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Guide

Cheat Sheet -
Creative Analytics

What is Creative Analytics?

Creative analytics provides insight into which concepts, elements and formats drive engagement and conversions. Turning this data into actionable insights helps brands improve their strategies and maximize their reach and conversions.

Creative analytics empowers you to answer key questions, such as:

Which creatives are delivering the best results?
In which ads is creative fatigue kicking in?
What creative formulas are driving the most engagement or conversions?

Key Metrics

Ad spend

An increase in ad spend without improved results signals inefficiency, suggesting the need to adjust your strategy or targeting.

Impressions

A drop in impressions means your ad is being shown less, often due to lower engagement or poor targeting.

Cost per mille (CPM)

Cost per

mille (CPM)

A higher CPM indicates lower ad relevance or creative fatigue.

Cost-per-click (CPC)

Cost-per-

click

(CPC)

An increasing CPC means your ad is becoming less effective at generating clicks, suggesting a need for optimization.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through

rate (CTR)

A rising CTR means your ad is engaging; a drop suggests it’s losing relevance with your audience.

View-through rate (VTR)

View-through

rate (VTR)

A higher VTR shows your video content is holding attention; a lower VTR means viewers are dropping off early.

Cost-per- acquisition (CPA)

Cost-per-

acquisition

(CPA)

An increase in CPA means your campaigns are less cost-efficient, and you may need to optimize your targeting or creatives.

Cost-per-click (CPC)

Cost-per

-click (CPC)

A higher CVR means your ad is driving actions effectively; a lower CVR indicates the need for creative adjustments.

Cost-per-click (CPC)

Cost-per

-click (CPC)

Decreasing ROAS means your ad is becoming less effective at generating revenue, indicating a need for optimization.

Return on investment (ROI)

Return on

investment

(ROI)

A declining ROI means your ad is generating less revenue relative to its cost, signaling a need for optimization.

Best Practices

Top Creative Ads

Definition

Top creatives ads consistently drive high engagement, and strong conversions, and outperform others by leveraging visuals, messaging, calls-to-action, and hooks that resonate with the target Insight audience.

Insight

Low CPC

A low CPC on a creative ad means it’s effectively capturing audience interest, driving clicks at a lower cost.

High ROAS

A high ROAS highlights the effectiveness of the overall ad creative.

High CTR

CTR above the benchmark signals that your ad is resonating with your target audience. On Meta, the average CTR benchmark is around 1.1% for gaming and 0.5-1.5 (depending on the goal) for retail.

High LTV

High customer retention rates tend to drive higher LTV.

High Conversion rate

A high conversion rate indicates that your ads achieve results that align with your campaign goals.

Creative Fatigue

Definition

Creative fatigue occurs when ad performance declines due to repeated exposure to the same creative elements. This leads to drops in engagement, conversion rates, and reach. This is particularly relevant in specific ad platforms, namely TikTok.

Awareness

Engagement

Conversion

Frequency

CTR

ROAS

Reach

Engagement rate

Engagement

rate

CPA

Impression

VTR

CVR

Insight

Cost per incremental reach

Awareness

Frequency > Target Range

Frequency >

Target Range

Indicates overexposure

Stagnating / Declining reach

Stagnating /

Declining reach

Your ad is no longer reaching new users and is being shown to a shrinking audience.

Declining Impressions, rising CPM

Your ad is being shown less frequently, often due to declining engagement or poor performance.

Engagement

Declining CTR

Repetitive exposure reduces user interest and clicks.

Declining Engagement Rate

Your audience is losing interest in the creative.

Declining VTR

The percentage of viewers who watch a specific portion of a video (e.g., first 3 seconds, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%). A declining VTR indicates fewer viewers are engaging with the video to reach those milestones.

Conversion

Declining ROAS

Declining

ROAS

Your ad is becoming less effective at driving profitable actions.

Increasing CPA

You are paying more for conversions, indicating inefficiency and possible creative or targeting issues.

Declining CVR

Fewer people are completing the desired action (e.g., purchases, sign-ups) relative to the number of clicks

PRO TIP: Set automatic alerts for key metrics changes to spot fatigue early on and refresh creatives before it affects your performance

Winning Creative Formulas

Definition

Winning creative formulas refer to concepts, elements, and formats that consistently drive strong performance across channels. Identifying these patterns helps you understand what works and replicate successful elements in future campaigns.

Uncovering winning formulas means answering questions like:

Which creatives concepts perform best at the top of the funnel?
Should I focus on videos or static images?
What audience should my next ad target?
What offer will resonate most with my audience?
What is the best hook type?

Objective: Conversion

High CTR

A high CTR means your ad is engaging

Low CPA

A low CPA shows it's converting efficiently

High CTR, low CVR

High CTR,

low CVR

Ad concept may mislead or lack relevance.

High ROAS

Determines profitability of the ad or creative.

Objective: Reach

High CTR

Consider tweaking ad elements to be more compelling.

Low CPA

Suggests an engaging format or concept.

High Engagement Rate

Your audience finds the ad compelling and resonates with its content.

High CPM

You're efficiently reaching a large audience at a lower cost per thousand impressions.

Naming conventions (see appendix) enable easy comparison and evaluation of ad performance. This approach is key for deeper creative insights and helps you quickly uncover which formats, elements, and concepts perform best.

Full funnel performance

As long as you have backend data (attribution, CLV, profitability) available at such a level of granularity, you should evaluate creative performance holistically beyond platform metrics. This ensures you are steering based on business impact vs. platform metrics alone.

