Your next ad needs a customer story. You have a folder of quotes, but most say little beyond “great tool.”
Choose the buyer's question first. Your prospect may need to see a team like theirs using the product. Or they may want to know whether switching is worth the work.
These testimonial advertising examples show different ways to answer those questions. We opened the original sources, captured the creative, and checked what each example supports.
You'll find:
- Two paid creatives from one documented customer campaign.
- A commissioned customer film and two customer-story pages worth studying.
- A copyable creative brief and a paid-use permission request.
For a broader website gallery, use our 31 SaaS testimonial examples.
What is testimonial advertising?
Testimonial advertising uses a customer's endorsement in a marketing message. A paid ad buys reach for that message. A quote on a website can supply material for an ad, but its presence there doesn't prove a paid campaign ran.
Start with a real experience. Keep the speaker's meaning, show who they are, and choose a next step that fits the story.
| Example | What we verified | What to study |
|---|---|---|
| Smokeball / George Sourris | Creative in LinkedIn's paid-campaign case study | Customer identity before the video |
| Smokeball / Abi | Second creative from the same campaign | A different customer voice within one story |
| Slack / Sandwich | Commissioned film on its creator's website; paid placement unverified | A customer showing its own work |
| Shopify / Gymshark | Quote on Shopify's case-study page; paid placement unverified | A switching objection with context |
| Slack / Box | Quote on Slack's customer-story page; paid placement unverified | A sales leader describing a concrete workflow |
How we checked these examples
We build HighAdvocacy, so we wanted to see what turns a collected quote into usable campaign material.
On October 21, 2026, we opened four primary-source pages. We captured five examples, with two ads from the same Smokeball campaign. We checked the speaker, the story, the visible format, and the evidence for paid placement.
The notes below are our own creative analysis. We didn't run these campaigns, interview these customers, or measure their conversion rates. The capture date shows when we inspected the source, not when an ad ran. These are selected examples, not a market-wide study.
5 testimonial advertising examples, with screenshots
1. Smokeball and George Sourris: let the customer introduce the story
The frame starts with George's profile and post. His video sits below it. You see a person before the product pitch.
LinkedIn says Smokeball promoted customer video posts as Thought Leader Ads. That tells us it ran as an ad. A screenshot alone would not.
What to borrow: keep who said it beside the story. If you crop away the post header, you lose the link between the speaker and the statement. Show the job title and company when they're relevant to the buyer.
What to change for your campaign: ask which part of the customer's experience your audience needs. A legal-team story belongs in front of buyers with a similar work problem. A well-known logo alone doesn't establish that match.
Before promotion, save the approved original post and the customer's permission. Your designer needs both alongside the video file.
2. Smokeball and Abi: get another view of the same customer story
The second frame keeps the member-post format while changing the speaker. The team gets another voice within the same customer story.
What to borrow: speak with the people who use the product as well as the person who bought it. Their useful details may differ. A buyer can explain the choice; a daily user can describe the work.
What to check: label each person's role in your brief. Two clips from one customer account don't establish that the experience is common across customers.
For your next interview, ask each person about the task they owned. Don't hand both people the same praise to read. Choose the clip that answers the planned ad's question, then get that exact edit approved.
Customer-story material you can adapt after approval
The next examples show useful source material. We verified the public film or page, but didn't verify a paid placement. Study the approach; create your own approved customer version.
3. Slack and Sandwich: show the customer using the product
Sandwich explains that Slack asked the team to try the product and make a video. The team then told its own story, using its office and staff. The creator's account also describes re-enactments, so this should not be presented as an unplanned customer recording.
Our read: the setting gives you something to inspect. You can picture the team and its work. A blank-background quote card would need more copy to supply that context.
What to borrow: film one task your customer can show. Ask them to explain what they did before, then demonstrate what they do now. Keep the account specific to that task.
What to avoid: a staged scene can look natural. That doesn't make it spontaneous. Describe production honestly and keep the customer's experience intact through the edit.
For a short cutdown, choose one work problem. Put the remaining interview on the destination page. You don't need to squeeze the whole customer's history into one clip.
4. Shopify and Gymshark: use the switching story behind the quote
The quote names Ben Francis, his founder role, and Gymshark. The surrounding page explains a move from another commerce platform. Read together, they tell a switching story. The quote alone leaves out much of the reason for that move.
Our read: this is useful material for a buyer comparing platforms. It is less useful as a broad promise that every company will get the same result.
What to borrow: keep the problem and the speaker together. When you ask your own customer about switching, ask what made the old approach hard to keep. Then ask what changed after the move.
