Understanding The Creative Refresh Process

Overview

The Creative Refresh is the recurring process by which clients on Paid Social subscriptions receive new ad creatives on a defined cadence, typically every 90 days.

The process runs entirely in HubSpot and coordinates four parties:

• Account Manager (AM)

• Social Ad Specialist (SAS)

• Creative Team (Copywriter and Graphic Designer),

• Creative Team Leads.

In HubSpot, two fields drive nearly all of the automation: Creative Refresh Status on the Creative Portfolio, and Deliverable Folder Name on each deliverable ticket.

Phase 1: Kickoff (14 days before the refresh date)

HubSpot automatically sends the AM an email notification and creates a "Discuss Creative Refresh" task on the Creative Portfolio 15 days before the Creative Refresh Date.

The AM contacts the client to confirm two things: whether they want a refresh this cycle, and whether they have new assets or creative direction to provide.

• If the client declines: The AM moves Creative Refresh Status to "No Refresh Requested."

  • This bypasses all downstream workflows and auto-reschedules the next refresh based on the configured cadence.

• If the client wants a refresh: The AM logs all client direction and assets as a Note on the Creative Portfolio, @mentions the SAS, and uploads any client-provided assets. Once saved, the AM moves Creative Refresh Status to "Refresh Request Submitted." This is a notation only and does not trigger automation. The actual handoff to the SAS fires when the Creative Refresh Date arrives.

Phase 2: Deliverable Setup (on the refresh date)

When the Creative Refresh Date arrives, HubSpot automatically creates a "Create Paid Social Deliverables for Refresh" task for the SAS and sends an email notification.

The SAS reviews the AM's Note on the Creative Portfolio and creates one ticket per deliverable on the Creative Deliverables pipeline.

When creating tickets, the SAS should set a Deliverable Folder Name that is consistent across every ticket in the Ad Set, since this is what binds the Ad Set together for automation.

Once all tickets are created, the SAS moves Creative Refresh Status to "Deliverables Submitted." Tasks are automatically assigned to the Copywriter and Graphic Designer on each ticket.

Phase 3: Fulfillment and Internal QA

Copy and design work proceed in parallel on each ticket:

Copywriter: Writes copy in their normal tools, logs the final copy as a Note on the ticket, marks their Copy task complete, then moves Ad Copy Approval to "Submitted."

This auto-generates a QA task for the Copywriter Team Lead. The Team Lead reviews and either leaves comments for revision or moves Ad Copy Approval to "Approved."

Graphic Designer: Builds graphics in their normal tools, uploads them via a Note on the ticket, marks their Design task complete, then moves Graphic Design Approval to "Submitted."

This auto-generates a QA task for the Design Team Lead. The Team Lead reviews and either requests changes or moves Graphic Design Approval to "Approved."

Once all creatives in the Ad Set are uploaded to Ad Lab, the Designer updates the Most Recent Ad Lab Link property on the Creative Portfolio.

Note: The first person to open a new ticket moves Ticket Status to "In Progress."

When both Ad Copy Approval and Graphic Design Approval are "Approved" on a ticket, Ticket Status automatically advances to "Pending Approval."

Phase 4: Client Approval and Revisions

When ALL tickets sharing the same Deliverable Folder Name reach Pending Approval, the system automatically moves Creative Refresh Status to "Creatives Pending Approval," notifies the AM and SAS by email, and assigns the AM a "Share Deliverables with Client" task.

The AM shares the Ad Lab link with the client for review.

• If the client approves: The AM moves Creative Refresh Status to "Creatives Completed & Approved."
• If the client requests changes:
  • The AM sets the Needs Revisions field on the affected ticket(s) to "Copy Revisions Only," "Graphic Revisions Only," or "Copy and Graphic Revisions,"
  • AM adds a Note to the ticket describing the requested changes.
  • Automation creates the appropriate revision task(s), resets the relevant approval fields, and moves Ticket Status back to "In Progress."
  • The Copywriter and/or Designer makes the changes and moves their approval field directly to "Approved," skipping Team Lead QA.
  • The cycle repeats until the client approves.

Phase 5: Implementation and Cycle Reset

Moving Creative Refresh Status to "Creatives Completed & Approved" automatically notifies the SAS and creates an "Implement New Creatives for Refresh" task. The SAS is now responsible for pulling the approved assets from the deliverable tickets or Ad Lab and implementing them in Meta.

Once done, the SAS either marks the implementation task complete (which auto-advances the status) or manually moves Creative Refresh Status to "Creatives Implemented."

IMPORTANT: The status must reach "Creatives Implemented" for the next refresh to be rescheduled.

Once the status hits "Creatives Implemented," the system recalculates the next Creative Refresh Date based on the configured cadence and sends the AM a confirmation email.

The AM should then reaches out to the client to confirm the new creatives are live. This is the end of the Creative Refresh process.

On-Demand Deliverables (outside the refresh cycle)

New deliverables can be created outside the regular cadence, such as during onboarding or for ad hoc client requests. The fulfillment process is identical to Phases 2 through 5 above. The key differences are that there is no 14-day automation trigger.

The SAS starts the process manually by submitting Deliverables and the Creative Refresh Status field may not need to be moved at all since it governs the recurring cycle, not one-off work.

Deliverable Folder Name must still be set consistently across all tickets in the Ad Set.

Key Things to Remember

• The Creative Portfolio is the single source of truth for Creative work. All client assets, requirements, and notes belong there as Note activities so every team member has full context.
• Deliverable Folder Name must be set on the first ticket and never modified on cloned tickets within the same Ad Set.
• The cycle will not reset and the next refresh will not be scheduled until Creative Refresh Status reaches "Creatives Implemented."
• Not every status change triggers automation. "Refresh Request Submitted" and "Deliverables Submitted" are notations only. The real handoffs at those points are the AM's Note and the SAS's ticket creation, respectively.