Ad creatives designed around how people buy

Ad creatives succeed through more than a strong hook, script, or creator. Iveta Makedonska sees creative performance as a mix of consumer understanding, execution, and structured testing. The Founder and CEO of MakeItClick has worked across more than 100 brands. She has also overseen more than $150 million in ad spend. In her three-question interview with AGS, she explains what separates stronger creative teams and why systems matter.

Strong creative teams study people

For Makedonska, curiosity sits at the centre of strong creative teams. “The strongest creative teams I’ve worked with are genuinely obsessed with people,” she said. They study consumer psychology, culture, trends, buying behaviour, and changes in how people consume content. That attention gives them more context when deciding which ideas are worth exploring.

Inspiration can also come from outside campaign work. Makedonska points to conversations, comments, content, things seen on the street, and personal buying behaviour. Strong creative people train themselves to notice these details wherever they appear. That curiosity helps them keep up with changes in how people think, respond, and buy.

Consumer psychology lives in the details

Makedonska believes advertisers can underestimate how emotional and subconscious buying decisions can be. A strong ad can create the feeling that “This was made for me” across a much larger audience. That sense of relevance may come from details that never appear clearly in performance data. Sometimes, seemingly minor choices make the message feel closer to the viewer’s own life.

She points to examples such as a messy bun, a towel in the background, the room colour, or someone’s delivery. These details can signal familiarity without being the main focus of the ad. “People don’t experience an ad as a script, a hook and a CTA,” Makedonska said. The final execution can shape whether the world around that message feels believable.

That makes consumer psychology an important part of understanding ad creatives. A proven concept can still perform differently depending on how viewers respond to those smaller cues. Performance numbers show what happened, but they may not reveal all the reasons behind the response.

What makes ad creatives successful

Experience has also changed how Makedonska evaluates creative ideas. “I trust opinions a lot less and structured testing a lot more,” she said. Experience still helps marketers recognise patterns and decide which ideas deserve attention. The difference is having a clear way to test those instincts against performance.

Her biggest shift has been moving away from the idea of one breakthrough concept. “Great creative isn’t about having one genius idea; it’s about building a system,” Makedonska said. Strong teams understand what they are testing and why something worked. They then use those findings when developing the next iteration.

For Makedonska, speed becomes part of the advantage once that system is in place. The aim is to create the next winner faster, rather than depend on one successful ad. That thinking also connects naturally with her upcoming AGS session on creative systems.

Catch Iveta Makedonska’s keynote at AGS

Makedonska will speak on “From User-Generated Content (UGC) to Creative Systems: The Next Evolution of Paid Growth.” The session asks what comes after UGC as competition for attention increases. It will examine emerging approaches to creative production and deployment at scale. The keynote will also explore how creative operations can support modern paid growth strategies.

Other speakers gracing the stage include Marisha Lakhiani of Mindvalley and Josh Snow of SNOW. Maor Benaim of The Wolf Marketing and Niv Shaked of TikTok will also speak in Rome. Together, the programme brings perspectives from different areas of performance marketing.

Road to Rome

Affiliate Grand Slam Rome will bring together 5,000+ delegates and 270+ exhibitors across multiple performance marketing verticals. Affiliates, advertisers, media buyers, agencies, platforms, and technology providers will have three days to meet. Attendees can compare opportunities, discuss new ideas, and build new partnerships throughout the summit.

The summit is presented by TrafficStars, a worldwide premium traffic provider covering 200+ GEOs. TrafficStars supports seven advertising formats across all major devices.

Get your ticket today and hear more from Iveta Makedonska and other industry leaders at the newly launched Affiliate Grand Slam, bringing 50+ expert speakers to Rome, 02–05 November 2026.