d have on the job:
- Your website and landing page
- Your ad library and your best-performing ads
- Key product benefits
- Competitors’ ad libraries
Then ask for 2 ad scripts with 3 hooks each.
To see more range, ask for one more script on a seasonal angle. We asked for a Mother’s Day script for a very giftable product.
Judge each submission on:
- Creativity and originality
- Visual storytelling
- Brand fit
- Performance strategy and analysis
Want to go deeper? Have the candidate brief a UGC creator or a video editor. It takes longer, but you learn much more.
Good candidates put a day or two into a test like this, so pay them for it. To get a fair hourly rate, divide their expected yearly salary by 2,000.
So a strategist expecting $130k gets $65 an hour. Ask how long they spent, and set a cap, like 12 hours.
After the hire
Plan for production next. After the search above, the client’s next hire with us was video editors for their new strategists.
Why hire your creative strategist with Recruiter Mill
We don’t post a job ad and wait. We headhunt.
We keep lists of nearly every DTC brand that’s doing well, and every performance creative agency. So we know where your next creative strategist works today.
- Winning candidate in 3 weeks or less (our target)
- 93% 12-month success rate
- 1,000+ searches for 100+ 8- and 9-figure clients
Every brand wants a great creative strategist, and there aren’t enough to go around. So we only take these searches when we’re confident we can deliver.
If your brand has something special, we’d love to help.
Not ready for a call? We’ll source 10 creative strategists for your brand, free.
FAQ
Do I need a creative strategist or a creative director?
Start with a strategist. A director makes sense once you have a team of strategists and editors. It’s the hire to make when whoever leads them, such as your CMO or you, needs to step back. In the US, a creative director earns $150-250k.
Does a creative strategist make the ads themselves?
Usually not. They come up with the concepts and write the briefs and scripts. Video editors and UGC creators produce the ads, and the strategist reviews their work.