The digital age gave advertisers the power of data. Advertisers could not only see how ads were performing; they could suddenly target based on specific known data points about prospects. But as targeted advertising became the norm, creative advertising took a back seat.
Targeted advertising gave advertisers more direct access to consumers ready to make a purchase, shifting advertising from a creative art to strategic science.
Now, a new shift is underway. The digital marketplace has become saturated with data-driven ads, and consumers are frustrated.
Consequently, even relevant, properly placed, data-driven ads get ignored. Or worse, targeted ads are seen as intrusive and lead consumers to block brands.
Forward-thinking brands are driving a renaissance in digital ads. They're adopting performance-creative strategies that blend data-driven insights with creativity to produce attractive, engaging, and impactful advertising.
The following concepts are shaping the creative renaissance.
Let Data Set the Stage, Not Own the Show
Consumers want creative advertising. But they also want relevance, meaning data is still extremely valuable.
Data delivers psychographics, intent signals, platform habits, and a variety of other factors that can be used to determine the foundation of performance-creative strategies. It tells advertisers who is shopping, the channels they spend time on, and the features they want, which sets the stage for developing a comprehensive performance-creative strategy.
Data-informed creativity results in messaging empowered by an understanding of what moves an audience.
As campaigns unfold, data enables advertisers to improve performance in real time, engaging with their performance-creative strategy as they would a living experiment. Tracking, assessing, and responding to performance data drives optimal impact.
Find Perfection Through Optimization
When creativity finds its way back into the mix, perfectionism can rear its ugly head. The fear of a campaign falling flat can drive advertisers to tweak obsessively in search of the perfect mix of elements. This can cause delays and added costs.
Performance-creative strategies that blend creativity and data can help you avoid the "perfect ad" trap by positioning the campaign as a work in progress. Data points the way, inspires the first iteration, and reveals how creative elements and the processes delivering them need to be adjusted to improve performance throughout the campaign.
Optimal campaigns should focus on four key elements: hook, body, proof elements, and call to action. The creative work involves developing a variety of each component and combining them in a number of different ways.
Sometimes the best hook presents a solution, while at other times it tells a relatable story. The best proof elements can be testimonials in one case and authoritative endorsements in others, but you won't know for sure until you start wrapping ads around these elements and getting them in front of consumers. The data you derive from testing each combination will point you in the direction of the "perfect" ad.
Impactful performance-creative strategies are built around the understanding that you can't develop great ads without input from your target market. They also consider that yesterday's data won't necessarily define today's market.
By treating creative campaigns as a work in progress, brands benefit even when efforts perform poorly.
Use Performance as Your Ultimate Judge
If forced to choose between strategies driven by data or driven by creativity, it's easy to understand why advertisers would choose data. Creativity is subjective; data is objective.
Performance-creative strategies make it safe to incorporate creativity because they position performance as the ultimate judge of a campaign's effectiveness. It allows the market, rather than marketers, to decide if the creative elements of a campaign work.
Performance-creative strategies also increase data value by ensuring the statistics driving decisions are current and not based on the thoughts and expectations of a market that no longer exists. This solves the problem of incomplete, inaccurate, or out-of-date data, which statistics show is a problem for 45% of marketers.
To succeed in today's marketplace, brands must meet ever-evolving consumer expectations while simultaneously competing with an ever-increasing number of competitors.
Performance-creative strategies empower brands to achieve these demands by enabling data and creativity to work in harmony, providing a performance lever that delivers measurable results.
More Resources on Advertising
How AI-Driven Creative Is Redefining B2B Advertising Performance
The New Era of Retargeting Will Help B2B Brands Thrive
Why Local and Trade Coverage Is Just as Important as National Top-Tier Press
The Power of Emotional Advertising in B2B Brand-Building: Feelings vs. Function
