2. 22
What if, instead of receiving specs and marching orders,
you were able to sit at the brainstorm table with your client
and media agency and come up with a campaign strategy
in partnership? What if you had access to media data and
could help shape the audience segmentation strategy for
the campaign, then use that to form creative executions
targeted to each audience segment? And what if you could
do it all without tacking on a ton more development time for
your dev team?
The concepts and recommendations underlying data-driven
creative pave the way for all of these things.
It’s 10am, and you’re about to start brainstorming
for a new display campaign. In your hand is a
media spec sheet: dozens of banner sizes, all
predetermined by the brand and media agency.
You’re sure there’s some strategy behind it, but you
have no idea what it is.
3. 3
So what is data-
driven creative?
Data-driven creative utilizes data signals from brands and
their media partners to dynamically serve ads that change
based on the audiences viewing them and the contexts and
environments in which they appear.
GILT GROUPE
3
Data-driven creative is the ability for Gilt Groupe to show merchandise in their ads that matches specific search
queries their interested customers have already searched for.
4. 4
L’OREAL
ROYAL BANK OF CANADA
Or for L’oreal to show entirely different ad units
to women who have children vs. those who don’t
and test multiple product offers (or none at all),
all without having to build new ads because every
execution uses the same creative template.
Or for RBC Bank to run copy tests for
awareness headlines vs. product benefit
headlines and learn which ones perform
better for which audiences.
5. 5
Programmatic advertising accounts for 67% of all
digital display ad sales1
. When you consider that
data-driven creative is the creative powerhouse
behind programmatic, and that 70% of a media
campaign’s performance hinges on the creative2
,
it’s clear that knowing how to build data-driven
creative is a must for any agency with an eye
toward the future.
1. e-marketer, 2015
2. Internal data, Google Media campaigns, October 2015
Why is data-driven
creative important?
5
Global programmatic
ad spend is expected to reach
$
21.6B
in 2016.
“Programmatic advertising lets you
continually elevate creative in a
way that’s almost impossible with
traditional campaigns.”
- Chris Pierantozzi, Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi LA
6. 6
Closer collaboration with the brand marketer
and media agency, leading to stronger working
relationships and a better seat at the table.
Access to data about audiences and contexts that
can provide inspiration for cool new ideas.
A better understanding of how each creative
element in a campaign is performing and how
they perform in combination, which can heighten
creative knowledge, elevate the role of copywriters
and asset creators, and make for stronger, more
effective campaigns.
Getting on board with data-driven creative offers new
opportunities for agencies, such as:
“Today, data driven personalization is all
about bringing real time relevance to the
user. When we populate content in ads
based on what we already know about
users-- what they are interested in, where
they’ve been, what they’ve considered--
we can further drive interest proving our
product is for a person like them.”
- Kat Ott, Group Program Director, Huge
1
2
3
The real power of data-driven creative lies in the knowledge it affords agencies: not only of the why
behind the campaign strategy, but of what their work is really able to accomplish.
7. 7
How do I get
started?
Recently, DoubleClick partnered with several global brands and
their creative, media, and production agencies to determine
best practices for data-driven campaigns. The result was a
five-phase process that we outline in detail in The Creative
Process for Programmatic: A Guide for Marketers. To compile
this companion piece specifically for creative agencies, we
turned to agencies already excelling in this area:
F A N C Y P A N T S G R O U P
7
Fancy Pants Group is a digital creative studio
dedicated to producing innovative, cross screen
and dynamic executions with notable agencies,
publishers, and brands.
HUGE is a digital agency providing strategy,
marketing, design, and technology services to
Fortune 100 companies.
Saatchi & Saatchi is a global communications and
advertising agency network with 140 offices in 76
countries and over 6,500 staff.
8. 8
Throughout this toolkit we’ll use one of the test cases from
our research, Gilt Groupe, to illustrate the five phases of
data-driven creative. Gilt Groupe is an online retailer that
offers discounted fashion and luxury goods to members.
“Traditionally, the creative
process starts with
multiple ideas boiling
down to one winner.
Data-driven campaigns
allow you to expand the
creative process, and
cultivate more than
one idea.”
