Marketers lack the infrastructure and shared standards to scale and measure effectiveness. Many are turning to AI to reshape creative workflows

TripleLift, the world’s leading Creative SSP, launched a report in partnership with EMARKETER revealing a concerning disconnect: while the majority of marketers (83.5%) see creative as a powerful performance driver, many lack consensus on what defines a ‘great creative’ and struggle to scale it across channels. That leaves over 2 in 5 teams operating without a unified standard, which is slowing feedback loops, complicating approvals, and increasing inefficiencies.

The report, based on a survey of 164 US marketers, explores how they are approaching creative effectiveness, the methods they use to measure performance and the tools that can help scale impact. When asked to define quality creative, clear brand storytelling (69.5%) and visually compelling design (69.5%) were the most cited attributes. Personalization and relevance to the audience (66.5%) was also ranked as important, highlighting the need for effective audience segmentation and targeting.

“True creative excellence remains elusive because we lack a shared language and common metrics,” said Toccara Baker, vice president of marketing at TripleLift. “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.”

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Marketers are Already Leaning on AI to Streamline Production

Marketers have already embraced AI across a range of creative tasks including generating ad copy (50%), images and video (37.8%), and ensuring contextual content alignment. Over half expect workflow automation to be AI’s biggest contribution over the next two years, followed by performance optimization (48.2%) and insights and reporting (43.3%). These findings signal a shift in the usage of AI – one that places the focus on operational efficiency in support of strategic creativity.

“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,” said Max Willens, Senior Analyst at EMARKETER in the report. “That will require a significant revision to how brands and agencies approach that process.”

Infrastructure Gaps Hold Creative Back

Reaching consumers across an increasingly complex digital landscape requires marketers to deploy campaigns across multiple channels and platforms. According to the survey, online video (79.9%), display (77.4%) and native (66.5%) are currently the top formats used in digital advertising. Connected TV (CTV), adopted by half of respondents, comes last but with a potential to grow fast as US viewership rises.

The report finds that despite marketers’ desire to deliver relevant creative at scale across channels, many lack the infrastructure to do so. Limited asset updates (54.3%) and insufficient creative versions (51.8%) are the top causes for underperformance in programmatic campaigns, while overreliance on a single format reduces creative effectiveness for nearly half of marketers.

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Measurement is a Priority, but Gaps Persist

While the majority (71.3%) say creative evaluation has grown more important, just 58.5% regularly connect creative quality to performance, and only 51.2% have reliable metrics or dashboards to do so. As demand for data-driven insights grows, 73.2% expect data analysis to play a greater role in creative success. To unlock creative’s full potential, measurement needs to evolve from reactive reporting to proactive, real-time tracking.

“The key is to close the loop between creative diagnostics and outcome metrics,” said Izzy Morris, paid social and programmatic lead at Vodafone, a TripleLift client. “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 with strategies marketers can adopt to improve creative effectiveness, including:

• Establishing creative standards to align cross-functional teams
• Using AI to accelerate scale and efficiency while maintaining human oversight
• Investing in creative analytics to tie assets to outcomes
• Treating creative as a strategic lever across the full funnel