What to check: an old customer story can describe features or conditions that have changed. Verify those details before making a new ad. Don't turn historical sales figures from a case study into a current result promise.
If your creative needs the full explanation, send the click to that story. If a product page answers the next question better, use that. Choose the page by what the reader still needs to know.
5. Slack and Box: choose the person who owns the work problem
The quote connects Mark Wayland's revenue role to a task: keeping customer conversations moving through Slack Connect. His title helps explain why he's speaking about a sales workflow.
Our read: the role and the task belong together. The same statement would carry less context with only a first name below it. A sales leader can judge whether this sounds like their team's problem.
What to borrow: pick a quote that describes the work your target buyer owns. Ask a sales customer about a deal handoff or customer conversation. Ask a support customer about a support task.
What to check: keep the tool and use case named. Don't expand a quote about one workflow into a promise about the whole business. If the customer describes a future plan, keep it in the future tense.
When an ad needs a short version, ask the speaker to approve the crop. Removing a few words can change which product or team the statement describes.
Build your next testimonial ad from one buyer question
Choose the question before picking the format. Our types of social proof guide covers other ways to support the same buying decision.
| Buyer question | Customer material to look for | Creative starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Will this fit a team like ours? | Named customer with a relevant role and use case | Quote card with clear attribution |
| Is switching worth the work? | Account of the old process and the move | Short customer story with a longer destination |
| What does using it look like? | Customer explaining a real task | Demonstration with customer narration |
| Can I trust this unfamiliar vendor? | Traceable review or named customer story | Review excerpt or customer clip, subject to reuse rights |
For review excerpts, check the platform's reuse and badge rules. A public review doesn't grant full rights to reuse it in ads. Our G2 reviews guide covers collection; our review platform selector helps choose where to focus.
Copy this creative brief into a spreadsheet
Use one column for each proposed ad. The copy button copies the fields below, with tabs between them. These are planning prompts, not results from the brands above.
Field Your proposed ad
Buyer and work problem [Who will see this and what are they trying to do?]
Question the ad answers [One question only]
Customer and role [Name / title / company]
Original source [Post URL or interview file and timestamp]
Approved wording [Exact quote or approved transcript]
Claim support [Evidence for any result and its limits]
Creative format [Quote card / customer clip / narrated task]
Paid-use approval [Approver / channels / formats / approval date / end date]
Material connection [Payment / gift / employment / none identified; disclosure if needed]
Destination [Page and the next question it answers]
Review owner [Who checks wording / rights / landing page?]
Test plan [Audience / one change / outcome / review date]
If you lack a useful quote, collect one before designing the ad. Use our guide to getting customer testimonials and these testimonial questions. Ask about the customer's experience without supplying an outcome for them to endorse.
Get the wording and paid-use permission approved
Send the customer the exact creative, including the crop, caption, and destination. A website quote approval may not cover a paid video or sponsored member post.
Paid testimonial creative approval
Subject: Can we use this customer story in [channel] ads?
Hi [First Name],
We'd like to use your [quote/video/post] in [named channels] for [campaign purpose].
Here is the exact creative and wording: [preview link]. It would link to [destination], run in [regions], and be used from [start] to [end]. We'd display [name/title/company/logo].
Could you confirm the wording reflects your experience and whether you and your company approve this use? Please share any edits or limits. You can decline.
[Describe any payment, gift, discount or other connection, and the proposed disclosure.]
Please reply with approval or changes. We will keep the ad on hold until the required approvals are recorded.
Thanks,
[Your Name]
Replace every [bracketed] field before sending.
For LinkedIn member posts, also obtain the creator's sponsorship permission in Campaign Manager. LinkedIn's Thought Leader Ads guidance, checked October 21, 2026, says single-image and video Thought Leader Ads lack a CTA button. A URL can go in the introductory text. Plan the next step around the actual format.
The FTC's endorsement guidance, checked October 21, 2026, says endorsements must be honest. If a gift or payment could affect how buyers weigh a claim, disclose it. For an unusual result, back up what buyers can expect to get. A disclaimer alone doesn't do that.
Keep collection separate from campaign approval
HighAdvocacy collects customer submissions through hosted pages or a widget and routes them into an approval queue. Approved material goes into a reusable library. That gives marketing a place to find source material instead of searching scattered messages.
Your campaign owner still needs to check the customer's claim, paid-use rights, and final creative. A submission check doesn't verify every business outcome or grant advertising permission.
For customer posts, follow our LinkedIn testimonials strategy. To find gaps in your collection process, use the free review collection health check.
Choose one approved story, fill in the brief, and name the outcome you'll measure before spending. Compare qualified enquiries or signups alongside clicks. A high click rate can still send the wrong buyers to your site.