- Robby Rigano, COO, Fancy Pants Group
8
9. 9
Multiple agencies. One team.
Data-driven creative works best when multiple agencies come together to work as a single team.
These agencies and players involved may include:
Generally, the brand manager on the brand side will act as the point person for the
entire campaign. However, each agency should designate their own point person as
well: generally, an account manager or digital producer whose responsibilities include:
• Communicating with other agencies and consolidating feedback
• Scheduling regular check-ins with brand and agency teams
• Monitoring schedules and timelines
• Choosing a communication system (such as e-mail, Basecamp,Trello, or Slack)
that all team members across all agencies can agree to use
• Brand manager
• Digital marketer
• Planner/buyer
• Account manager
• Analyst
• Ad ops team
• Strategist
• Copywriter
• Designer
• Account manager
• Developer
• Tech lead
• Account manager
• Digital producer
Brand Media agency
Creative agency Production agency
10. 10
The 20% rule
When starting out with data-driven creative, agencies should
budget at least 20% more time and financial resources than
they would for traditional campaigns. Budgeting this up front
can help in the long run, as you’re likely to save on costly
revisions and poor campaign performance. The extra 20% is
meant to cover:
• The increased time spent collaborating with brand
and agency partners
• The ramp-up period required to understand the data signals
and past campaign performance for the campaign
• Developing the messaging and creative matrix, creating a
template, and setting up a dynamic creative feed (if working
on a dynamic creative campaign)
• Additional time to execute the soft launch
Note: this figure may fluctuate for campaigns that are more or less complex. However,
once you begin to master dynamic creative campaigns, you may find that you’re able
to run them in less time and with fewer resources.
10
11. 11
Phase 1: Gather insights from
available data sources
This phase is particularly exciting for agencies: now you
can be part of the discussion about data signals, and can
contribute your own expertise about how users respond to
creative and behave within digital environments.
The 5-phase
process from
an agency
perspective
“Understanding available data signals
and search behavior can spark new
creative ideas and concepts.”
- Robby Rigano, COO, Fancy Pants Group
11
12. 12
Audience signals: Information about the types of people you’re
trying to target
Media signals: Information about the content your user is
looking at where your message might appear
Environmental signals: External factors that may influence the
mindset of your users when they’re exposed to your marketing
Signal type What it tells us about the audience
Demographics Audience characteristics like age
and gender
Affinity segments Users who have demonstrated a qualified and
recent interest in a
given topic
In-market segments Users who are intending to buy certain products
or services in the near future
Similar audiences New and qualified consumers who share
interests with your existing audiences
Website analytics Based on user interactions on your site like
purchase history and previous pages visited
Search marketing data Users who clicked on your search ad, signaling
intent
Social behavior If a user has shared, liked, favorited your brand
CRM Users from offline channels like store visits
Signal type What it tells us about the page
the ad is on
Keyword contextual targeting Keyword content on page where ad
is running
Category targeting Website or app category where ad is running
Media placement Location of your ad on a publication, for
example sports page vs. news page
Data from publisher Information from the publisher about the
page your ad is on, for example, travel
destination page
Signal type What it tells us about the viewer’s
environment
Device information The type of device the person is using: desktop,
tablet, smartphone. The operating system of the
user’s device: Android vs IOS
Location User’s country, city, postal code, or store
proximity
Event information Information about an event happening at the
same time your ad is seen like sporting events,
TV schedules, financial markets, weather
condition
Understanding data signals
1 2 3
13. 13
Keyword contextual targeting Keyword content on page where ad is running Best lipstick; healthy dog food
Category targeting Category or app where ad is running Health; music; news
Media placement Location of your ad on a publisher property Sports page; news page; homepage
Data from publisher Information from the publisher about the page
your ad is on
Travel destination page; special content hub
Device information The type of device and operating system your
audience is using
Desktop; smartphone; tablet; Android; iOS
Location The location of the user when viewing your ad Chicago; Alabama; 11211
Event information Information about an event occurring at the
same time as your ad is seen
Football game; snowstorm; stock market dip
Media
signals
Audience
signals
Environmental
signals
Signal type What it tells us about the audience Examples
Demographics Audience characteristics and attributes Age; gender; household income
Affinity segments Users who have demonstrated a qualified and
recent interest in a given topic
Dog lovers; thrill seekers; luxury shoppers;
technophiles
In-market segments Users who are intending to buy certain
products or services in the near future
In-market for a family car; in-market for a smartphone
Similar audiences New and qualified consumers who share
interests with your existing users
Fashion enthusiasts; people who have purchased a
monthly subscription
Website analytics Based on user interactions on your site such
as purchase history and previous pages visited
Purchased in the past month; visited a product page
but didn’t purchase
Search marketing data Users who clicked on your ad, signaling intent Search ad Click-through rate; conversion rate
Social behavior If a user has shared, liked, or favorited your
brand
Twitter follows; Facebook post shares; Instagram likes
CRM Users from offline channels such as store
visits
Loyalty program member; recently used discount code
14. 14
Previous campaigns Audience insights Additional sources
Creative performance: which format types
have provided the most engagement and
conversions for your brand?
