Creative/Platform Fit or How to Make the Best Out of Your Ads

In your video marketing strategy, how do you decide which approach to adopt? Do you rely on one-size-fits-all video or use platform-specific creative? Recent research suggests that the winning strategy is “start with the end in mind” – think about your goals, choose the platform that will deliver the desired results, and then use this as guidance for your creative strategy.

Creative/platform fit is the degree to which an ad creative matches the characteristics and expectations of the platform where it is displayed. According to a recent report by CreativeX, 50% of digital ad budgets go behind creative that isn’t fit for the platform. Why is this aspect important for your advertising? Because it affects how the audience perceives and responds to an ad – a factor which greatly influences your ROI. 

Intrigued? Here are some valuable insights on the opportunity cost of poor quality creative and how to avoid it:

• Creative/platform fit means more relevant and effective ads. According to a study by Google, ads that are optimized for the platform can increase the view-through rate by 19%, the click-through rate by 30%, and the conversion rate by 24%. Meanwhile, as per a recent CreativeX report, billions of dollars are wasted from poor branding, framing, aspect ratios, length, subtitling, missing messages. Extrapolated to the industry’s ad spend in 2023, this inefficiency is costing brands more than $200B – and growing every year.

Moreover, different platforms have different audiences, formats, features, and purposes. Each platform requires a different approach to creating and delivering ads that resonate with the audience and fit the context. By aligning the ad creative with the platform, advertisers can increase the relevance and appeal of the ad, and avoid disrupting the user experience. As Tom Roach, VP Brand Strategy at Jellyfish, puts it: “Getting this stuff right won’t have you jetting off to Cannes, but it will keep your CFO happy that you are not hemorrhaging cash without even knowing it”. 

• Platform-specific creative equals better performing and efficient ads. Different platforms have different metrics, goals, and best practices for measuring and optimizing the ad performance – e.g. reach, impressions, clicks, conversions, or other objectives on one platform; engagement, awareness, or traffic on another; views, watch time, or brand lift on yet another, etc. 

Platform plays a much bigger role than you think. Each platform requires a different strategy and budget to achieve the desired results. Moreover, the same creative performs worse/better in line with the overall platform attention performance, according to various research by industry leaders such as Amplified Intelligence and Prof. Karen Nelson-Field. By tailoring the ad creative to the platform, advertisers can improve the performance and efficiency of the ad, and avoid wasting resources. For further insights on how higher attention platforms drive stronger mental availability, check our previous article here.

• Creative best practice findings. According to a Nielsen report, creative is the largest driver of business growth, responsible for 56% of sales uplift online. Yet, according to CreativeX, 52% of budgets are wasted on creative that isn’t high quality. Brands can now calculate the opportunity cost from low-quality ads – ads that are statistically unlikely to deliver impact because they are unsuitable for the media they are placed in. The CreativeX report outlines the 4 key creative attributes that contribute to digitally unsuitable advertising: 
• Unbranded Ads 
• Poorly framed 
• Unsuitable length 
• Missed Messages

Some particularly insightful findings from the report include: 

• 35% of digital media spend is allocated to ads that do not contain brand logos or visible branding in the first three seconds of the video. 
• 12% of media spend was invested in ads that were not sized according to the recommendations of the specific platform or placement they were running in (such as a horizontal ad running in a vertical ad space). 
• 32% of digital media was put behind videos that did not follow platform-recommended length guidelines.
• 7% of digital dollars went to videos that were not optimized to be viewed without sound, meaning key messages were delivered in the audio or voiceover with no subtitles or supers overlaid when videos are watched without sound.
• What do high-quality ads include? High-quality creative delivers more than four times as much profit as low-quality creative. According to the CreativeX report, these are the attributes that your creative should have in order to win:
• Branding: Showcase your brand early and often in order to capture and maintain attention
• Sound: Design for sound off but delight with sound on (where applicable)
• Length: Find the balance between the message and the time (6-second ads are a low-cost option for “driving reach, reinforcing messaging, and bringing down costs”, great for big brands delivering efficient branded exposures for brand awareness; 15-second ads are used for driving awareness, simple messages, or to reinforce more complex messages.)
• Framing: Build for where people are (if they are viewing on their phone, the canvas is much smaller and the text is even smaller, so simple messaging works better)
• Creative + platform = content that is “fit for audiences”. According to the CreativeX report, making content that is “fit for purpose” or “fit for platform” is about making content that is “fit for audiences.” Creative quality, or media suitability isn’t about restricting creativity. It’s about identifying the operational boundaries – within each media placement – for creativity to excel. What is “fit” for each platform is determined by the way people engage with content on each platform, so we need to humanize the whole process. 

Platforms are constantly evolving to reflect changing consumer behaviour and business needs. This balance means what people see is determined by what they like. Creative quality, or media suitability means optimizing creative executions for their media placement. It’s not sufficient for a great ad, but it’s required for avoiding poor ads. Creative and media is brought back together here, in the form of creative best practices, meaning this way ads are more likely to be watched, remembered, & recalled by consumers.

Novelty Media, via SmartAdd, offers an innovative mobile media channel for video and static content delivery to mobile subscribers. Our high-attention platform is user-friendly, consumer-centric and 100% endorsed by Mobile Operators. By design, it is optimized to make your creative shine and harness your audience’s undivided attention. How? By turning routine smartphone moments of peak attention into impactful viewing events. In this way, your content and brand message get noticed every single time. SmartAdd delivers your brand communication in a powerful and non-intrusive way achieving the “all eyes on the ad” effect thanks to the platform’s effectiveness. Reach your ad creative’s full potential and get powerful results! Contact us and let’s introduce you to the benefits of our solution for your business.