Which of the following ads performs better? The one showing a man or a woman? Blue or red background? Logo or no logo? Is the product being advertised affecting these answers?

There’s an ongoing debate between being Creative & being Scientific (see the 5 elements of great Marketing for more info), when it comes to designing ad creatives and subsequently producing campaign results. This debate is being fueled by the advent of digital marketing/advertising practices & technology platforms capable of capturing a multitude of data points ( yes this falls under the Big Data landslide !!! ) and using them in real time to deliver dynamic / personalized messaging to the consumers…

I’ve yet to see a better treatment of this subject than RocketFuel’s “The Definitive Guide to Creative Optimization” which is exactly what the title suggests 😉

Deep dive to the full report to figure out – among others:

– Which background color performs best?

– Are animated creatives better than static ones? What’s the optimal animation length?

– Should you include human faces in your ads and if so is it better to depict men, women, or both?

– Is showing the actual product making any difference?

– Where should you place your company logo?

On top of generic best practices / guidelines – as measured in the research sample data set – the guide also provides very interesting per vertical ( it includes detailed info on Automotive, Entertainment, Travel, Media, Consumer Tech, Telecom, Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail, Dining, Advocacy, Education, Home & Garden, Business to Business, Financial Services, Health & Beauty, Pharma ) trends.

The actual results should be handled with caution, to quote the guide itself:

“THIS DATA DOESN’T GUARANTEE BETTER PERFORMANCE The information presented here is by no means exhaustive. There are many other factors that affect creative performance that either weren’t measured or cannot yet be measured, in addition to a myriad of external factors that can affect performance. That said, we liken these insights to learning the statistics behind Blackjack—knowing how to play won’t guarantee you walk home rich, but it will increase your chances of doing so.“

You can go ahead and start increasing your chances of creating better performing creatives by clicking on the image below & reading the complete report!!!