Inside Semrush Spotlight 2025: How to Turn “Boring” Products into Fun Ads

At the 2025 Semrush Spotlight Conference in Amsterdam, Shlomo Genchin, Founder of The Creative Marketer, delivered one of the most entertaining and hands-on sessions of the day – “Boring Products, Fun Ads.”

This post summarizes his keynote and outlines two creative frameworks B2B marketers can use to make their ads stand out, even in the most “serious” industries.

Why Most B2B Ads Fail

Shlomo started with a truth every marketer secretly knows: most B2B ads are boring. We often forget that we’re not only selling to professionals – we’re selling to people.

Nobody wants to see your ad – but everyone wants to see a story they recognize. The key is to turn product features into relatable moments: the relief of “leaving work early,” the frustration of outdated systems, or the joy of solving a problem faster.

He shared two recipes for creating B2B ads that make people stop scrolling.

Recipe For Fun Ads #1: Comparison

‍

Show two products or options next to each other for direct comparison.

Step 1: Find the benefit of the benefit.

🤖 Use the following prompt:

Create a table of features, benefits, and benefits of the benefits for [Product/Brand]. Product Details: [Value prop and description]. Target persona: [Describe your ideal user]. Features: Include specific facts that differentiate [Product/Brand] Benefits: Explain how each feature positively impacts the user's work. Benefits of the Benefits: Describe how each benefit enhances the user's life in a realistic, specific, and relatable situation, such as a particular time of day or task, showing how it brings convenience or improves productivity in their personal or work life. Mention the exact time of day. Use a friendly and casual TOV.

Step 2: Pick a comparison framework. ‍

🤖 Use the following prompt:

Product: [Product/Brand]. Benefit of the Benefit:[Insert here]. TOV: Casual Task: Apply each of the comparison frameworks below to create a comparison ad concept for [Product/Brand]: Before vs. After Us vs. Them Bad vs. Worse Good vs. Great Now vs. Future Problem vs. Solution Expectation vs. Reality High Cost vs. Low Cost Complex vs. Simple Slow vs. Fast Old vs. New Local vs. Global

Step 3: Add visual & copy.

You can use image stocks like Adobe Stock or similar services.

Step 4: Add caption.

Use every character of this valuable real estate. Too many times B2B ads’ captions are repetitive. You can try Shlomo’s free Linkedin Ad caption copy bot here.

‍

Recipe For Fun Ads #2: World Without

Show the disastrous consequences of not using the product.

Step 1: Find a pain.

🤖 Use the Pain Points Prompt: 

Find real testimonials, reviews, or Reddit posts from [persona] describing the challenges, frustrations, relatable situations, or pain points they experienced while [user's job].

Step 2. Exaggerate the pain.

‍Show what the world looks like without your product – the chaos, the inefficiency, the lost time.

Step 3: Generate key frames for your ad video. ‍

You can use Gemini for that.

Step 4: Animate key frames.

‍Use Enhancor.ai or similar tools to bring them to life

Step 5. Create a voice-over.

‍Follow TIPSA copywriting formula. For the AI-generated voice-over, see Eleven Labs.

Here’s Shlomo’s quick cheat sheet for directing AI voice actors in Eleven Labs:

The final video can be easily edited in Capcut.

‍

Final Takeaway

And that’s it – two simple recipes for turning boring B2B products into fun, memorable ads that actually convert.

As Shlomo closed his keynote with a quote that perfectly sums up his approach:

“All advertising is unwanted, so if you’re going to crash the party, bring some champagne.”
— Bob Thacker

For anyone who missed the session, Shlomo shared a Notion workspace with the full keynote, all frameworks, and concrete ad examples to help teams experiment. Access it here: shlomo-genchin.notion.site/spotlight-bpfa.