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When Zach Stuck tweeted about an ad that performed unexpectedly well, we felt it. 

As our director of paid media Marc Barraza said, “This happens 70% of the time.” 

But why? We reached out to Stuck, founder of growth marketing agency Homestead, to get his take. 

So bad, it’s good. 

The ad in question features a scroll of outdoorsy clothing items on top of a stock image of a ski hill. 

The image bothered Stuck for two reasons:

1. It was blurry.
2. It was a stock image.

“[It] just felt wrong and not polished enough,” he said. 

But in the end, “[i]t gave viewers … an easy and clear use-case for the product,” he said. 

They can see themselves wearing the apparel on the slopes — because there’s a (blurry) slope right there! 

Our takeaway? 

The lesson: teaching customers how (and where) to use your product is sometimes more important than visual finesse. 

The ad has been a “significant win” for Stuck’s ad account, and it’s now getting 50% of total ad spend.