1st party data: marketer-owned and
typically collected from brand websites
and ad creative using pixels. Can also
be collected in the offline environment
through loyalty cards, call centers or store
transactions
Marketing research for deeper insight
about your users
Audience performance: which audience
targeting strategies have worked well
previously?
3rd party data sellers::companies that
aggregate data and resell it to marketers.
Focus groups or brand lift surveys
you may have done to assess how
campaigns affect brand perception.
Media performance: which media tactics
work well for your brand?
Data from media partners: for example,
Google provides access to demographic,
affinity, and in-market audience data
Expertise and best practices from your
agency partners.
Device performance: which devices
provide the best reach for your target?
Data from paid search campaigns: provide
insight into user intent
Industry tools such as Google Trends.
Purchase data: how have previous
campaigns affected purchase behavior?
Information on your content strategies
that can aid in the creative ideation
process.
Where data signals come from
14
15. 15
Phase 1 in action: Gilt Groupe used three
different insights and signals to devise
their campaign strategy:
Insight Where it came from Who provided it
Gilt has four different content
sections of their website, so we
used those sections to segment the
audience and drive people to relevant
areas of the website
Gilt’s website Gilt marketing manager
Google search trends helped us
determine which types of products
from the Gilt website would be most
interesting to viewers within each
audience segment
Top search keywords report in
DoubleClick Campaign Manager
Idea came from Gilt’s marketing
manager; media team pulled he
report
Because Gilt already had Google
Search Ads running on select
keywords, we built a lower funnel
strategy to retarget people who
clicked on those ads, but never
signed up for a membership
Gilt’s search advertising campaign Gilt’s search marketing team
16. 16
Phase 2: The all-hands
kick-off
The all-hands kick-off meeting gets all participating agencies
and brand partners together to develop a working digital brief.
Everyone from your agency should try to attend, as this is a
key time to get questions answered and start collaborating
with the team. At the most productive kick-offs, the full
team will begin to map out the campaign’s structure on a
whiteboard, taking data signals, campaign goals, and media
plans into account.
Who is your target audience and what are your initial thoughts on segmentation?
What type of messaging do you want to communicate to each segment?
What type of assets do you have available for each segment?
What 1st party data do you have access to?
What signals can be used to reach and segment your audience?
Do you have key learnings you can share from previous campaigns?
What platforms do you intend to target?
What are your success metrics/KPIs? What will we define as a conversion?
What type of formats are you planning to run? Display, mobile, video, etc?
How long will the campaign be running and what is the expected reporting/optimization schedule?
