Does an ad appeal more when we adapt it to the situation? A dynamic creative test in an awareness campaign

What is dynamic creative

Dynamic creative is a banner whose text and image adapt to the situation in which a person sees it. We prepare the variants in a table (a feed) and the system picks the one that fits each viewer at that moment. Raining? The banner knows. Friday afternoon? It announces the start of the weekend. The ad then feels more relevant, so people should notice it more easily and remember it better.

What we tested

A fashion and footwear e-shop wanted to strengthen brand awareness in the autumn. In the same campaign, we ran regular static banners against dynamic ones that reacted to the weather, the time of day and the day of the week. The test ran for 55 days in two formats: classic banners and mobile branding.

How we evaluated it

We looked at two things, and each tells us something different:

• Awareness metrics: mainly viewability (how many ads had the chance to actually be seen) and the time people spent with the viewable ad. They show whether the ad had the chance to be seen and how much time people spent with it.
• CTR: the share of people who clicked on the ad. It is not an awareness metric, it belongs more to consideration, and it doesn’t tell us much about the campaign’s impact on awareness. But it does show the level of engagement with the ad: how many people it interested enough to click.

Results: slightly higher viewability, considerably higher CTR

Awareness metrics improved slightly. Dynamic ads were almost 2 percentage points more viewable, and the time people spent with them stayed close to the static ads (a difference within 5%).

CTR, however, improved considerably. People clicked 12% more often overall and 15% more often in mobile branding. The cost per thousand impressions stayed similar, so the cost per click was lower too. In mobile branding that works out to roughly 6,500 visits per CZK 100,000 instead of 5,300, or 1,200 more visitors for the same budget.

Why we look at CTR even though it isn’t an awareness metric

In an awareness campaign CTR is not the goal, and it cannot measure memorability. For dynamic creative it is still relevant for three reasons:

• It confirms relevance. Personalisation only makes sense when the ad genuinely fits the viewer’s situation. A higher CTR is a good sign that it did: people engaged with the dynamic ad more than with a generic one, and it interested them enough to click.
• It supports memorability. An ad that attracts interest is remembered better, and it is reasonable to expect that it also resonates better with those who didn’t click. We didn’t measure memorability directly, but CTR suggests we are heading in the right direction.
• It brings people to the website. Traffic is not the goal of an awareness campaign, but dynamic creative delivers it as a bonus. For the same budget it brings more people to the website.

How to verify the benefit in your campaign

• Run static and dynamic side by side. In the same campaign and on the same days. A “before and after” comparison would mostly measure seasonality.
• Compare the same format and size. Otherwise differences between formats will mislead you.
• Give the test time. The first weeks fluctuate; in our case the lead settled after about six weeks. Evaluate the whole period, not individual weeks.
• Evaluate awareness and engagement separately. Viewability and time on screen tell you whether the ad had the chance to be seen. CTR tells you how much people engaged with it. Whether they remembered the brand is decided only by a brand lift study.

When dynamic creative pays off

• The message can react to the situation. Weather, time of day or day of the week. All three variants ended up above static in our test, so start with the one that fits your range.
• You don’t need complicated preparation. A few ready-made messages for different situations are enough, such as rain, evening or Friday.
• You want the ad not just to reach people, but to interest them. Personalisation supports exactly this combination.

Dynamic creative, then, is not just about a smarter banner. It is a way to get more out of an awareness campaign: more interest in the ad, more visitors to the website and data you can learn from. This test shows that it can be measured fairly and without complications. We design, build, deploy and evaluate dynamic creatives. If you suspect your campaign could do more, we would be happy to take a look and tell you what could be improved.