HOW TO: BUILDING CREATIVES WITH A DATA LED APPROACH
By Hannah Kilgallon, Digital Designer
In the world of digital, data is everything. From planning through to reporting, data is how we inform, measure and review. However, the creative industry is often left behind when it comes to seeing the numbers, which can be a real missed opportunity. From social to programmatic, YouTube to TikTok, artwork plays a big part in the success or downfall of a campaign.
Since joining CTM, it’s great to see the day-to-day conversations between the digital & creative departments, where there is open and collaborative communication about results. By working together, there is the opportunity to design and implement far more reactively, in order to deliver some truly impressive results.
To avoid any unnecessary updates, it's always worth considering any external mitigating circumstances that could have impacted the data before making artwork changes. The campaign may have been successful, but just had a bad week due to extremely poor weather, or certain changes down to audience learnings. Those are the times where it is a good idea to consult with the social department to get their expert opinion.
AD FATIGUE:
You don't need to be an expert data analyst to see when ad fatigue has kicked in. If an ad that was successful last week is starting to decline in performance, the likelihood is that the ad has simply run its course- so it’s worth considering a creative refresh.
As we work on brands for extended periods of time, we continuously gain more and more learnings and certain patterns will become clear. It may be that we are able to determine an average shelf life for an ad before it starts to decline, and in those cases, we are able to act proactively, updating the ad before it has a chance to decline- ultimately avoiding dips in the results.
A/B TESTING:
A great way to develop creative learnings is to A/B test artwork whenever possible. With design, there is no hard and fast rule on what works and what doesn't, so it's important to continuously test & evolve designs, whether that is looking at what colour performs better, which image is more engaging, or what video length works best.
When A/B testing, it's important to test only one change at a time, otherwise it will be hard to devise what was the change that made one artwork more successful. With ongoing tests it can build a set of rules that should increase the chances of future artwork success.
AUDIENCE INSIGHTS:
Reaching a target audience is becoming increasingly difficult with the fall of cookies and big brands, such as Apple, taking a stand to make users aware of when and how they are being tracked across apps. However, there are still targeting options available across these platforms, and with a little creative thinking, it is still completely possible to connect directly to your target audience.
Now more than ever, it’s important for creatives to hit way above their weight to reach and resonate with your target audience. This is an example where it's important for both the creative & digital department to work together to devise and execute messaging and artwork that sits in tandem with the targeting.
LOCATION BASED TARGETING:
Targeting by location is such a great resource to be aware of when designing. If taking the time to utilise location data to create ad sets, it is also worth supplying creatives that coincide for a fully considered campaign. For example, if you're targeting London, consider London based imagery or messaging. It will feel more specific to the user, and in turn increase the likelihood of engagement.
INDUSTRY LEARNINGS:
Having viewable data and performance is always going to be a benefit. By seeing what has worked historically, alongside continuous testing, will only improve the campaign long term. Working as an agency, seeing data across a variety of platforms & industries helps us to provide key industry learnings. We are able to Provide clients with learnings, feedback and strategies that would otherwise take years for an individual company to develop.