Steal ad ideas like an artist


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Hey! Every new idea is just a mix of old ideas.

Here are my three rules for “stealing” ads ethically:

Rule #1: Never steal from your neighbor

Instead of copying my competitors, I draw inspiration from other industries.

For example, if I need a B2B idea, I’ll try to find it in a B2C ad library, like Lurzer’s Archive

Rule #2: Limit yourself to 30 minutes

Ad inspiration quickly turns into procrastination.

So I browse ads for half an hour, then get to work.

Rule #3: Steal one element, not the whole piece

My client, AppsFlyer, wanted to target large companies that have outgrown their current mobile attribution tools.

So, while looking for inspiration, I found these two ads:

The fishbowl simply caught my eye.

And the big man in the small box reminded me of AppsFlyer's target audience: enterprise teams locked into software built for startups.

Next, I googled “big fish in a small tank” and found this:

And here’s the final ad:


You made it! 🕺

Reply to this email if you enjoyed it.
I’ll write back, pinky swear ;)

Talk soon,
​Shlomo​

P.S. If your B2B ads need a creative boost, check out my course, Boring Products, Fun Ads.

Samuel Green​

Copywriting Lead @ Artlist

"Our creative team did the course together to sharpen our skills and get some inspiration for fresh ideas.
I'm not a huge fan of video courses, but this one was extremely well put together, well-structured, and entertaining!
We particularly enjoyed the prompt templates for AI tools to help the creative process.
Shlomo was also very available for questions during and after the course and there is an extremely comprehensive handbook which we are using for reference having finished all the videos."

The Creative Marketer

Learn how to brainstorm brilliant ads and copy | You’ll get one practical recipe every two weeks | Free bonus: get 25 creative marketing cheatsheets when you sign up.

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