Creative doesn't matter without this: CEW x Leaf webinar summary

Last week, we joined CEW for a webinar that challenged one of the biggest misconceptions in performance marketing: that creative alone drives paid media success.

Hosted by Tash Courtenay-Smith, with Deborah Stead (CEO at Studio 10) and Wesley Hartley (CCO at Leaf), the session unpacked why the foundations behind ad performance - conversion tracking, attribution and account structure - matter more than most beauty brands realise.

We covered a lot in the webinar, so we’ve summarised some of the key takeaways below.

Creative can’t compensate for broken tracking

While Meta and Google increasingly position creative as the primary driver of performance, the reality is that their algorithms still rely on conversion signals to make optimisation decisions.

Every bid, audience decision and retargeting action is informed by the data coming from your website. As Wes explained during the session: 

“Tracking is targeting.”

That means:

• ad platforms learn from the customer data being sent from your website

• conversion tracking directly influences who platforms target & how they bid

• stronger data improves attribution, audience quality & retargeting

• poor tracking creates weaker optimisation signals and less efficient spend

Many beauty brands spend huge amounts of time and money iterating creative while overlooking the infrastructure underneath it.

What great tracking looks like

The webinar also walked through examples of what healthy conversion tracking should look like inside Meta and Google Ads.

The slide above shows an example of a tracking setup Wes suggested brands should aim for inside Meta Events Manager. Event Match Quality scores demonstrate how confidently Meta can match website activity to real user accounts using the customer and conversion data being passed back from a site. 

As a guide, he said purchase events should ideally score close to 9/10, with mid-funnel events like page views and add-to-carts typically sitting in the 6-8 range.

Many brands, however, operate with much lower scores due to poor setup or reliance on basic integrations.

In Google Ads, Wes highlighted the importance of enhanced conversions, consent mode, accurate basket data and correct product ID matching to help Google better understand customer behaviour and optimise campaigns more effectively. 

He also explained that many brands rely too heavily on GA4 as their primary conversion source - despite Google itself advising against this for conversion-led campaigns. This can limit the amount of data available for optimisation and retargeting.

Winning ad account structures for beauty brands

The webinar also covered campaign structure. Rather than allowing platforms to optimise everything automatically within a single campaign, Wes discussed the importance of separating campaigns by intent and funnel stage.

He explained that while platforms like Meta increasingly encourage brands to consolidate activity into broad Advantage+ campaigns, this often removes visibility and control over where spend is actually going.

Wes recommended an alternative structure (see below) designed to move customers progressively through the funnel. This helps brands gain greater control over budget allocation and tailor creative more effectively to different levels of intent.

Without this level of separation, platforms will naturally optimise towards the easiest conversions, usually favouring existing customers or users already close to purchasing.

Wes argued:

“The funnel isn’t dead.” 

Budget allocation matters more than many brands realise

The session explored how budgets can be distributed more intentionally across the funnel.

Rather than concentrating spend entirely on conversion campaigns, Wes outlined how brands should also allocate budget towards awareness and demand generation activity - particularly as spend scales (suggested structure below).

Smaller brands may need simpler campaign structures, but the principle remains the same: maintaining intentional control over funnel stages is critical.

The beauty industry 'trap'

One of the most interesting conversations during the webinar was around what Wes described as the beauty industry trap.

Often, beauty brands become heavily reliant on influencer content to drive paid media performance. While influencer campaigns can absolutely generate strong spikes in engagement and sales, relying on them too heavily can create instability.

Common challenges include short creative shelf life, licensing limitations, delayed content delivery and reduced predictability over time.

Wes argued that while influencer marketing can definitely be effective, brands also need evergreen creative foundations they fully control themselves.

The biggest takeaway

The webinar covered a lot of technical detail, but the overarching message was actually relatively simple:

Before investing in more creative, more campaigns or more spend, brands should make sure the foundations underneath their paid media activity are working properly.

As Deborah summarised during the session:

“Improve the existing before adding new.”

Because ultimately, creative performance is only as strong as the data you're feeding the platforms behind it.

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We built Leaf Signal to help brands fix, monitor & maintain the tracking foundations that underpin better paid media performance.

If you’re questioning whether your tracking setup is up to scratch, we can take a look, highlight any gaps and provide actionable next steps. Book your free audit here.