A mobile performance campaign is only half of the battle if you can find a good ad creative. This will guarantee you new users and increase brand awareness. But that’s only a theoretical idea.

You still have to determine what “successful creativity” is. How do you come up with creative hypotheses which will work? How can you be sure that your ad will attract a user?

AdQuantum’s performance marketing agency in Miami has a team of creative managers who are addressing this issue and other issues related to mobile advertising. This article will teach you:

• These are the top mobile creatives who perform well
• The best topics for advertising
• Future mobile advertising trends

Designing an Ad Creative

1. The development of a hypothesis

An idea is the foundation of all creativity. Hypotheses are ideas that have been proven to be viable by special tests. You need to create a list of hypotheses to define a working idea. These hypotheses will be put into practice by a design team. This is the end product, a mobile advertising creative.

There are two ways to create ideas in the areas where creativity and business meet. These are often combined.

• We review the working methods of other projects;
• We create something completely new.

Each person sees these options differently. Here’s why we recommend both.

Although there are only seven musical notes, they can be combined to create a variety of music. This is exactly what happens in mobile marketing: a mobile marketer launches a particular ad one day. It worked out of the blue. It was then adopted by someone else who created a new design based on the previous creative work. It worked the same way. It is a great strategy to see what other methods were used and refine them. This will help you create your own. This is called proficiency.

It is ineffective to take untested creative ideas just because you think they are “cool”. It’s often a waste both of time and money.

We all know that every creative person wants to create something new. You can compromise. Imagine that you need to create 10 creatives. Nine of the 10 creatives could be based on proven hypotheses. The tenth one would be a completely new, unproven idea. It has a high probability of performing.

This is where you can start to play with ideas and sort through all the thoughts that come to your mind. Maslow’s hierarchy is a great tool for this stage. You should try to incorporate each needed concept into your ad creative. You might start with sex. Did it work? Then move on to love if it doesn’t work. It didn’t work. The concept of success can be tried. You will eventually find the one that appeals to your audience from among all these needs.

2. Establishing a technical requirement for a design team 

No matter how well-written your technical requirements are, anyone can read them. Each person will see the same idea differently. It is therefore important to have as many references available as possible when setting technical requirements for motion designers. This applies to both fundamentally new and existing ideas that you wish to test in your project.

You must clearly show what you would like to see in your final product if you are going to implement a new idea.

How do you build a creative that is based on an idea from another project? References are crucial. It is impossible to know exactly what caused the user to pay attention to the creative you are referring to. You can only guess. It is therefore important to provide all details to the designer so that they don’t miss the most important.

3. Editing

It is easy to see the formula for creative success: 33% are an idea, 33% are its realization, 33% are the efforts of a UA manager and 33% are luck.

A simple test can be used to determine how successful your new creation will be empirically.

After you’ve received the creative from the designer and are ready to watch it, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t make sense. This isn’t your creative. Then, after watching it, think about whether the idea was communicated well. Half the battle is won if the idea is simple to understand.

The technical aspect of the creative must be taken into consideration. The animation should not freeze, and graphics must be sharp and visible at 40% brightness. Quality execution is as important as content.

The quality of the idea and how it is implemented are important, but so is the work of the UA Manager: who will they upload the creative too and what combination?

4. Approval by the Advertiser

The client usually sends the agency a list of minimum requirements that should not be included in the creative. Low necklines or even motorcycles are examples of what should not be in the creative. This means that they don’t want their app to associate sexualization or motorcycles with it. This blacklist should be considered when creating ads. After the advertiser approves the creative, it can be sent for launch.

5. Creative Testing

The most important step in UA campaigns is testing hypotheses. However, many companies ignore this step and lose money. Many times, product teams will claim that Facebook ads don’t work for their mobile apps. This is because they haven’t tried their creatives. Although they may have tested their creatives, it was only one iteration. This isn’t enough to draw objective conclusions. They have not tried enough creative variants and audiences to be able to make an informed decision.

Creativity is key:

a) Determine the app’s target audience

b) Understand the hypothesis and how to maximize your creative efficiency

c) Choose the most effective combinations of creatives, targeting, and other factors.

