09.9.2024
I'll kick this off with a bonus reason why you should use DCO advertising;
81% of Gen Z prefers personalised ads.
This stat highlights DCO advertising as a super powerful tool in digital marketing, allowing for highly personalised and dynamic ads.
However, DCO advertising can be overkill in some situations. Read more about that below - and reach out by clicking my face if you have any questions.
Sander Boesen
Content Marketing Manager / Zuuvi
Quick guide:
BREAKING: You can now automate your DCO campaigns! With our new creative automation, Display Automation, your DCO campaigns can be even more efficient and creative than before.
Read more about that right here.
What is DCO?
So what is DCO really?
Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO advertising) is a type of programmatic advertising that automatically creates personalised ads for your audience in real time. It uses data regarding what people are interested in, where they are, or their online behaviour to show them the most relevant ad. So instead of one-size-fits-all, DCO ads are tailored to fit different people, boosting engagement and performance. All of this is covered in-depth in our full guide on DCO ads.
Is DCO the Right Choice For Every Campaign?
Well, not necessarily. While DCO is great for personalising ads at scale, it might be overkill for smaller, simpler campaigns. If you’re running a straightforward campaign without a lot of variation or you don’t have the data to fuel the dynamic elements, sticking with standard ads could be the better move.
It’s all about finding the right balance - DCO shines when you need to reach different audiences with tailored messages, but for some projects, a simpler approach works just fine. More on that below!
4 Reasons You Should Use DCO
Now that you’ve got a quick refresher on what DCO ads are, let’s look into why it could be the perfect fit for your next campaign. Whether you're juggling multiple audience segments or looking to boost engagement with personalised content, DCO has some serious perks.
Below you'll find four key reasons why creating DCO ads can take your advertising game to the next level.
But first; a quick heads up... You can actually test out your own product feed in a DCO format by following the link in the bottom of this page.
You Need Personalisation at Scale
In today’s advertising world, personalisation isn’t just a nice-to-have - it’s essential. DCO shines when you need to reach different audience segments with tailored messages. Instead of creating a separate ad for each group manually, DCO uses data like location, user interests, and browsing behaviour to automatically customise your creatives. Whether it’s swapping images, changing headlines, or tweaking offers, Dynamic Creative Optimisation ensures that each user sees the most relevant ad for them.
It’s almost as if you get to have a personal conversation with every customer, without the extra legwork. This level of personalisation boosts engagement and helps your brand stand out in a crowded digital space.
You Prioritise Time Efficiency in Ad Versioning
We all know how time-consuming it can be to create multiple versions of the same ad—especially when you’re running campaigns across different platforms, languages, and demographics. This is where DCO becomes a lifesaver. With just a few clicks, you can generate hundreds of ad variations based on a single template.
Need to update text or images across all your ads? With Zuuvi, you can live-edit your DCO ads if the need arises. This means that by using DCO you can create hundreds, even thousands of ads from the same template, while still being able to edit all of them in just seconds. This efficiency not only saves your team countless hours but also keeps your campaigns fresh and relevant, even if you’re working with tight deadlines.
You Want Increased Creative Performance
It’s one thing to launch a campaign, but keeping it optimised is where the real challenge lies.
The most advanced DCO tools have the ability to automatically tests different versions of your ads in real time, constantly learning which combinations are driving the most clicks, conversions, or engagements. If one variation outperforms the others, the DCO tool will prioritise it, ensuring your audience always sees the best possible version. One of these tools is Google Studio, which Zuuvi integrates seamlessly with. You can read much more about that right here.
This ability to dynamically optimise on the fly means you get more out of every campaign, with better results and less manual adjustment.
You’re Targeting Various Markets and Audiences
If your campaign targets a wide range of markets, languages, or demographics, DCO is your go-to tool. Instead of managing lots of separate campaigns in different languages, tones of voices etc., DCO allows you to handle all your creative variations from a single hub. Whether you're targeting different regions, age groups, or interest-based segments, DCO can be used to automatically adjust your ads to fit each specific audience.
This not only keeps your messaging consistent but also ensures that every audience gets a personalised experience, without requiring extra effort from your team. It’s a smart way to keep your campaign organised while maximising its impact across diverse audience groups.
3 Reasons You Shouldn't Use DCO
While DCO advertising can be a game-changer for many campaigns, it’s not always the perfect fit for every situation. Like any tool, there are times when DCO ads might be more of a hassle than a help. Whether it’s budget limitations, a lack of data, or simply running a straightforward campaign, sometimes the complexity of DCO advertising isn’t worth the investment.
Let’s look at three key reasons why you might want to skip using DCO ads for certain campaigns.
Budget Constraints
While DCO advertising offer incredible personalisation and efficiency, it's a tool that is best used for bigger campaigns, and therefore slightly larger budgets. Setting up and maintaining a DCO advertising campaign requires not only technology investment but also data management and optimisation efforts. If your budget is tight or your campaign is smaller in scope, the cost of DCO advertising might outweigh the benefits. In these cases, sticking to traditional display ad campaigns can help you manage costs while still achieving your goals, without the added complexity and expense that come with DCO ads.
Simple Campaigns Don't Require It
Not every campaign needs the complexity of DCO ads. If your campaign is straightforward, with a single message or a small, uniform target audience, DCO advertising may be overkill. For example, if you’re running a short-term promotion or a product launch that doesn’t require multiple variations or personalised messaging, normal display ads can be just as effective. In these cases, investing in DCO advertising could add unnecessary complexity without providing much added value.
So in short: Keep it simple when your campaign doesn’t demand the advanced features of DCO ads.
Lack of Data Availability
This is a key reason why DCO ads may struggle in your set-up as DCO advertising thrives on data - it's what powers the personalisation and dynamic elements of DCO ads. But if you don’t have access to various data, such as customer demographics, behaviour, or preferences, then DCO ads won’t be the right choice for you. But if you're part of a setup that doesn't have the data collection and storage that DCO demands, you should be looking into what can be done to gather this kind of data.
It is not as difficult as it may sound and it can make a huge difference for your company's marketing options.
Without the right data, the dynamic elements that make DCO advertising so powerful can’t function properly. In these situations, it might be better to wait with DCO ads until you’ve gathered enough data to fully take advantage of what DCO advertising can offer.
Conclusion
Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) can be a powerful tool for delivering personalised and optimised advertising at scale, but it’s not always the right solution for every campaign. When you have a fragmented audience, need quick and efficient ad versioning, or want to boost creative performance, DCO advertising is a game-changer. However, if you’re working with a limited budget, running a simple campaign, or don’t have enough data to fuel dynamic content, simpler ads might be a better fit.
The key is knowing when to leverage DCO ads for maximum impact and when to keep things simple. You can read much more about DCO advertising using Zuuvi here.
If you're wondering what your products would look like as DCO ads, click the button below to find out!