What is dynamic creative?

Dynamic creative is simply any creative that changes automatically based on information about the user, whether this is related to their behaviour, location or context.

Though its use continues to grow, many advertisers struggle to find a place for it, anxious to avoid any risk of damaging their brand and uncertain as to what the possibilities are.

There are numerous types of dynamic creative that can be employed to fulfil different functions. The biggest difference in ‘types’ is the difference between prospecting and retargeting dynamic creative.

When used in a prospecting campaign, the aim of dynamic creative is to use the increased relevance of the message to attract users to the site. Examples include creative with different messages depending on the user’s location or the context of the page.

For retargeting, by contrast, the goal of dynamic creative can vary from simply aiming to drive a conversion, to a focus on increasing order values or frequency of shop.

How should I use it?

Dynamic creative is inherently flexible and is suited to a number of different scenarios:

• Traffic driving
  A good example of how this might work would be for a company whose products vary based on a user’s location. In this case, it’s easy to use a very generic creative, which is applicable to users across the country. You can, however, improve conversion rates by using dynamic creative, changing the product based on a user’s location, thus making the ad more relevant and, hence, more interesting to the user.

• Driving conversions
  For something with a more direct aim, dynamic creative can be useful both for prospecting and retargeting. When prospecting, there are multiple approaches that can be taken. If you tend to have a lot of strong offers, it might be worth highlighting these, using a feed of daily offers. Alternatively, if you have some prominent or well known products, using dynamic creative to highlight your top sellers/’biggest’ products could attract users to the site, where they may then purchase completely different products.

  Retargeting campaigns tend to be simpler – if the aim is to drive the conversion, focusing on viewed products will tend to perform well. That said, many advertisers feel that this can be overly aggressive, in which case a better approach might be to use your creative to show categories the user has visited.

• Increasing ROI and improving retention rates
  In this instance, retargeting will be your best friend. There are a number of different strategies you can employ to improve ROIs, such as highlighting higher value items the user may have browsed or showing creatives featuring complementary products to those already purchased/in their basket.

Dynamic creative can provide advertisers with plenty of targeting options when used intelligently. The ability to make creative more relevant for users in real-time using client data makes it an exciting proposition for advertisers. Although there can be some risks involved, these can be overcome by working to develop the dynamic creative strategy that works best for you.

Rachael Morris, Optimisation & Insight Director, Infectious Media