Ad creative is the primary way advertisers optimize their campaigns and the biggest driver of campaign success.
The first few days
CPM volatility in the first few days is normal. AppLovin's AI engine is learning what converts and optimizing towards users most likely to take action.
Within the first 3 days, watch for:
- All pixel events firing cleanly within reporting
- Early purchases or a creative set starting to claim a growing share of spend
Monitoring creative performance
Spend naturally concentrates toward the best-performing creative sets. A creative set claiming 20–40% of total spend is a strong signal of a winner and a good indicator of which hooks to double down on.
Always evaluate performance at the campaign level. A winning creative set should correspond with your campaign starting to hit or exceed its target.
Optimizing with creative
Upload new creative as you have it. Top advertisers refresh weekly. More variety means more opportunities to match your message to the right user at the right moment.
When a winner emerges, act on it immediately:
- Ship multiple iterations (new hooks, new openers, adjusted pacing, etc...) and variations of the winning video.
- Don't skip your interactives. They drive a significant share of ad performance. Focus on social proof and promo-driven hooks to drive action.
- Build from what's proven rather than starting new concepts from scratch.
Learn more about creative volume and diversity ↗
Scaling budget
When your campaign is consistently hitting its goals, that’s the right time to increase spend.
- Most advertisers increase budgets incrementally and on a daily basis as long as performance holds.
- Make larger budget changes at 12:00 AM UTC, when campaigns reset. Changes made then distribute evenly across the full day.
- Launch fresh creative alongside bigger increases. More spend means more reach and frequency, so new messaging helps avoid fatigue and maintain momentum.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Not having a mix of top, middle, and bottom of funnel creatives. The model needs creative that covers the full purchase journey. Make sure you have messaging that meets users at every stage.
- Repurposing social ads without adapting them. AppLovin is a fullscreen, full-attention environment, not a feed. You have 30+ seconds of uninterrupted viewing time to educate, build context, and earn the click.
- Keeping videos too short. The top 5% of ads on the platform average 37 seconds. More time means more opportunity to move someone down the funnel.
- Setting your ROAS or CPP target too high from the start. Aggressive targets limit spend before there's enough data to optimize. Starting closer to breakeven gives campaigns room to perform.
- Pausing creatives too soon. A creative that isn't your top performer can still be playing a role. Pulling assets early limits the model's ability to match the right message to the right user.