It is easy to see that budgets should be scaled before spending money on traffic to creatives. What if they fail? Otherwise, the money is wasted. This is why creatives are only launched in test mode for a short time.

Key metrics are usually used to determine how viable a creative idea is. Advertisers set the benchmark for key metrics that you should aim for. These are usually CTR, IR, and IPM. They can vary from project to project.

In practice, however, this is often the case. This means that you’re close to the desired metrics but haven’t achieved them. However, this does not necessarily mean creativity is bad. It is more likely that something is not fully tuned. But how do we find it? It is up to us to find the answer. Analytics is on the horizon.

6. Analytics and Defining Key Creative

Analytics is like building Lego pieces. These figures can be corrected using metrics. Take apart a creative piece that passed the test and break it down into small pieces. Then, you shuffle the pieces to find the perfect combination.

According to our tests, the white background didn’t work well at all. We saw worse metrics in all creatives that used white backgrounds for the fitness app than those with black backgrounds.

We then define the best configuration, a creative that exceeds all criteria. This is known as “key creativity”.

7. Production of Creative Variations

Each creative eventually “burns out”. This is because the same audience has seen the creativity and cannot be attracted by an app.

As follows, the audience is divided into the following burnt layers: the first, narrowest, and the most targeted layer are burned out. This layer is the most lucrative and offers the highest Return On Investment (ROI).

The target audience is next. This will result in a lower ROI, but the layer is still more lucrative. Finally, we reach the largest, most “near-target” audience. It is the least relevant for us, and it pays the least.

We create multiple creative variations to achieve this. Each successful creative has about 10 variations. There is a greater chance of success if there are more variations.

8. Ad Creatives Launch

Once the creative is done, the user has downloaded and installed it. Next is to keep users using the app, but that is the responsibility of the developer.

Successful Mobile Creative Rules

We will also tell you the Five D’s rule that we have discovered as a bonus. These will ensure that your ad creative is high-performing.

Rule of Five Ds

1. Design

Simplicity and high-quality execution are the main points. There are no complicated or fancy designs. Simple, unweighted messages are easier to understand than those framed in stylish but difficult-to-read designs.

2. Deliverability

It should be easy to understand for the user. It is also important to make it accessible and interesting for a broad audience. Creatives that are targeted at a small audience will not be successful. You have to create a universal creative that targets everyone worldwide.

3. Time

For ad networks, the optimal creative length is between 25-30 seconds, and 10-15 seconds for social networks. It is usually hard to see ads that are shorter than 7 seconds or longer than 35 seconds.

There are exceptions to every rule. The length of the video may vary depending on which app vertical it is. Because the goal is to demonstrate beautiful game settings and gameplay mechanics, gaming app creatives tend to last longer. It’s difficult to do all of this in 10 seconds.

Non-gaming apps are often used by people to solve a problem, such as losing weight, making money, or finding a partner. It is important to demonstrate how fast your app can help them achieve their desired results.

If you’re promoting a fitness program, your creative should communicate the message “You will lose weight fast.” We can see how someone loses weight in just 7 seconds. A user will most likely download an app if they find a solution to their problem instantly in a creative.

4. Dynamics

Even in a brief creative, plot is essential. Few people will want to spend 15 seconds watching the same frame. It is important to have the right dynamics and points that grab attention. This is similar to “suspense” in cinema.

Parachutes are the moments that make the viewer glued to their screens until something happens. Let’s suppose you need to create a 45-second ad. Parachutes are important in this case to allow the viewer to enjoy the video until the end.

5. Call Do it Now

It is important to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of every ad. This is exactly what ads are for. The creative was created so that the user can follow the link to install the app.

Future Ad Creatives

The world is changing, and the mobile marketing industry is growing rapidly. Nowadays, mobile app ads are more than just an advertisement that sells products. Advertising has become an art. It is now a complicated plot, sophisticated production, and expensive post-production. Mobile brands are attracting Hollywood stars by spending large amounts of money, time, and resources to create 30-second ads for targeted ads.