You decide which creative work gets custom production by scoring every request on four things: audience, business value, shelf life and reuse. Highest scores get a designer or a shoot. The rest run from templates and automation. A 12-point scorecard makes that call in two minutes, without a meeting.
TLDR: Score each request 1 to 3 on four criteria. 10 to 12 gets custom work, 7 to 9 gets a template with a custom hook, 4 to 6 runs fully from a template. In Mydrop's data, the best and worst formats differed by only about 11 percent, so format should not drive spend.
The four criteria, scored 1 to 3
| Criterion | 1 point | 2 points | 3 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | Niche or one region | Several segments | Whole brand audience |
| Business value | Awareness only | Supports a goal | Tied to launch, sale or revenue |
| Shelf life | Days | Weeks | Evergreen, months |
| Reuse | One post | A few variants | Reused across brands or regions |
Add the four numbers. Anyone who can add can run it. The point is to make the same decision the same way every time, so a loud request does not outrank a valuable one.
What each total gets
| Total | Production tier | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 10 to 12 | Custom: designer, video or shoot | Product launch, flagship campaign |
| 7 to 9 | Template with a custom hook or image | Monthly feature update |
| 4 to 6 | Template only, automation where possible | Holiday greeting, reminder post |
On most teams the largest share of volume is repetitive, so tier three is where automation pays: captions, resizing and scheduling. Mydrop's bulk creation and AI captions fit there. They do not belong on the launch.
Do not spend on format, spend on the idea
It is tempting to give every video a custom edit. Mydrop's data suggests the spread between formats is narrow: carousels indexed 1.10 against each account's own median, text posts 1.04, photos 1.00 and videos 0.99. The idea and the audience matter more than the format. Pick a format you can keep producing every week.
Score a real request, start to finish
A brand manager asks for a custom video for a regional holiday post.
- Audience: one region, 1.
- Business value: awareness only, 1.
- Shelf life: three days, 1.
- Reuse: one post, 1.
Total: 4. It runs from a template with a localized caption. Same team, same week, and the hours saved go to the product launch that scored 12.
Three mistakes that break a scorecard
- Scoring by who asked. Score the request, not the requester. If the CEO's pet post scores 5, it gets a template.
- Changing the criteria mid-quarter. A score only means something if it meant the same thing last month.
- Skipping the reuse column. Reuse is where custom work earns its cost. A hero image that serves five brands is cheaper per post than five quick edits.
Write the scorecard result on every brief, so the production tier is visible to everyone who touches it.
Keep the scorecard honest with results
A scorecard is a guess until you check it. Once a month, compare each content type with the account's own median. Mydrop's performance view shows each post against its account's median, so you can see where high-scoring work did not earn its cost.
- If a content type beats the median twice in a row, move it up a tier.
- If it misses twice, move it down.
- If a 12-point request keeps underperforming, your criteria are wrong, not your designers.
Make it work across brands
When several brands share a creative team, every brand will argue its request is a 12. Fix that by letting each brand manager score, and one person (the content lead) review the top five scores each week. Keep the four criteria fixed so a score means the same across brands. Set a monthly limit for custom slots, for example four, and fill them highest score first.
Keep the scorecard next to a creative QA list so custom work still meets brand standards: the creative QA checklist. For a different scoring angle, see how to create a content scorecard.
Next step: score your next 10 requests today with the 12-point table and set a monthly cap on custom slots. To keep brands, calendars and approvals in one place, start free with Mydrop.
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