The Fancy Pants Group master checklist of questions for the all-hands kick-off:
16
17. 17
In the room:
• Gilt Groupe marketing manager and marketing director
• Creative production agency strategist, dynamic specialist,
designers and developers
• Data analysts
Key goal:
• Driving Gilt membership and subsequent online purchase
KPI:
• New member sign-ups to the Gilt website
Target audiences:
• Women interested in fashion
• Women interested in home decor
• Women interested in kids and parenting
• Men interested in fashion
Full decision tree for Gilt’s campaign strategy
Targeting strategy Audience-based strategy:
Uses affinity lists, in-market audiences, and 1st
party remarketing lists from Gilt’s website
Search-to-display remarketing:
Uses remarketing lists built from Gilt’s search
advertising campaigns, for specific top keywords
Creative strategy Women:
Dresses
Sandals
Handbag
Generic
Men:
Jeans
Tuxedo
Shoes
Generic
Kids/maternity:
Maternity dresses
Baby dresses
Maternity clothing
Generic
Home:
Furniture
Headboard
Bedding
Generic
Creative imagery test Lifestyle imagery Product imagery
Creative format test In-page ad format Interactive ad format
Copy tests End frame copy:
“The Best Brands”
“The Best Designers”
CTA:
“Shop Now”
“See More”
Phase 2 in action: Gilt Groupe’s all-
hands kick-off call
18. 18
Similarly, the creative template provides parameters for variables such as:
Character counts for copy, Length of animations. Size and location of images
Within those parameters, the team can experiment with different headlines,
images, and types of animations, as well as other factors.
Copy
Video
Images
Landing Pages
Call to
action
Logo
Phase 3: Design and develop
the creative
In this phase, the creative production agency takes control.
This is where you’ll design the creative template and develop
the dynamic creative feed (if you’ve decided to use a full
dynamic creative strategy), which work together to form the
functional backbone of the campaign.
The creative template
Much like the blueprint for a house, this serves as the structure
of the ad unit. When you use a blueprint, variables such as the
type of flooring and color of the exterior may change, but the
“bones” of the house will remain the same.
18
19. 19
The dynamic creative feed
This houses the creative assets that will get plugged into the
creative template, as well as the logic that dictates which assets
will be served to which viewers based on your data signals and
campaign strategy. Using a feed to control your dynamic campaign
strategy gives you maximum flexibility, allowing you to quickly and
easily make changes to your creative on the fly.
THE MOST POPULAR CREATIVE ELEMENTS THAT YOU CAN MAKE DYNAMIC INCLUDE:
Copy
(Headlines,
prices, CTA)
Images
(Product,
Background,
button)
Object color Exit URL Font Video
“The creative template does the heavy
lifting you couldn’t do in social and
other channels.”
- Chris Pierantozzi, Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi LA
20. 20
Track your lift
When testing two or more variables, it’s important to pinpoint which
variable results in the lift. That’s why we recommend A/B testing no
more than one variable at a time, with equal sample sizes for each.
Once you’re able to track a proven winner, you can pivot the campaign
to test other variables.
In the example below, you’ll see that the Gilt campaign ran completely
separate tests for the CTA and body copy, allowing them to see exactly
where the lift occurred.
Keep it simple
When you’re first working with data-driven creative, plan to keep the
concept simple and start with just one or two variables to test. Based
on your learnings, you can optimize and add other elements later on.
Understand dependent elements
Dynamic elements may sometimes clash in unexpected ways.
For example, if static text is white and one of the dynamic background
images is ivory, the text becomes unreadable. Always test how
dynamic elements will perform in tandem and have fixes at the ready,
such as making text color variable dependent on background image.
Follow best practices
Best practices for dynamic creative sometimes differ from those
for traditional banner campaigns. You can find a full description of
dynamic creative design best practices here.
20
Creative development
best practices
The agency-approved tips below can help you work efficiently and produce cleaner,
more creative work during this crucial phase.
A/B
21. 21
Phase 3 in action: Gilt Groupe’s
creative variations
The Gilt campaign used a multi-pronged creative approach
to reach users at all stages of their consideration process.
First, we used the website’s four merchandise sections to
determine which types of merchandise would show in
the ads:
• Women’s fashion
• Men’s fashion
• Home goods
• Kids and parenting
We then built ads around the three top-performing
keywords from a previous Gilt display campaign for each
segment. For men, these were: shoes, tuxedos, and jeans.
For women, we built ads for dresses, shoes and handbags.
We also created a "generic" ad image with a mix of
merchandise for all four groups.
