---
title: "A swipe file template you can steal"
description: "A ready-made swipe file structure for marketers, designers, PMs and devs: the folders, the tags, the note to write on every save, and the weekly routine."
source: https://savepad.app/blog/swipe-file-template
---
[Blog](https://savepad.app/blog) · 29 October 2025

# A swipe file template you can steal (folders, tags and the lot)

A ready-made swipe file structure for marketers, designers, PMs and devs: the folders, the tags, the note to write on every save, and the weekly routine.

*A Savepad swipe file set up with folders for paid social, landing pages, lifecycle email and onboarding, and tags down the side*

**TLDR**

- Copy the folder list for your job, the tag list, and the three-line note. That’s the template.
- Folders are for how work arrives (a brief for an ad, a landing page, an email). Tags are for what makes a save interesting (the hook, the pattern, the trick).
- Everything lands in Unsorted first. Sort once a week, ten minutes.
- Resist adding more folders. Eight is plenty. Twenty means you’ve built a filing system you’ll stop using by March.

## The one rule

Folders answer “what is this”. Tags answer “why did I save it”. If you remember nothing else, remember that, and you’ll never have a folder called `Landing pages - dark - SaaS - good ones`.

## Folders, by job

Pick the list that’s closest to you. Mix them if you do more than one job (hi, founders).

**Marketers**

```
`Unsorted Paid social Landing pages Pricing pages Lifecycle email Launches Social posts Competitors`
```

**Designers**

```
`Unsorted Heroes Navigation Pricing tables Empty states and 404s Type Colour Motion`
```

**Product managers**

```
`Unsorted Onboarding Checkout Upgrade prompts Settings Cancellation Competitors Research`
```

**Developers**

```
`Unsorted Snippets Docs worth copying Repos Talks Config Reading`
```

*A Savepad swipe file with the marketer folders from this template: paid social, landing pages, lifecycle email and onboarding*

The marketer version of the template, set up in Savepad. Nested folders are there if you need them. You probably don't yet.

## Tags, by what makes it good

Start with these and add your own when you notice a pattern. Lowercase, hyphens, short.

**What it’s doing:** `#urgency`, `#social-proof`, `#objection`, `#curiosity`, `#offer`, `#before-after`, `#specific-number`

**How it looks:** `#ugc`, `#plain-text`, `#illustration`, `#product-shot`, `#dark`, `#type-led`

**How it’s built:** `#one-cta`, `#long-form`, `#carousel`, `#video`, `#sequence`

**Status:** `#steal-this`, `#used`

That last one matters. When you actually use a reference, tag it `#used`. After a year you’ll know which saves earned their place and which were just pretty.

## The note on every save

Three lines, max. Nobody writes more, so don’t pretend you will.

```
`Why: the price is the hook, first four words Steal: lead with the number, not the feature Context: Meta ad, running since March`
```

“Why” is what made you stop. “Steal” is the part you’d actually reuse. “Context” is anything you won’t remember later: where, when, how long it ran.

## The weekly routine

1. **Save everything to Unsorted.** From your phone, from your laptop, from the ad library. Don’t sort while you save.
2. **Friday, ten minutes.** Open Unsorted. For each save: folder, a tag or two, a three-line note if it deserves one. Or delete it. Deleting is allowed.
3. **Monthly, five minutes.** Look at your tags. Merge `#pricingpage` into `#pricing`. Kill any tag with one save in it.

## Setting it up in Savepad

In Savepad it takes about five minutes:

1. Make a space called Work (or Swipe file).
2. Add the folders from your list. A save can sit in more than one folder, so an ad that’s also a competitor goes in both.
3. Add your tags as you go. They’re per space and work across every folder.
4. Save things by pasting links, dropping files, or forwarding to [your Savepad email address](https://savepad.app/docs/save-from-your-phone). Add `+paid-social` to the address and it goes straight into that folder.
5. Friday: [triage mode](https://savepad.app/docs/triage-mode) shows Unsorted one save at a time, with a key per folder.

The Free plan takes 150 saves, which is plenty to find out if this setup works for you. [Pricing](https://savepad.app/pricing) has the plans, and [features](https://savepad.app/features) has everything else it does.

If you’d rather use Notion or a spreadsheet, the same structure works. [Savepad vs Notion](https://savepad.app/compare/notion) goes through where Notion works for this and where it falls apart. And if you want to see a real one, [swipe file examples](https://savepad.app/blog/swipe-file-examples) has a few, including mine.

[Join the waitlist](https://savepad.app/#waitlist)

## Read these next

- [Swipe file examples from marketers, designers and devs: What real swipe files look like: the public ones worth bookmarking, and how marketers, designers, PMs and devs set up their own.](https://savepad.app/blog/swipe-file-examples)
- [What is a swipe file? And how to build one you'll use: TLDR: A swipe file is where you save every example you've seen and liked, so you can reference it in the future.](https://savepad.app/blog/what-is-a-swipe-file)
- [Facebook and Instagram ad examples, sorted by what they're doing: Ten ad formats that keep showing up in the Meta Ad Library for months at a time, what makes each one work, and how to make your own version.](https://savepad.app/blog/facebook-ad-examples)