Beyond the Funnel: How AI-Powered Tools Deliver Brand Growth & Performance
by Jesse Nasadowski, Strategist and Seth Akkerman, Sr. Creative Tech Lead @ Instrument
For too long, marketing has been split between performance focused on clicks, conversions, and short-term growth and brand focused on long-term equity and emotional resonance. The result is that many growth efforts either sacrifice brand or rely on generic best practices that fail to capture what makes a company unique.
Instrument is changing that. By connecting real-time performance data directly to creative assets and design systems, their tool makes it possible to understand why some creative works and some does not, turning creative analysis from a messy, subjective process into a sharper, faster, and more actionable practice. The result is marketing that drives growth and strengthens the brand.
The problem? When you're only chasing clicks, it becomes a race to the bottom. Short-term outcomes may inch upward, but the brand gets diluted. Most tools accelerate this by enforcing generic best practices instead of integrating with a company’s unique brand messaging, tone of voice, and design playbook.
Today, AI is making it possible to weave them into a single, stronger fabric—not just technically, but strategically. The result is a new model of growth: one where effective growth marketing is effective brand marketing. Not brand or performance — but brand and performance.
Creative Analysis in Performance Marketing
In performance marketing, countless variables shape results — seasonality, audience targeting, account structure, and more. Yet, we argue creative is the single most important driver of success, no matter the KPI. In today’s attention economy, compelling creative is what cuts through.
But evaluating creative performance has always been messy. Why does one video outperform another? Is it the headline, the design, the story behind it? Traditional analysis is manual, subjective, and often a game of whack-a-mole.
At Instrument, we not only design best-in-class creative, we also decode the “why” behind what works. By connecting real-time performance data directly back to the assets themselves, we built a tool that makes creative analysis sharper, faster, and more actionable.
Getting Ahead with Bespoke Tooling
As a digitally native design and technology company, bespoke tooling is in our DNA. For creative analysis, we built a custom tool that combines Python, AI, and proprietary programming to move us from raw data to actionable creative insight — fast. Here’s how it works:
Pull asset-level performance data from platforms or other sources.
Analyze each frame from videos and static images, tagging key visual and narrative variables.
Correlate those variables with performance data over time.
Surface statistically significant insights that brief our design team on what’s driving impact.
Translate correlations into a custom scoring rubric, tailored to each client’s priorities.
Visualize it all in a dashboard that highlights top and bottom performers at a glance.
Where third-party platforms chase scale with bulk AI analysis and one-size-fits-all rules, our approach is different. We focus on best-in-class design, client-specific insights, and brand integrity. We’re not just testing what works in general — we’re uncovering what works for your brand, in your context, to drive your goals.
The outcome isn’t a rigid set of rules. It’s a dynamic feedback loop. Underperforming assets aren’t written off — they become signals for iteration. We test, refine, and expand creative possibilities, ensuring performance data sharpens creativity without diluting the brand.
Why This Matters
This system ensures brand and performance don’t compete — they compound. Our tool integrates with brand messaging, tone of voice, and design playbooks so we never over-index on growth metrics alone. Instead, data informs creativity without suffocating it.
In a landscape where most AI tools chase optimization at all costs, we’re building for something bigger: creative that performs and brands that endure.
There’s a gap in the industry for this kind of tooling. At Instrument, we’re closing it.
The Numbers Speak for Themselves
Well, does this all work? The short answer is a resounding yes. Here are some numbers from a large App client of ours in 2025 that shows the improvement across multiple time periods comparing before and after Instrument was delivering creative.
11M Installs driven in first 6 months of partnering
2.4B Impressions in first 6 months of partnering
113% YoY increase in static image CTR
20% YoY increase in video asset conversion
34% QoQ increase in account wide conversion
Growth like this is possible without compromising the brand. All of this was achieved through testing, iteration, and experimentation across various ad types. We found what worked, expanded upon it, and allowed ourselves to have some fun with testing new and interesting ways to create.
The New Standard
As AI reshapes the marketing landscape, the brands that thrive will be those that don’t choose between performance and resonance. They’ll demand both. Our work at Instrument shows it’s not only possible — it’s the new standard.
Jesse Nasadowski, Instrument
For much of his career, Jesse has been a growth marketer focused on the development, analysis, and optimization of performance creative for brands of all shapes and sizes. Now, as a Strategist at Instrument, he is continuing this work to connect brands with their audiences, helping them answer the question that is on every marketer's mind: Which creative strategies are most effective?
Seth Akkerman, Instrument