IMAGERY: DRESSES, SANDALS, HANDBAGS, GENERIC
FRAME ONE FRAME TWO
WOMEN CATEGORY TESTMEN CATEGORY TEST
FRAME ONE
IMAGERY: JEANS, TUXEDO, SHOES, GENERIC
FRAME TWO
(Example: Men’s Jeans, lifestyle) (Example: Dresses, lifestyle)
21
22. 22
For users who were likely to be interested in Gilt but may
not know about the site, we looked at audiences with
aligned interests, such as fashion and clothing, or with
similar characteristics to Gilt’s existing customers. We
showed all four creative executions on random rotation to
everyone who fell into the segment: for instance, a woman
might see the shoe creative, the dress creative, the handbag
creative or a generic creative.
Finally, we had a strategy for audiences who were already
aware of Gilt. Since Gilt was running a search campaign at
the time, if someone searched for something, saw a Gilt
ad in the search results, clicked through to their website
but then left before signing up, Gilt could reach them again
with a relevant ad unit. Since we already had three creative
executions that were each tailored to a specific keyword,
we could show them to people who had searched for the
relevant item. For example, a woman who searched for a
dress would later see the ad unit that contained a dress.
For all other search queries, we showed them the generic
ad creative that contained a mixture of merchandise for the
given segment.
HOME CATEGORY TEST
IMAGERY: FURNITURE, HEADBOARD, BEDDING, GENERIC
FRAME THREE FRAME FOURFRAME ONE FRAME TWO
22
23. 23
Phase 4: QA, traffic and launch
This phase is a key integration point between the creative
agency, which leads the QA process, and the media agency,
which leads trafficking and launch.
Which platforms are integrating?
If you’re not using an end-to-end solution, make sure
that your buy-side, sell-side, and creative platforms are
integrating correctly and not interfering with each other.
Which updates are being made, and when?
Communication between the creative agency’s
development team and the media agency is crucial. Note
how and when campaign updates will be made, and who
will oversee them.
Spotlight: QA certification with DoubleClick
The QA certification process with DoubleClick takes you
through the most important elements of conducting a
thorough QA. Education and certification are done online,
on your own time, making it easy for busy professionals.
Conducting the QA
Make sure to ask the following questions:
Which specific data signals will be used as triggers in
the feed?
Make sure these signals are inserted correctly in your dynamic
feed and are triggering creative with all key elements in place.
24. 24
Check that the proper
creative is being served.
Keep a close eye out for
backup images or other
creative elements, which
may find their way in as you
transition from staging
to serving.
Review how the creative
looks in context.
Make sure everything is lining
up properly and rendering
correctly—and as long as
you’re at it, give the copy one
more solid proofread.
Ensure that the correct
metrics are tracking.
Have your media agency pull
reports at both the campaign
level and the dynamic
creative level to gain a bird's-
eye-view of your campaign,
as well as a sense of which
dynamic elements are
performing best.
Check your
impressions.
Your media strategy
should dictate what type of
impressions are served, and
how many of each. Check
that you’re meeting these
impression goals; if you’re
lacking a certain type of
impressions, you may have a
trafficking issue.
The soft launch
In a soft launch, you’ll run your campaign for a short amount
of time (experts recommend 4-7 days) at a minimal daily
budget (as low as $10 day). Use this time to look for bugs
and make sure everything is performing correctly:
21 3 4
24
25. 25
F A N C Y P A N T S G R O U P
F A N C Y P A N T S G R O U P
Organize test
strategies
Execute campaigns
across formats,
channels, screens
Measure for impact
Full-funnel unified reporting, site
analytics, A/B testing
Design compelling
creative
Reach audiences
across formats,
channels, screens
Phase 4 in action: Gilt Groupe used Google Web Designer and the
DoubleClick Digital Marketing Platform to execute their data-driven creative campaign:
26. 26
Conduct an optimization meeting
Go over the reports and see what’s been working so far and
where you can optimize. This should be a cross-agency meeting,
similar to the all-hands kick-off. Since some optimizations
are on the media level and others are creative, so stakeholder
communication is key.
