See what drives ad success: AI-powered creative optimization
TL;DR
- No more guesswork: now we can understand which creative elements in your ad make it a success – or due for a refresh.
- AI-powered tagging allows for swift, seamless grouping and comparison of ads by different elements, hooks and conceptual themes.
- Easily see which ad groups truly deliver results: AppsFlyer’s Creative Optimization tool frees up time, resource and budget to scale smarter.
Element-level creative optimization
Every UA manager finds themselves staring at the same question time and again: why did this ad work?
Was it the ad’s humorous tone? The gameplay footage in the first three seconds? A catchy, chatty voiceover? Or something else entirely that you can’t necessarily spot just by glancing at the ad?
Creative teams and analysts pour tons of time and resources into trying to find the answer, drilling into each ad’s performance metrics. But rarely are we able to pinpoint the real reason for why each ad is returning those numbers – and guessing is not a strategy. The good news is that we can leave behind the mess of the guess. AppsFlyer’s Creative Optimization tool comes with AI tagging that automatically breaks down creatives into their building blocks – their DNA. We can then see exactly which elements drive performance.
Let’s take a look at three ways I’ve been able to enhance my creative strategy, and scale more winning ads.
1. AI-powered tagging
Sometimes, creative reporting can feel like detective work. Manual tagging, disconnected file names, messy folders – it’s slow, it’s error-prone, and it can bog you down.
With AppsFlyer, every creative is automatically tagged by scenes, text,, and elements. It’s an AI-powered tool that takes care of all the busywork for you, freeing up your time and brainspace to focus on the winners. You can filter ads by whatever you want – gameplay vs computer-generated imagery (CGI), music vs voiceover, user-generated content (UGC)vs cinematic trailer – and instantly compare their results.
It’s like going from blurry X-rays to a crystal-clear MRI scan of your ad performance. Now, you can compare creative families – and see which versions deserve more of your precious ad spend.
2. Element-level insights
With automated tagging, AI essentially dissects your ads frame by frame – breaking it down to the most granular level. This lets you compare performance by elements, texts, tone, and all other variables that combine together to form the final creative.
Now, you can see your ads automatically grouped in a way that lets you measure performance on an element level. You can quickly filter to compare performance between contrasting elements, such as:
- Tone: playful/humorous vs serious/dramatic
- Content: UGC vs CGI
- Timing: gameplay shown in the opening seconds vs shown towards the end
- Design: compare performance based on different characters, texts or other visuals
For example, I quickly filtered two groups of ads that featured different characters from a mobile game. Within seconds, I had a clean breakdown of CTR, CPI, and ROAS for ads that featured each character
Moving away from animation, I can also easily pull up creatives that show real people and compare performance on those. Live scenes, UGC visuals, specific text CTAs – whatever element of the ad you want to compare, it’s all at your fingertips.
This means your creative team doesn’t just see “ad A works better than ad B.” They see why. Was it the shorter runtime? The opening? The gameplay reveal? By sharing these insights directly with my designers, we save masses of time and have the assurance that our next round of creatives is built on proven winning elements – not gut feel.
3. Building smarter ads, faster
Once you see the DNA of your winning ads, you stop wasting budget on the wrong formats.
If your three best-performing ads all use humorous UGC, then double down on that creative with your designers. Cut out an underperforming group of ads and factor those elements into your future planning. And when you spot that a creative drives a much higher ROAS in Germany than it does in the US, for example – adjust your strategy regionally and reap the rewards.
This is the power of AI tagging to automatically break down your ads. You finally learn why your best ads work, and why some flop. By seeing the DNA behind the creatives, you’ll be able to make smarter decisions, faster.
It’s about turning performance data into creative briefs that work. Designers finally know what matters. UA managers finally know where to scale.
Key takeaways: AI-powered tagging to find winning ads
These three features of AppsFlyer’s Creative Optimization tool have allowed me to find winning ads more easily, by breaking down each ad to its individual building blocks. Leave guesswork behind:
- Use AI-powered tagging to see every ad dissected by element: scenes, text, characters, tone and more.
- Compare CTR, CPI, ROAS across those tags in seconds, and give access to your design team so that they can iterate faster and build smarter ads immediately.
- Budget smarter by seeing which ad elements perform best for specific audiences and geos. Scale proven creatives and cut dead weight to ensure you get the maximum return on your spend.
See how Creative Optimization can work for you
Your creative strategy shouldn’t run on gut feel and guesswork. With AppsFlyer’s Creative Optimization, you finally see why ads succeed, down to the tiniest part of their creative DNA – and use that knowledge to scale smarter. Book a demo now or speak to a member of the AppsFlyer team today.
