The truth about advertising effectiveness: It’s the creative

Everything you know about advertising is wrong. At least, that’s what the data says. Turns out marketers aren’t that great at knowing what elements drive their marketing campaign success. 

For years, we’ve been obsessed with targeting – behaviors, personas, and slicing audiences into ever-more-niche segments. But recent research shows we’ve been looking in the wrong direction.

While everyone focuses on who sees the ad, the creative quietly does most of the work. In fact, creative quality can be the single biggest driver of advertising effectiveness in an ad campaign. And yet, it’s often the most underestimated.

So what does the data say? And what does it mean for measuring, budgeting, and building future campaigns? Let’s get into what the numbers actually say.

The creative vs. targeting debate

If you ask marketers what drives ad performance, you’ll likely hear some version of: “It’s all about reaching the right target audience at the right time.” And, hey, to be fair, they’re not entirely wrong. Targeting is one of the key elements in ad effectiveness (there’s a reason Eskimi has 2,500+ targeting options), but maybe it's not the holy grail we think it is.

Targeting has long been the darling of digital advertising. But there’s a growing gap between what we focus on and what actually works.

According to a February 2024 study by Advertiser Perceptions, brands and media agencies believe targeting is the number one sales driver, contributing 24% to overall campaign success. Creative, on the other hand? They credit it with just 19% of the lift.

But reality paints a different picture.

What does the research about effective ads actually say?

According to NCSolutions, creative is responsible for 49% of incremental sales in a campaign – more than double what marketers think it contributes. Meanwhile, targeting – which marketers overestimate –comes in at 11%.

That’s a big gap. One that could be costing brands a lot of money.

Boring ads are expensive

Another thing that costs companies a lot of money? Boring.

The average person is exposed to thousands of ads daily. You can have the best targeting in the world, but when your banner ad is just one of thousands, it comes down to the creative to actually connect to the customer.

So when it’s boring, it’s not just ineffective – it’s expensive.

Drawing on thousands of campaigns from the IPA Effectiveness Databank, a System1 study found that advertisers have to spend up to 2.6x more on dull ads just to achieve the same business impact as interesting ones. That includes market share growth, profit growth, and overall brand effects.

In other words, if your ad fails to capture attention or stir emotion, your media budget will have to work overtime – and then some.

It’s not just about looking pretty, either. A good creative creates memory. And in a crowded space for digital campaigns, that’s a competitive advantage you can’t afford to overlook.

Creative isn’t decoration – it’s the engine for ad success

When done right, the creative grabs attention, stirs emotion, creates memory, and builds brand associations that shape future decisions. It helps build demand before customers even realize they need your product.

This is the real driver of creative impact – an ad’s ability to connect, stick, and influence. And here’s the kicker: very few brands are getting this right.

To be fair, it’s hard to know if the creative will have the desired effect. You can measure targeting, reach, impressions, viewability, etc., but can you measure the advertising effectiveness of the creative itself?

Can you measure creative quality in a marketing campaign?

Actually, yes. And you should.

For a long time, the creative has lived in the “art” category – subjective, unquantifiable, and difficult to optimize. But that’s no longer the case. Today, we have the tools, benchmarks, and data to measure creative impact with surprising precision. It’s no longer impossible to make informed decisions when choosing what will capture consumers’ attention – we can turn marketing science to the creative.

For example, Eskimi’s partner, Neurons. It’s a leading AI tool that measures creative effectiveness before a campaign goes live. Neurons uses AI trained on over 100 billion data points, collected through eye-tracking and brain-scanning studies from more than 120,000 participants. It analyzes visuals and provides predictive heatmaps, showing where attention will likely land.

You also get a breakdown of key metrics – focus, cognitive demand, memory, and engagement – so you can test, learn, and refine before the advertisement goes live.

Another powerful solution in our toolkit is Lumen. It measures the actual attention your ads earn in real-world digital environments. Lumen feeds tracker data into its attention model to estimate how many “attentive seconds” each impression generates – turning passive impressions into meaningful insight.

At Eskimi, we use Lumen data to identify which formats, placements, and creatives drive attention, so you can optimize in real time and get more out of every impression.

So yes, the creative can be measured. In fact, if you’re not measuring it, you’re flying blind.

How to focus on the creative in your future campaigns

Here’s how to make your campaigns truly creative first:

1. Start with the story. Before you decide who to talk to or which format to use, figure out how to create a persuasive ad. What should people feel, remember, or do after seeing your ad?

2. Bring creative in early. Build campaigns around the big idea, not the other way around. Don't have the resources? Consider working with a company that specializes in creatives.

3. Use data analytics to empower creativity. A/B testing, emotional scoring, heatmaps, attention data – it’s all there to make your creative smarter, not safer.

4. Choose formats that enhance the message. The right idea in the right format is a force multiplier. Eskimi’s high-impact ad formats – gamified, full-screen, scroll-stopping – are designed to make your creative unmissable.

5. Think full-funnel, not just top-funnel. From awareness to conversion, make sure your creative is consistent, compelling, and tailored to every stage of the journey.

6. Measure advertising effectiveness of the creative after the campaign as well. Attention metrics and brand lift studies will help you make data-backed creative decisions throughout your advertising journey.

We’ve seen the difference it makes, and the data backs it up: Better creative delivers better outcomes. It earns attention, drives engagement, boosts brand recall, and ultimately, powers growth.

So, if you want ads that don’t just reach people – but resonate – start where it matters most. Start with the creative.

And if you're interested in what creative solutions Eskimi can offer, get in touch with us!

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