Writing a good brief
Agents do their best work with a clear goal, the right context and firm limits. This lesson shows what a strong brief looks like and why a vague one costs you time.
A brief is everything an agent knows about the job. It can see your brand kit, past campaigns and connected accounts, but it can’t read your mind. Whatever you leave out, it has to guess.
Good briefs are short. They name the goal, the audience, the channel and what done looks like.
Vague vs. constrained briefs
Here’s the same request written two ways. The first leaves the agent to fill in the blanks. The second tells it exactly what success looks like.
Make some ads for our spring sale.
Write 3 Meta ad variations for our spring sale (20% off, ends April 30). Audience: past customers, 25–44. Use the brand kit voice. Headline under 40 characters. Don’t touch the landing page or email sequence.
Common failure: scope creep
Ask for one landing page and an eager agent may also rewrite your emails and suggest a new ad set. Scope creep feels helpful but makes work harder to review. Say what’s out of scope as clearly as what’s in it.
If a result drifts, don’t start over. Reply with the one thing to change and let the agent revise from there.