PRO TIP: Analyze the full funnel view (from ad spend and impressions to attributed conversions, CLV and contribution margin) in a single view to align with business outcomes and easily diagnose any changes.

Creative Optimization

Creative optimization is about continuously testing and iterating based on a rigorous, iterative data-driven approach. Follow these 4 steps:

Define objectives: conversion, reach, traffic
Understand your audience
Continuously analyze creative ads performance
Stay up-to date on trends

Practical tips - how to optimize your ads:

AB tests

Test different versions of your ads to see what resonates. Frequent testing and iteration on successful elements (hooks, CTAs, formats) keep your ads aligned with audience preferences.

Visual tweaks

Small changes like adjusting backgrounds, fonts, or text can significantly boost performance.

Frequency caps

Limit how often users see your ad to avoid overexposure. Use tools like automatic rules, ad rotations, and ad scheduling to manage frequency.

Update ads regularly

Introduce new creatives or refresh existing ones to maintain audience interest. Experiment with different formats (carousel, video) for variety.

Diversify creative assets

Create multiple versions of ads and rotate them throughout the campaign. Change elements like copy, colors, and CTAs to keep things fresh.

Use dynamic ads

Dynamic ads automatically adjust, offering a slightly different version each time, keeping the content fresh and engaging.

Exclude past users for a set time

Avoid showing ads to users who interacted but didn’t convert, as overexposure can lead to fatigue and disengagement.

Appendix - Naming conventions

Naming conventions allow for easy comparison and evaluation of ads performance. This approach enables deeper creative insights and helps you quickly uncover which formats, elements, and concepts perform best.

With proper naming conventions, you’ll be able to answer questions like:

Which creatives perform best at the top of the funnel?
Should I focus on videos or static images?
What audience should my next ad target?
What offer will resonate most with my audience?

Standard Identifier

Campaign-level: High-level goals and strategies

Format

[Funnel Position] - [Objective] - [Budget Type] - [Bid Strategy]

Example

TOFU - Awareness - CBO - $CC

Components

Funnel Position

TOFU

Objective

Awareness

Conversion

Traffic

Declining CVR

CBO

ABO

Declining CVR

$LC

$CC

$BC

Ad set-level: Audience-specific details

Format

[Date] - [Audience Type] - [Audience Seed] - [Placement Type]

Example

11.04 - PastPurchasers - EmailList - Feed

Components

Date

The ad set's launch date

Audience Type

Who you're targeting

Audience Seed

Where the audience originates (e.g., Email List, Website Visitors)

Placement Type

Ad placement (e.g., Instagram Stories, Facebook Feed)

Ad set-level: Creative specific detail

Format

[Creative Name] - [Ad Type] - [Offer] - [CTA] - [Destination]

Example

BlackFriday - Video - 20%Off - ShopNow - LP

Components

Creative Name

Theme or event (e.g., Black Friday, Valentine’s Day)

Ad Type

Ad format (e.g., Carousel, Video)

Offer

Promotion or deal (e.g. Buy 1 get 2, Free Shipping)

CTA

Ad placement (e.g., Instagram Stories, Facebook Feed)

Destination

Where the ad directs users (e.g., Homepage, Product Page)

Testing Identifier

Testing identifiers are optional elements added to your naming convention when testing a specific hypothesis. Since tests are temporary and may only apply to a few ads, these identifiers aren’t needed across all campaigns. Typically, they’re added at the end of the ad name and used for a limited number of ads during the test period.

For example, if you want to test two products in your ad, a gray shirt versus a blue shirt, you could add a Testing Identifier to the relevant ad names:

Universal Naming Conventions

Creative ID

An internal ID that uniquely identifies the creative (across platforms) and can be used to harmonize data with other tools

Creative Team/Staff Identifier

Creative Team

/Staff Identifier

Identifies the team or individual responsible for designing the creative, facilitating dialogue with the creative team and sharing insights that they can directly address.

Creative Concept

Represents the overarching concept for grouping similar creatives

Creative Concept Variation

Differentiates iterations within the same concept.

Dominant Color

Highlights the primary color used, enabling teams to assess visual preferences.

Language

Specifies the language version of the creative.

Format and Length

Includes details about the creative’s aspect ratio (e.g., 16:9, 3:4) and, for videos, the duration (e.g., 5 seconds, 30 seconds).

Landing Page Type

Specifies the language version of the creative.

Ad Format

Describes the category of the landing page being targeted, such as product-focused, brand-focused, or content-driven, without requiring the exact URL

Ad Type

Details the format of the ad, such as carousel, video, static image, etc.

Format and Length

Includes details like subtitles (present or absent) and voiceovers.

The campaign level defines the objective and any overarching details (e.g. the season or promotion) of your ads. This is where you set the purpose of your campaign:

Brand awareness
Lead generation
Conversions

The campaign level defines the objective and any overarching details (e.g. the season or promotion) of your ads. This is where you set the purpose of your campaign:

Brand awareness
Lead generation
Conversions

The ad set level is where targeting, placements, and budget are defined. It’s the middle layer that determines who sees your ads and where they appear. At this level, naming conventions should include:

Audience details
Placement type
Budget

Audience details
Placement type
Budget

The ad level is the most granular layer of your creative assets. This includes your ad copy, visuals, videos, and links. Naming conventions here should focus on:

Creative concept or ID
Variations or tests
Any key attributes like format or targeted landing pages

The ad level is the most granular layer of your creative assets. This includes your ad copy, visuals, videos, and links. Naming conventions here should focus on: