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Creative synthesis: what works and what does not in your ads
Creative synthesis turns the performance of your own ads into one brief. It shows which creative patterns win, which lose, and the formula your best ads share. Open it from Performance > Creative synthesis. The page header reads Synthesis.
This page covers your own ads. For competitors, see Competitor Synthesis.
Problem and intended user
This page is for the creative strategist (the person who plans and makes ad creatives) and the media buyer (the person who runs your paid ads). An ad platform reports each ad on its own. It does not show which hooks, angles or offers your best ads share, so new creatives can repeat weak ideas.
Current workflow
You export ad results from Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads into a spreadsheet. You tag each ad by hand with its hook, angle and offer, then sort by return. An agency can do the tagging for you.
Prerequisites
- Connect an ad account (Meta Ads or Google Ads), or have your own ads collected another way.
- Nexus must have collected at least one of your ads and broken it down into hooks, angles and offers. Until then Perform Brand Synthesis stays disabled and the page reads Available once you have at least one of your own ads collected.
- For a product to show Ready in Product Breakdown, it needs at least 3 ads linked to it. In the table, Nexus counts your ads and competitor ads together. On the product page, only your own ads that Nexus has broken down count. It links an ad to a product when the product handle matches the ad's landing page URL.
- Competitor ads are optional for the brand run. When Nexus has them, it adds competitor insights. See Competitor Library.
Before the first run, the page reads No brand synthesis yet and lists three needs under What it needs: your ads collected, competitor ads collected for the same products, and at least 3 ads linked to each product. Only your own collected ads enable Perform Brand Synthesis. The other two needs show a grey dot, which means Nexus does not check them at that point.
How Nexus works
Nexus analyses the ads it has already collected for your store. Fixed rules find the patterns, rank them by lift and pick the Winning Formula. AI writes the Summary card. AI also infers a pattern when too few ads have enough history, and Nexus marks that pattern with an info icon.
You can run a synthesis at any time. Nexus can also refresh it on its own. Settings > Store Status lists this refresh as Ad intelligence synthesis. One run produces both this page and Competitor Synthesis.
Run a synthesis
- Open Performance > Creative synthesis.
- Select Perform Brand Synthesis.
- Wait while the button reads Starting... and then Synthesizing....
While the run is in progress, a banner reads Brand synthesis in progress. The same banner shows on Competitor Synthesis. When the run ends, a message reads Synthesis complete and the page refreshes. On a first run, the page reads Synthesizing your brand intelligence and counts the ads collected and decomposed.
Before your first saved run, the page can show a live preview built from your own ads. A notice says it is not saved. Select Run brand synthesis in the notice to run a full synthesis.
Open a product synthesis
- In Product Breakdown, select a row. The title is the product name.
- To refresh that product, select Run New Synthesis. It refreshes only that product and leaves the brand-wide synthesis unchanged.
- Select Back to Intelligence Report to return.
Exact output
The run saves a brief. It changes nothing in your ad accounts.
The summary
Last synthesized shows the date and time of the saved result, followed by (cached) for a saved result. A live preview shows a notice instead and no Last synthesized line. A Summary card with a short written read can sit above the cards. Three cards follow.
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Confidence | How much Nexus trusts the result, as a percent. Data completeness sits under it and shows how much of the data the result had. |
| Patterns Detected | The count of winning and losing patterns, such as "6 winning, 4 losing". |
| Products Analyzed | Products with a finished synthesis. The line under it reads "N total, M skipped". |
Each list keeps the strongest patterns by lift. When both lists hit their limit, the card is named Top Patterns. Read that number as a shortlist, not a total.
The Winning Formula
The Winning Formula card names the traits your best ads share. Its header shows the number of ads and a confidence percent. A chain of tags follows: Platform, Format, Hook, Angle, Offer and CTA. No Offer means the best ads run without a promotion.
Three figures sit under the chain.
- True Profit (90d): profit from the ads in the formula.
- Predicted revenue: a model estimate of the lifetime revenue of the customers those ads bring in. It is revenue, not profit.
- Dominant Segment: the customer segment that appears most often among these ads.
What Works and What Doesn't Work
What Works lists patterns that appear in your top ads. What Doesn't Work lists patterns that appear more often in weak ads. Each pattern shows a confidence label (high, medium or low), a few lines that back it up and a recommendation.
Product Breakdown
Product Breakdown is a table with one row per product.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Product | The product name and image. |
| Ads | Ads linked to the product. |
| Live | Ads that run now. |
| Own / Competitor | Your ads and competitor ads for the product. |
| Synthesis | Ready or Pending. |
| Top Pattern | The strongest pattern for the product. |
A greyed row says Needs N more ads. Link more ads to that product before a synthesis can cover it. On the product page, the message reads "This product has N linked ads. At least 3 are needed to synthesize reliable insights."
A product synthesis
Eight sections open and close: What Works, What Doesn't Work, Competitor Insights, Opportunities, Audience Signals, Format Trends, Support Insights and Review Insights. Hover the help icon on a section for its meaning. A side panel shows Synthesis Metadata and a Category Breakdown.
What to do with it
| What you see | Decision or action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| A high-confidence pattern under What Works | Brief new creatives that use it. See Generate a creative batch. | creative strategist |
| A pattern under What Doesn't Work | Stop reusing it. Pause or rework running ads that use it in Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads, outside Nexus. | media buyer |
| The Winning Formula chain | Use it as the start of your next creative test. | creative strategist |
| True Profit (90d) next to Predicted revenue | Decide how much budget the formula deserves. Change budgets in your ad platform, outside Nexus. | ecommerce manager (the person who runs the store) |
| A greyed row, Needs N more ads | Put the product handle in more landing page URLs, in your ad platform, outside Nexus. | media buyer |
Expected value and measurement
This page can help you see which creative traits your best ads share. It does not change your ads.
To check the effect, open Performance > Ad performance and group the table By hook, By angle or By offer. Compare Spend and Verdict for two equal date ranges, before and after your change. Then open Performance > Lifecycle and read Hit rate per launch cohort for newer cohorts.
You cannot isolate one pattern when offers, prices, budgets or seasons change at the same time. A synthesis describes past ads. It does not prove a trait caused the result.
Limitations and exceptions
- AI can be wrong. AI writes the Summary and the patterns marked with an info icon. Treat those patterns as hypotheses. Other patterns can mislead when few ads back them.
- Predicted revenue is an estimate. For ads with no prediction, it falls back to true profit.
- No Winning Formula. The page shows results only when a Winning Formula exists. Without one, it reads No brand synthesis yet, even after a run.
- Run messages.
- Nothing to analyse yet: Nexus has no collected ads of yours. Connect Meta or Google, then run again.
- Synthesis already running: wait for it to finish.
- Synthesis failed: the message gives the reason, or reads "An unexpected error occurred." when Nexus stored none. Select Perform Brand Synthesis again.
- Empty states.
- No patterns detected yet. Run a synthesis to analyze your ads. Run a synthesis.
- No products linked to ads yet. Link products via landing URL handle matching. Put product handles in your ad landing page URLs.
- Not enough ad data linked to this product yet. The page says how many ads link and how many it needs. Run New Synthesis stays disabled until you link more.
- No synthesis data available. Select Run New Synthesis on the product page.
- Demo Mode. The run buttons are disabled, and the page shows sample results.