Creative Best Practices for Programmatic Ads

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Programmatic advertising allows marketers to automate the media-buying process to meet people at the right time and place in their journey. But without creative that resonates, consumers might pass right by without so much as a glance. That’s why we’ve compiled our list of best practices to help you curate programmatic ads that outperform. 

Through programmatic advertising, performance marketers can influence target audiences with compelling ad creative. Optimizing creativity for programmatic advertising helps brands and retailers alike find success with their campaigns, avoiding banner blindness and making the most of the vital ad placements available by implementing a thoughtfully designed programmatic media strategy. 

According to Statista, around 90% of customers prefer personalization when served with ads. The key to sustaining ad creative influence is to test different ad creatives regularly within the same target audience, using the data from the test to inform what creative drives the most interest.

WHY CHOOSE PROGRAMMATIC AD DELIVERY?

Your best customers are all over the internet on different platforms and devices, and programmatic makes it easy to reach them all efficiently and effectively. Whether your goal is to capitalize on impressions, boost click-through rates (CTR), or reach a lower cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand (CPM), programmatic audience targeting is the way to go. It lets you do everything required to nurture your customers all the way through to purchase – and retarget anyone left behind.

According to marketing data company eMarketer, programmatic digital display ad spending is forecasted to reach nearly $142 billion in 2023. By working with an agency partner like Adlucent to manage your programmatic game plan and design the best creatives for your campaigns, your company will be in the best position to take advantage of this vital method of media placement. No matter how you handle your display strategy, here you’ll find the basics of ad types, use cases, best practices, examples, and more to help you have a banner year for digital marketing.

PROGRAMMATIC AD TYPES

Programmatic ad creative comes in many formats. The typical display creatives that everyone has seen for ages are static banners, most commonly found in large/medium rectangles, vertical rectangles, and skyscraper placements. Other ad types within the programmatic category include in-banner video ads, video ads, native ads, and rich media ads.

For nearly the last decade, animated ads using HTML5 have been on the scene. Supported by all browsers, HTML5 offers the benefit of movement to draw the audience’s eye to display banners. According to eMarketer, on average, rich media formats outperform static banners by 267%.

PROGRAMMATIC AD CREATIVE: EVERY AD HAS ITS DAY

As we’ve highlighted above, programmatic display advertising runs the gamut from static banners to rich media site takeovers and everything in between. At Adlucent, we design all types of creatives for our clients’ diverse campaigns. A picture is worth a thousand words, and an animation is worth far more; however, every placement has a time and place. 

Most companies that run display advertising have at least some static ads running, even though animated ads are more engaging. Companies choose to do this because static ads are less expensive to produce and iterate on, and they can be highly effective when your marketing message is straightforward.

For one Adlucent client, we tested 300 ad units with two concepts, four products, four headlines, and three colors to find the top-converting variations and use our learnings to continue improving the brand’s creatives. 

Static ads are a great testing ground before investing in animated HTML5 banners, and they can also work well on their own for quick deployment, efficient testing, flash sales, and speedy calls-to-action (CTAs) (whereas HTML5s show CTAs on the last frame). 

Of course, animated HTML5 ads allow for more creative design approaches that capture interest and bring your brand to life. For one industrial supplies client, using HTML5, Adlucent showed products in action in ways that static banners would never achieve. Since the company highly values customer service and the product’s functionality and quality as key differentiators, animated display advertising has taken their performance creative to a whole new level.

For the same client, we have managed multiple marketing site takeovers for their partnership with Nascar, an opportunity that makes display advertising a ubiquitous experience for site visitors. 

PROGRAMMATIC BEST PRACTICES

To get the most out of your performance creatives, use your signature brand tone and content to remain consistent with other channels. You’ll want your messaging to match the geographic location where your ads run and use limited text while relying more on visual appeal. You can include time-sensitive promotions like sale information and special deals where applicable. Ideally, you want your ads to feature 20 words or fewer – and not even that many will fit on the smallest placements. Ensure you have one simple and strong CTA rather than muddling the message with multiple asks of your audience.

Furthermore, match the message of your ad creatives to the landing page where you’ll send viewers. Consistent messaging will facilitate a smooth user experience on the landing page that will convert your customers who initially clicked through a display campaign.

It’s best to include the most important benefits, but don’t throw in the kitchen sink. “KISS” or “keep it simple, silly” is always a great message to remember for any ad campaign, and display ads are no different. 

So that your customers don’t get tired of seeing the same old ads, you’ll want to refresh creatives often and test other elements based on data collected from previous creative testing. Display advertising creative elements to test include copy and CTAs, as well as images, layout, logo placement, and typography. You can try featuring bestsellers, different placements from your primary campaigns, and more ad creative variations when retargeting.

A PROGRAMMATIC CAMPAIGN EXAMPLE

An Adlucent programmatic client in the health tech space has seen success focusing creative on their impressive cost savings. The Adlucent team hypothesized that an emotional appeal would resonate more with our target audience. We integrated real customer testimonials into the campaign creative to test the theory. As a result, the new ads accounted for 75% of the client’s app installs and clicks during our testing period and improved campaign spend efficiency overall.

Conclusion

Programmatic is a one-stop shop for reaching exactly the right person at exactly the right time. The ability to execute and implement best practices for various creatives across specific audiences and all channels in real-time before the user shows intent to purchase allows you to influence market awareness and increase overall demand.

Brands and retailers looking to grow their audience base, cross-sell, retain current clients, and utilize data across platforms would benefit from programmatic. And optimizing programmatic ad creative can ultimately make your display strategy a success

Are you looking for a partner to help strengthen your programmatic ad presence? We’re here to help. Let’s chat.

Abby Kaplan

Abby is Head of Creative at Adlucent. An innovative thinker, she is a performance-driven creative with over 12 years of experience in marketing and about five years of experience leading creative content and design at Adlucent. She is excited about big ideas, wordplay, and kerning alike, and she is inspired by the diverse set of clients that make up the creative team roster. She believes in the power of storytelling and the value of collaboration.