Quality matters. Why good ads work.

by Tony Gemma, Head of Global Ad Creative, Yahoo

Advertising ensures most of the internet is free and accessible. It helps consumers discover new products and brands. Targeted advertising is a vital component for connecting brands with customers, especially for up-and-coming businesses that might struggle to reach the right people in a crowded marketplace with deep-pocketed competitors.

And while it’s common, if not popular, to complain about online ads, 67% of consumers prefer having online ads versus paying for website content.¹ Relevant ads help guide consumers to the right experiences. In fact, 44% of users find online ads more helpful than they used to be.² With quality creative and high-precision targeting, advertising should be viewed as an addition rather than a distraction to a consumer’s internet experience.

Lead with quality ads

We’ve all heard the complaints about pop-up ads and the terrible user experience of exiting (or attempting to exit) out of them. In a recent report, 65% of internet users said that online ads are more intrusive than they used to be.³ While we’re working on cleaning up the data pipeline, it’s high time we cleaned up the creative pipeline as well.

Quality ads are critical across the entire consumer journey. Performance advertisers often place creative on the back burner as they chase audience optimization and clicks, only to find themselves in a hole of micro-iteration and waning performance. In reality, the same consumers are seeing your so-called "discovery ads" as well as your "performance ads.” Investing in high-quality creative throughout the consumer life cycle is imperative for consistent brand equity and performance.

There are many reasons why an ad execution might suffer. Perhaps energy was too heavily focused on media and targeting, or budget, time, and tools ran thin with approaching deadlines. Regardless, creative is fundamental – if the message and/or visuals don't entice a user to lean in, the other parameters are wasted. In the end, performance doesn’t lie.

Better personalization makes a difference

There is growing complexity as the digital ecosystem evolves, but users aren't afraid to tell us what they enjoy. Customers want personalization, with 88% of users reporting they see the benefit of personalized ads, while 50% will make a purchase and become brand-loyal if they receive personalized content.⁴  As machine learning and automation level the playing field across targeting, bids, and budgets, creativity and quality become key differentiators in elevating performance for advertisers.

As we transition to a cookieless world, creativity is becoming more important than ever. People-based creative personalization such as Dynamic Creative and Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) are the North Star in how we deliver quality individualized experiences. Finite targeting doesn’t need to come at the cost of poor creative.

Marrying privacy safe data with high-quality interactive creative is where we’ll find equilibrium in balancing the best yield for advertisers with the best experience for consumers.  

Creative innovation leads to greater impact

Building a better future is a marathon, not a sprint. By experimenting with new approaches to ad formats and features and developing a creative-first mindset, advertisers can find new ways to inspire customers to pause, look, feel, share and buy.

Good creative doesn’t need to be complex, but smart features can often help engagement and interest. We have found that interactivity generally boosts product and brand awareness by a startling 20%.⁵ Clear, quality visual effects and intelligently crafted animations and interactivity can often have a tremendous impact.

In a fast evolving digital landscape, new digital creative canvases are emerging everyday. Out-of-home is coming online fast, ConnectedTV is opening new lanes to former linear-only content, and high-quality mobile cameras have sprouted scalable 3D and Augmented Reality capabilities. While these add new complexity, they are also ripe opportunities for enhanced brand engagements.

Let’s move away from the rhetoric of asking for “never been done before” experiences and replace it with “never been done WELL before” to focus on the execution, not the technology. Technology is moving fast these days, which certainly puts more lightning in our paintbrushes, but the art of execution is in transforming the technology into meaningful experiences. Success is when the technology fades to invisible, simply paving the way for a lasting experience.

Developing a creative-first strategy

It's no surprise advertising gets a bad name. Bad ads = bad experiences = bad press. Imagine if we all agreed to put out high-quality, beautiful creative that enhanced the experience for users. That's the vision we aim toward with the incredible benefit of powering a free and fair internet.

We believe in pushing the bounds of quality creative, for our publishers, platforms, and clients. We don't compete, we partner with your creative teams. Our global in-house team, Yahoo Creative Studios, has the unique advantage of specializing in the last mile across major publishers and platforms, handling creative challenges across DOOH, CTV, Immersive, Display, Native Ads, and more.

Yahoo is here to help with your end-to-end creative and campaign strategy — ensuring that your vision maintains its power and integrity through to the consumer.

Let’s connect today to learn how we can help you create creative ads that connect with your precise audiences.

¹,²,³ Yahoo, Consumer Omnibus Study, August 2021, n=1000.

⁴ Yahoo, Consumer Omnibus Study, March 2021.

⁵ Yahoo, IPG Media Lab, Magna, The Interactive Effect Study, May 2021