As the novelty of mobile ads wears off, advertisers must raise their creative game in order to keep consumers engaged, according to the results of a study by Dynamic Logic.
The online research firm found mobile continues to outperform online display for traditional metrics such as brand awareness and purchase intent, but suggested quality creative is essential for the medium’s continued success as users become more accustomed to ads on their devices.
“Today, poor creative can even have a negative impact on a brand, compared to the past three years when creative quality did not matter as much within mobile,” said Ali Rana, senior vice president and head of Dynamic Logic’s Emerging Media Lab.
For one, repurposed online creative just won’t cut it any more, the research suggested, while cluttered ads perform especially poorly. Instead, the key is strong branding and straightforward calls to action, Rana said, making the most of the fact mobile ads benefit from a larger proportion of screen real estate compared with online.
While mobile has traditionally performed well for high-involvement categories such as finance and auto, Dynamic Logic reported growing success for categories such as CPG, moving the needle on metrics such as favorability and purchase intent.
More in Media
Inside Bloomberg Media’s survival guide for the AI era
The business news publisher has yet to sign a content licensing deal with an AI company, but it did recently implement a new AI-powered on-site search engine.
Media Briefing: Overheard at the Digiday Publishing Summit, September 2025 Google search edition
Media execs aired their grievances about Google referral traffic and their souring relationship with platform during the Digiday Publishing Summit.
How EssentiallySports’ creator program benefits both sides of the equation
Over the past year, sports news publication EssentiallySports has employed creators to make in-house video and editorial content around major tentpole sporting events — and thus far, the experiment has paid off.