Use your dynamic template
and creative feed
Because you already developed these in Phase 3, refining your
work is now as simple as updating the creative feed and using it
to input new elements into the creative template. In some cases,
the creative template may need to shift to accommodate new
creative variables.
Go beyond CTR
Data-driven creative allows you to deep-dive into metrics
beyond CTR, such as engagement, conversion, and purchase
intent. Closely track how your KPIs may have shifted since you
first developed the creative brief, and how your learnings have
changed since the beginning of the campaign.
Always ask why
It isn’t enough just to understand what is working in the
campaign. Always ask why. This takes you beyond observation
and into insight, which can generate powerful new ideas for
current and future campaigns.
All agency partners take equal responsibility during this
phase. The media agency is responsible for monitoring
reports and sharing them weekly with the team, and
everyone will pitch in to help make changes on the fly.
During this phase, it’s important to:
Phase 5: Optimize and learn
“The initial launch is just the beginning. The success
of the campaign depends on how well you learn and
optimize from both a media and creative perspective.
That’s the fun part!”
- Robby Rigano, COO, Fancy Pants Group
26
27. 27
Learnings
Future optimizations
• Test outperformed control for male segment by 80%
• While CTA and end frame copy tests drove more clicks, it had minimal impact on
conversion. Test copy variants in isolation
• Display creative served as a good testing ground for potential new segments:
men, home, kids
• Re-use the search-to-display targeting strategy for an activation campaign — don’t have
to remove people who have already registered so get more reach + good performance
• Rethink mobile strategy for prospecting campaigns. Figure out a way to buy on mobile
inventory in addition to desktop
• Re-use the dynamic template, but focus on the women and men’s segments and get rid
of home and kids
• Leverage learnings from previous campaigns on best way to display merchandise
• Test one creative variable at a time
27
Phase 5 in action: Learn
and optimize
Gilt Groupe learned that their new middle funnel search-to-
display targeting strategy worked really well! They also saw
great performance for the men’s segment specifically.
28. 28
Taking your agency into the future
with data-driven advertising
Just as the data-driven creative process is designed to provide valuable
learnings about each campaign, it also offers insight into the process itself. You
may find that after a few dynamic creative campaigns, you’ll see more savings in
time and effort, and your teams will discover more flexibility and freedom to be
truly creative and strategic.
The fun really begins once you become accustomed to using the dynamic feed
and creative template and working more closely with your brand and media
agency partners. Then you can start to take risks, experiment, and learn even
more about what really makes advertising work and users tick.
Becoming an expert in data-driven campaigns can also give your agency a
competitive advantage. By mastering the new process and embracing a more
scientific and collaborative approach to advertising, you’re positioning yourself
as a leader in the digital space, willing to take risks and realize greater rewards.
The future of advertising is here. Are you ready to be a part of it?
“This is simply the future of advertising.
The better you know it and the more you
understand, the more valuable you’ll be to
your clients.”
- Chris Pierantozzi, Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi LA
28
30. 30
Proper planning is paramount for project success. Take the time to develop a
detailed brief with input from all project partners. Start-to-finish collaboration is key.
Don’t rush it. Dynamic campaigns require at least 20% more time and resources than
traditional display campaigns. But don’t worry, it’s well worth it.
Know your roles. Clearly outline key points of contact to streamline communications.
Outline roles and responsibilities for media and development and creative teams,
especially for feed development and optimizations.
Give the team the info they need to get creative. Educate everyone on data sources
available, learnings from previous campaigns and user behavior.
Concept creative around meaningful KPIs. Dynamic campaigns are about so much
more than CTR. Decide what you want users to do, and set up your KPIs (and build
your creative) accordingly. Consider metrics like in-banner engagement, view-through
activity, and cross-device conversions.
If you have an offer, flaunt it. Offer-based ads perform best when you don’t build
in the key messaging and imagery—just get right to it.
Don’t over-segment. If you have too many iterations, you could face reduced
impression levels per test and end up with statistically insignificant results that
make it difficult to optimize.
Don’t go font crazy. Limit the number of fonts used and try to utilize cloud based
fonts (don’t worry—there are lots of great ones available these days) to save file
size.
