Creative Data for Better Ads

Creative Data. Seems like an oxymoron, but here at VidMob, it’s at the core of our mission. We’re among the few who believe that a quantitative perspective can actually inform creative decision making for the better.

Data is often used to simplify problems. So, for creatives, this can feel like a threat. Creativity is very abstract, and data is very linear. How could those two concepts ever work together?

CREATIVE DATA IS DIFFERENT. IT’S NOT USED TO DRIVE DECISION MAKING BUT TO INFORM.

Data-driven decision making is what most of us are familiar with. It uses data to literally make the decision for you. Data is the sole input and suggests exactly what to do.

Data-informed decision making brings data into a whole new realm. It’s more emotionally intelligent, educated decision making. In this case, data is one of many key inputs. Ultimately, the human makes the creative decision based on a variety of insights lifted from the data. It’s not black-and-white and allows creativity to have the final word.

CREATIVE DATA LAYS THE FRAMEWORK FOR THE SANDBOX A CREATOR GETS TO PLAY IN.

In the end, human insight is always needed to make sense of the data. The data should be a source of inspiration rather than a limitation.  Insights pulled from creative data is like the hand you’re dealt in a card game—the way you play them is the creative execution.

PERFORMANCE DATA VS. CREATIVE DATA

Performance data tells you which ads are working, while creative data tells you why those ads are working. For example, at VidMob, our model is to test and learn. Our creatives build an ad and, once the campaign goes live, we dive into the performance data to see which ads are leading the pack.

Except, we decided that wasn’t enough data to make truly intelligent creative decisions. So we partnered with Amazon to integrate their computer vision/AI software to identify creative elements within an ad—like objects, sentiment, text density, etc.

Together, these two datasets can inform powerful insights. Correlation between performance and creative gives our creators validation for their work, while also providing additional ideas and inspiration for what audiences actually want. These learnings just give creators more to play with and more opportunities to continue testing and learning.

Want to learn more about the creative data behind your ad campaigns? Come join our sandbox and get in touch!