Paste an ad, get a critique

Last lesson you described ads in words. That filter is gone now: Claude can look at the ad itself. Open claude.ai on your phone, tap the plus button in the chat box, and attach a screenshot. A free account is all this needs.

Five rules make image chats work properly. They come from how Claude actually reads images, so bake them in from day one:

1. Image before text. Attach the screenshot first, then type your prompt under it. Claude reads the message top to bottom; the image should be what the instructions refer back to, not an afterthought.
2. Label your images. The moment you send more than one, write "Image 1: the full ad. Image 2: close-up of the price." Unlabeled images get confused with each other.
3. You get up to 20 images per message on a free account, each up to 10MB. You will rarely need more than two or three, but a whole competitor teardown fits in one message.
4. Crop and zoom for small text. If the fine print, the price, or a badge matters, crop that region on your phone and send the close-up as its own labeled image. A full-screen shot squeezes small text into mush.
5. Claude cannot tell whether an image is AI-made, and it cannot generate images either. It judges what is in the frame, not where the frame came from. Never ask "is this ad AI-generated"; the answer is a guess.

The critique prompt

This is the prompt you will reuse for the rest of the course. It gives Claude a job, a fixed rubric, and rules that keep it honest.

Attach one of your three stopper ads from lesson 1, then paste:

You are a senior performance media buyer. You have reviewed thousands of ad creatives and killed most of them. You are blunt and specific, never polite for its own sake.
 
Image 1 is an ad. Critique it with this exact rubric:
 
1. HOOK (score 0-10): would this earn a stop from a stranger in under 2 seconds? Justify in one line.
2. CREATIVE CLARITY, MUTED (score 0-10): with the sound off, can someone tell what is being sold and who it is for? Justify in one line.
3. OFFER STRENGTH (score 0-10): what is the actual deal, in the ad's own words? If there is no deal, only a product, score it 3 or below. Justify in one line.
4. CTA (score 0-10): does the viewer know exactly what happens when they tap? Justify in one line.
5. THE ONE CHANGE: the single edit with the biggest impact on performance. One sentence, specific enough to act on today.
 
Rules: quote the ad's own words whenever you refer to its text. If any text in the image is too small or blurry to read, say so instead of guessing. Do not assume the product is good. Score honestly and let the numbers spread; a polite 7 on everything helps nobody.

Now run the rest of your six. The three stoppers should mostly score well on hook; the three you skipped should score badly somewhere specific. When the scores match your own thumb, you are seeing what a media buyer sees. When they do not, read the justification; one of you noticed something the other missed, and it is not always Claude.

Ten minutes in, you have a repeatable critique that most people running ads never get. Grab a screenshot of your favourite verdict and send it to someone who boosts posts and hopes.