Schedule regular check-ins for each project phase with media, creative, and
development to discuss project status and ensure partners are aligned on key
initiatives.
Allow time for a soft launch. Give yourself a two to five day buffer, depending
on the complexity of the campaign. This will help ensure that everything is
functioning as planned before your full media buy begins.
Ten tips for building data-driven creative
2
1 6
7
8
9
10.
3
4
5
These recommendations were put together by Fancy Pants Group, based on their experience building the campaigns for the research project.
31. 31
Layer comps allow you to easily
view and manipulate multiple
campaign treatments in a single
Photoshop file.
Visual matrices give creative
teams a sense of the scale of
dynamic creative elements
involved in a campaign, and
how they may be incorporated
into real creative executions.
They’re a good alternative to a
data-heavy dynamic creative
feed when communicating
with visually-minded creative
teams.
Wireframes help illustrate to
your client and other teams
how the creative template
will be laid out. You may want
to create two wireframes: a
“before” and “after” to show how
the template has changed over
the course of the campaign.
Google Web Designer is a free
HTML5 authoring tool that
developers can use to build
HTML5 ad creatives. It has a
dynamic creative workflow
built into the tool to help you
build better data-driven creative
strategies.
DoubleClick Digital Marketing
Platform combines audience
insights, creative solutions, and
measurement in one end-to-
end platform. Understand your
audience with unified insights,
reach them wherever they are in
the moment, and measure what
matters so you can make better
decisions for your campaign,
virtually in real-time.
Google Dynamic Feed Validator
is a chrome extension you can
add to your Google Sheets, to
make sure your dynamic feed is
free of formatting and content
errors before it’s uploaded
Using the right tools can make the creative and production process run more smoothly.
Consider adding these to your arsenal.
Tool for success
33. Terms
A
D
I
B
C
Audience segment
Data signal
Attribution tools
Dynamic
creative template
Brand safety
Dynamic feed
Conversions
Dynamic
optimization
Creative variable
Inventory
Cross-device
A user sub-group based on
defined criteria such as age,
gender, location, interests, needs,
behavioral patterns, etc.
Information about your audience
or their context that can influence
your campaign.
Reporting tools that allow teams
to attribute credit for a campaign’s
performance to specific elements
within the campaign.
The creative template that provides
the structure into which dynamic
creative elements will be fed.
Brand safety helps ensure that ads
that are displayed are appropriate,
safe and relevant to viewers.
Houses the creative assets that
will get plugged into the creative
template, as well as the logic that
dictates which assets will be served
to which viewers based on data
signals and campaign strategy.
Clicks on an ad that lead directly
to user behavior deemed valuable,
such as a purchase, sign up, page
view, or lead.
An algorithm that “learns” which
variables perform best, taking clicks
or conversions into account. It then
automatically serves the higher-
performing creative more often.
A creative element in a campaign
that can change based on data
signals (examples: headline,
background image, CTA button).
The ad placements a publisher
has available within a specified
timeframe.
Able to live across electronic
devices such as desktop, mobile,
and tablet.
34. O
K
P R
KCT (Keyword
Contextual Targeting)
KPI (Key
Performance Indicator)
OKR (Objectives and
Key Results)
Post-view Reporting suite
ROI (Return on
investment)
Used to match keyword-targeted
ads (also referred to as automatic
placements) to sites within the
Google Display Network.
A performance metric used to
evaluate a campaign’s success
(examples: CTR, engagement, view-
through)
A method of defining and tracking
objectives and their outcomes.
Conversions in which a user saw,
but did not click, an ad.
The reports that a media agency
is able to pull for a campaign’s
performance.
The value of a business initiative,
such as an ad campaign, relative to
its cost.
S
V
Search-to-display
remarketing Sample size Soft launch
View-through
A remarketing tactic that allows
advertisers to serve display ads to
users based on terms the user has
searched.
The number of impressions served
with each iteration of an ad.
A soft launch allows a campaign
to be run for a short amount of
time at a minimal daily budget,
during which time the team makes
sure that everything is performing
correctly.
Conversions in which a user saw,
but did not click, an ad.