E099: What Should Performance Creative Look Like in 2026?

This week, the team breaks down how they’re testing creative and scaling systems. Volume still matters, but only when it’s paired with clearer concepts, stronger hypotheses, and better signal quality.

Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Global Head of Growth, HexClad) revisit the playbooks they built over the years and walk through what’s working right now.

The conversation gets tactical fast. They dig into what actually defines a concept (message × format), how they’re structuring Meta campaigns to balance throughput and learning, and why hybrid CBO setups that blur the line between testing and spending are becoming the new standard. From ABO vs. CBO tradeoffs to pixel consolidation and signal engineering, they unpack how promising ideas get enough budget to generate real data.

Then the focus shifts to creator pipelines, coaching feedback loops, and organic-to-paid workflows — including why Jones Road is building a creator-in-residence program to ship content daily, why HexClad is hiring a dedicated freelancer to source assets faster, and why Ridge treats its network of briefed creators as an internal function.

A clear theme runs through it all … performance shouldn’t pit quality against quantity. It should focus on infrastructure to produce high output while learning faster and growing with intention.

If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show.

Chapters

00:00:00 The Creative Playbook Revisit

00:05:37 HexClad Cuts Volume in Half

00:10:07 Jones Road Ramps to Thirty

00:16:48 What Even Is a Concept

00:20:01 Ecosystem Testing on Meta

00:24:23 Campaign Structure Deep Dive

00:30:14 Signal Engineering Explained

00:37:22 Pixel Consolidation at Ridge

00:42:47 Scaling Winners With CBO Mins

00:49:24 Who Is Making All This Content

00:56:34 In House Versus Agency Debate

01:03:49 Creator Residence Model

01:08:52 Volume Versus Quality Revisited

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