If you run a DTC brand, you already know one thing: creative makes or breaks your ad spend.
You can have the best media buying strategy on earth. Doesn’t matter. If your creative sucks, your CAC shoots up and suddenly those “scale goals” feel like a joke.
That’s why so many brands are hiring Creative Strategists. People who live right at the intersection of data, storytelling, and direct response psychology.
The only problem? Most people who call themselves creative strategists… aren’t.
Some come from big agencies with fancy logos on their résumés, but no clue how to write a hook that sells. Others have only made TikToks for fun and never looked at campaign metrics in their life.
We’ve placed a lot of these roles at Constant Hire, and I’ll save you the pain. Here are six things that actually matter when hiring a Creative Strategist.
If a candidate brags about working on Coca-Cola or Sony campaigns—cool. But also, run.
Big brand creative doesn’t live or die by conversions. Those campaigns are built to “tell stories” and “drive awareness.” Which is great if you’ve got a billion-dollar budget to burn.
But if you’re a DTC founder trying to squeeze more out of every ad dollar? You need someone who knows the AIDA framework inside out. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Someone who can write a VSL that pokes at customer pain points, not just make a pretty brand film.
When you’re interviewing, ask for scripts they’ve written. Then ask why they structured them the way they did. If they can’t explain beyond “I thought it looked good,” they’re not your person.
Here’s the truth: most freelance UGC creators never see the results of their videos. They film content, hand it off, and move on.
That’s not a strategist. That’s a content vendor.
A good creative strategist should know things like:
And they should know how to look at those numbers in tools like Motion or whatever dashboard your buyers use.
Pro tip when hiring: ask them to walk you through a past campaign and what they learned from the data. If they can’t talk numbers? They’re not ready for strategy.
This is the sweet spot.
Anything beyond that, you’re probably looking at someone who should be building a whole creative department, not just running strategy.
So unless you’re a $100M+ brand, don’t overspend. The $80K–$140K window is where the magic happens.
Creative strategy in a silo doesn’t work.
Your strategist has to be in the trenches with your media buyers—reviewing dashboards, iterating weekly, figuring out which hooks are beating benchmarks and which ones are tanking.
Ask candidates how they collaborate with media buyers today. If their answer sounds like “I send them ideas and they test them”… hard pass.
The good ones talk about feedback loops, rapid iteration, and constantly learning from ad data.
If you want a solid pool of candidates, look at creative agencies.
The sweet spot? People who’ve been there 2–3 years.
By that point, they’ve managed multiple accounts, survived crazy client demands, and learned how to deliver under pressure. And they’re usually itching to go deep with one brand instead of juggling 12.
They’re cheaper than seasoned in-house talent, but still hungry. For most DTC brands, that’s exactly the type of hire you want.
This one’s not a must, but it’s a nice bonus.
Most strategists are great at working with UGC creators, editors, and coordinators to crank out high-performing assets. But sometimes you just need someone to hop on camera and shoot a quick “talking head” ad.
If they’re game to do that? You’ll save yourself a ton of hassle.
Hiring a Creative Strategist isn’t about finding a “big idea” person. It’s about finding someone who knows direct response, lives in the numbers, and works hand-in-hand with media buyers to make sure every dollar you spend is working harder.
So, what should you look for?
We started Constant Hire to help DTC brands recruit the kind of talent that actually drives growth. We’ve placed Creative Strategists who now run multi-million-dollar ad accounts, and we know exactly what separates the résumé fluff from the real operators.
If you’re scaling and want a team that wins on creative, we’d love to talk.
