Creative is one of the major drivers in improving ad performance. And yet most brands still expect generic creatives to pull punches.
Consumers want (and expect) personalized ads. But in the wake of numerous privacy updates and the absence of cold hard data, finding what gets more clicks means not only do you have to produce great creatives but you also need a ton of them so you can rapidly test them on your audience.
Enter creative automation.
Creative automation is the process of automating parts of the production of creative assets. And a platform that lets you do it with ease is termed a creative management platform (CMP).
What is a creative management platform?
A creative management platform is a cloud-based software tool that allows performance marketers to create, distribute and measure the performance of their digital ad campaigns.
Think of it like a mini production agency that does all the heavy lifting for you—creating thousands of ads, launching them, and offering insights into which ads are knocking it out of the park and which you should pull the plug on.
Not all CMPs are designed the same way. Some platforms allow you to only automate creative production but with platforms like Hunch, you can also employ dynamic creative optimization - a technique that combines ad elements to create a winning combination.
What are the benefits of using creative management platforms?
Aside from the obvious time and resources you can save with a CMP, here’s why you should think about investing in one:
#1 Reduced time to launch
Taking a campaign from a rough brief to launch takes time. But what might have taken you weeks to accomplish can now be done in mere days or a few hours instead.
With Hunch, a leading delivery startup creates hyper-targeted campaigns for 8 countries across 400 locations. Through a fully automated localized creative solution built on a centralized data source, the brand is able to produce 5000 image and video ads in 2 hours instead of the original 5 days it took them.
#2 Creativity at scale
With ready-to-use templates for both image and video ads, you can launch thousands of great creatives at once. And you don’t have to worry about having to painstakingly design each image or write the copy for each ad and then resize it to fit different ad platforms.
Most CMPs are also low-code or no-code platforms meaning anyone (not just the design team) can get in and start creating ads.
#3 Making changes is hassle-free
Traditionally, making changes to a campaign can lead to long email threads, tons of meetings, and a lot of context switching.
With a CMP, you can easily compare campaigns, different versions and formats and make changes in real-time. Instead of having to pull the entire ad set, you can edit within the platform and save yourself a ton of time.
#4 Analytics is no longer a mystery
A very common question that advertisers using DCO have is how to access analytics and an even bigger issue is how to interpret them the right way.
For instance, you may want to increase your revenue. Naturally, you’d think about pouring more of your ad budget into your best-performing campaigns. But here’s the thing: your best ads may not be the ones that generate more revenue. These ads are likely popular because they lead to products that are priced low.
You need a CMP platform that can not only easily allow you to access data but also offer the kind of product insights that will enable you to make the right business decisions.
#5 Personalizing at scale without losing brand consistency
Brand consistency can often be hard to achieve when you’re working across different markets and local teams. Especially when personalization may include using localized elements like regional colors, language, or locations.
With a CMP, you have full control over ad creatives so inconsistencies don’t occur. You can pull the plug on ads that don’t meet your brand guidelines or give the green signal to campaigns on the fly.
Creative management platforms + DCO = Positive ROAS
A CMP can automate creative production reducing the burden on your design and copy team. But without using dynamic creative, you only solve one of the two challenges that plague marketers trying to pull off successful ad campaigns.
What do users like? How do they engage with creatives? Does using elements of personalization result in greater CTR or less? These are all questions you can answer only when you employ DCO in your creative management platform.
Fortunately, Hunch allows you to do that with great ease. With Hunch, you can not only automate your ad production but you can also optimize your ads with DCO and see a positive return on your ad spend.