Creative remains advertising's biggest growth lever, report

TripleLift and EMARKETER have released a joint report showing that while most marketers recognize creative as central to performance, many lack shared standards to evaluate and scale it. The study finds that more than two in five teams operate without a unified framework, slowing approvals and adding inefficiencies.

Based on a survey of 164 US marketers, the report explores how creative effectiveness is defined, measured, and scaled across digital channels. Clear brand storytelling and visually compelling design were the most cited attributes of strong creative, each selected by 69.5 percent of respondents. Personalization and audience relevance, noted by 66.5 percent, also emerged as priorities.

Lack of shared standards limits progress

Toccara Baker, vice president of marketing, TripleLift "True creative excellence remains elusive because we lack a shared language and common metrics. Every organization has its own definition, and despite attempts to establish industry standards, widespread adoption is slow. It's good news that marketers recognize there's a need for a shared framework and wider adoption of technology that can quantify creative output. With Generative AI now in the mix, it's the perfect time to align on what great creative means and better link creative analytics more directly to digital marketing KPIs."

AI takes on a greater role in production

The research shows marketers are already applying AI across creative tasks such as generating ad copy (50 percent), producing images and video (37.8 percent), and aligning content contextually. Over half expect AI’s greatest contribution in the next two years to be workflow automation, followed by performance optimization (48.2 percent) and reporting (43.3 percent).

Max Willens, senior analyst, EMARKETER: "If marketers want AI to deliver an exponential, rather than linear increase in productivity, they will need to feel comfortable integrating it into multiple steps of the creative production process. That will require a significant revision to how brands and agencies approach that process."

Infrastructure gaps hinder creative impact

The survey finds that online video (79.9 percent), display (77.4 percent), and native (66.5 percent) are the most used formats in digital advertising. Connected TV, chosen by half of respondents, lags behind but is expected to grow as US viewing habits shift.

Despite ambitions to scale creative across formats, marketers point to limited asset updates (54.3 percent) and too few creative versions (51.8 percent) as barriers to effectiveness in programmatic campaigns. Overreliance on a single format further limits performance for nearly half of respondents.

Measurement is growing, but remains fragmented

While 71.3 percent say creative evaluation is becoming more important, only 58.5 percent regularly connect creative quality to outcomes, and just over half have reliable metrics or dashboards in place. Looking ahead, 73.2 percent expect data analysis to play a greater role in creative success.

Izzy Morris, paid social and programmatic lead, Vodafone: "The key is to close the loop between creative diagnostics and outcome metrics. That means going beyond last-touch attribution by using incrementality testing to measure creative impact through controlled experiments. Bringing everything together in unified dashboards helps combine creative analytics with media performance and conversion data, making it easier to see which creative attributes actually drive ROI."

The report concludes that marketers can strengthen creative effectiveness by establishing shared standards, integrating AI responsibly to scale production, and investing in analytics that link creative attributes directly to performance.

The full report can be accessed here

www.emarketer.com

www.triplelift.com

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