Scale personalised ads with dynamic creative automation

Quick takeaway

Dynamic Creative Automation (DCA) builds tailored ad variations in real time. It blends data-driven insights with automated creative tools to boost results.

• Improves campaign performance by 40–70% with personalised messaging

• Cuts creative production time by up to 90%

• Tests thousands of creative combinations across channels and audiences at once

What is Dynamic Creative Automation?

Dynamic Creative Automation (DCA) is the system behind scalable, personalised creative. It automatically assembles ad variations by combining pre-approved assets, copy, and logic based on audience data.

Unlike fixed creative, DCA is modular. It pulls from a structured library of components, combining them in different ways to match user behaviour, location, context, and preferences. Without the need for manual production.

DCA platforms integrate with programmatic systems, enabling cross-channel delivery of brand-safe, relevant creative.

Who is it for?

DCA is built for:

• Brand teams: Keep messaging consistent while tailoring for region, audience, or timing

• Retailers: Deliver location-aware promotions, product feeds, and seasonal updates

• Creative agencies: Automate volume while protecting brand and visual identity

• In-house teams: Scale asset deployment and reduce production delays

If you're balancing brand control with the need to scale and personalise, DCA fits.

Why use DCA?

Personalisation at scale

Serve the right message, format, and visual to the right person at the right time, without compromising design integrity.

Speed and efficiency

Build thousands of creative variants in hours, not weeks. Reuse and remix assets across campaigns and audiences.

Enable continuous testing

Test creative variants continuously - either automatically or manually - based on what’s performing. Adapt, learn, and improve with less guesswork.

Consistency across channels

Make sure your brand speaks in one voice, even across display, video, social, and press. Each platform gets what it needs, without losing brand control.

How it works

Visual flow:
Assets → Data input → Templates & rules → Ad variants → Channel delivery → Feedback loop

Key components:

• Asset management: Store and manage your brand elements - copy, visuals, logos, colours - all in one place

• Data integration: Connect to your DAM, analytics, or third-party platforms to drive decisions

• Template logic: Define how assets are customised, and what rules to follow

• Performance tracking: Learn what’s working and adjust quickly, across audiences and channel

What it’s not

DCA is often confused with similar tools. Here’s how to tell them apart:

• Not dynamic ad insertion: That just swaps out static elements. DCA adapts the ad each time.

• Not just A/B testing: DCA handles full creative combinations, not one change at a time.

• Not Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO):

  • DCA builds the system: templates, assets, creative logic

  • DCO chooses the winners: selecting top performers live, based on results

  • Think of DCA as the factory. DCO is the foreman. DCA builds the parts and assembles the ads. DCO decides which versions leave the floor - and which stay behind.

Implementation tips

• Start simple: Try testing headlines or images before building complex variations

• Segment by audience: Let different customer groups guide your creative structure

• Customise by channel: Respect the tone and norms of each platform, while keeping the brand intact

• Maintain guardrails: Build brand guidelines and compliance checks into your setup from the start

Next-level tactics

• Predictive optimisation: Use machine learning to forecast what’ll work before a campaign runs

• Sequential storytelling: Guide users through a journey with creative that adapts at each step

• Contextual relevance: Tailor ads to things like weather, time of day, or user location

• Cross-device continuity: Create seamless experiences from phone to laptop to in-app

Related terms

• Ad rotation: Enhanced by DCA’s smarter selection

• Creative automation: The wider field DCA belongs to

• A/B and multivariate testing (MVT): DCA simplifies and scales both

• Customer relationship management (CRM): A key data source for targeting

• Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO): Built on top of DCA for live performance tuning

• Personalisation: The whole point of DCA

• Performance marketing: A major use case for DCA

• Creative templates: The reusable scaffolds that make DCA run

Final word

DCA doesn’t replace creativity - it gives it room to grow. It helps teams move faster, test better, and serve more relevant content across every touchpoint.

Paired with Dynamic Creative Optimisation, it becomes a cycle: build at scale, learn from results, improve continuously.