This year I've been seeing a big rise in AI ads across ecom.

And from what I’m noticing inside client accounts and other big brands…

They’re working in pretty much every vertical you can think of.

At the same time:

I also know many brands are struggling to get them to scale.

So I want to break down what we’ve learned after testing these for almost a year.

First thing…

There’s a big problem with how a lot of brands are approaching AI Ads.

They put most of their effort into making the ad look clean and realistic.

In doing that, they drift away from what drives performance.

And they skip over the fundamentals that make a creative convert.

Things like…

As a result… the ads don’t connect with the viewers, and they just flop.

I think it happens because AI makes it so easy to pump out a lot of volume.

When volume becomes the goal, quality usually takes a hit.

Which is why these details matter more than ever right now.

Because when you get them right, it’s not hard to stand out and get your ads to perform.

Let me give you an example from one of our clients.

This brand was relying on Search when they came to us.

We wanted to open up more channels, so we started testing YouTube.

Before touching any creatives, we spent time going through their customer data.

We looked at purchase history, customer profiles, reviews, etc.

We wanted to see who’s buying, what they care about, and how they talk about the problem in their words.

For this brand, the biggest segment was people over 45.

So we built a TV-style commercial around that persona.

We structured it like a short story. Someone in their late 40s talking through their situation and how the product fits into it.

That ended up becoming one of the top performers in the account.

You’ve probably seen all the AI ad formats people talk about online…

Animation, VSLs, podcast-style, etc.

From my experience, all of them can work.

But they only work when you go deep on the strategy behind them.

The great thing about AI Ads is how fast you can test creatives and how much volume you can push out.

But I’d take a handful of strong creatives over wasting my time and budget on 50 weak ones any day.

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

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