Data-Driven Creative: Leveraging Data To Inform Creativity

Following sky-high inflation rates in the UK, competition has never been fiercer for DTC brands to stand out.

Without data, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ensure your ad creative reaches and resonates with your target audience.

The importance of using data insights to produce data-driven creative cannot be overlooked, highlighted by the fact that ‘40% of brands plan to increase their data-driven marketing budgets’.

Using data to inform your ad creative can create a wealth of opportunities, drive results, and help you nurture a strong connection with your audience.

So, how do you leverage data to inform creativity?

Let’s break it down. 

1. Determine your goals
2. Use data analytics to your advantage
3. Optimise your ads
4. Hire a creative agency
5. Repeatedly test your data collection strategy 

1. Determine Your Goals 

It’s crucial to determine how you will use the data you gather to further your business goals.

The goals that you set out will inform the data that you collect and also how you measure your success, so it’s important to gain an understanding of this before you can use the data to your advantage in your ad creative.

For instance, you might want to improve click-through rates and increase sales, giving you two important metrics to gather data on. 

Alternatively, you might want to increase brand awareness, meaning you should focus on impressions and reach.

Once you’ve established your goals, you can set about gathering the data.

2. Use Data Analytics To Your Advantage 

Gathering data is the foundation of creating effective ad creative, but you’ll need to select the appropriate data sources and tools to analyse your ad performance.

Many people find Google Analytics to be incredibly useful, evidenced by the fact that ‘more than half of businesses rely exclusively on Google Analytics (GA) for their web analytics’. 

Additionally, there are tools like Meta Ads Manager and Instagram Insights. All of these tools will allow you to gauge a better idea of your brand’s traffic, and your ad performance with your audience. 

To unlock the potential of your data, it’s crucial to analyse the metrics that align with your goals, such as click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate.

A higher CTR, for instance, will generally indicate that your ad is more compelling or relevant to your audience.

It’s worth noting that using data analytics to your advantage is a continuous process.

For the best results, you will need to continuously analyse the data to inform your creative and better your ad strategies.

3. Optimise Your Ads

Once you’ve gathered the data insights, you’ll need to optimise your ads accordingly. 

Optimising your ads is a trial-and-error process, but being backed by data will bolster every decision that you make. 

From here, you’ll need to monitor your ads closely to be able to measure the effectiveness of your ads and see the difference optimising your ads has made.

How frequently you optimise your ads will depend on the results. That said, having patience and remaining consistent will allow you to establish what has worked well and what needs improvement.

To learn more about how to measure your ad performance, check out our blog here. 

4. Hire A Creative Agency 

If you’re not sure about the best approach to create data-driven creative, why not hire a data-driven creative agency to do the heavy lifting?

Your ad creative is often the first impression people gain of your business, and when done right, your ad creative should feel native to the platform. 

A creative agency’s responsibility is to ensure your ad targets your audience and is in line with the platform you’re advertising on, be it Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or X (Twitter). Although creativity is crucial to any ad campaign, the best creative agencies recognise it should always be backed by data.

Aura Ads is a data-driven creative agency. Our experts believe creating assets without data is like driving a car without a steering wheel. 

We’ve built a harmonious feedback loop between creative and performance so we always know what’s working and why.

If you’re looking to invest in scroll-stopping ads and are interested in creating data-driven creative, schedule a call with our team today.

5. Repeatedly Test Your Data Collection Strategy

You will need to repeatedly tweak and test your data collection strategy to ensure your ads aren’t falling short.

Not all data insights are equal, and the tools that you use might need adjusting.

If one strategy isn’t working, it’s important to remain open-minded. Evaluate the effectiveness of your data collection strategy so that you can identify areas for improvement for your next ad campaign.

That said, you should focus on the long-term results as opposed to the short-term impact of your ad creative.

By repeatedly testing and adapting accordingly, you’ll remain in tune with your target audience, which will have a direct impact on engagement. 

How We Can Help 

If you’re looking to invest in your ad creative, our team of creative strategists at Aura Ads are here to help.

We will tailor your creative to your campaign objectives and business goals, ensuring our creative has the biggest impact.

We are trusted by leading eCommerce brands such as Emma, Huel, and Wild Deodorant. Our case study for Wild details how we've been able to support a 4.6x increase in Wild's profitable ad spend, illustrating the power of a single winning creative.

To learn more about our case studies and the service we provide, visit our website today.

We are Aura Ads, a unique performance creative agency designed for D2C eCommerce brands. We help clients sell more online and grow at scale with our bespoke video and static creative delivered on a monthly basis.

For more top tips from our experts, check out our social media marketing blog. 

Written by Jemima, for Aura Ads.