Yahoo Creative Turns One: Building Creative for the Pace of Programmatic

95%¹. That’s the percentage of advertisers who told us they faced challenges when building and managing creatives for ad campaigns in the programmatic ecosystem. That’s a staggering number. It’s also what fueled us to rethink the equation.

Such a task required us to first (most importantly) listen to clients - many of which had a heavy hand in shaping our strategy - and secondly, do what other creative platforms hadn’t - build intelligent creative offerings directly integrated with programmatic media. Oh… and as it turns out… staffing absolute ninja designers & engineers to produce high fidelity outputs is wildly important regardless of your goals.

So that’s what we did…

Last year at Cannes, we launched Yahoo Creative—and the early energy and optimism around it confirmed we were onto something big. Yahoo Creative combines our collaborative, full-service support model with robust creative tech—featuring a comprehensive ad server and a powerful dynamic creative solution, seamlessly integrated with Yahoo DSP. 

Since launch, we’ve welcomed over 70 new clients and are collecting positive feedback from partners who are benefitting from our new offerings, 

For example, OMD partnered with Yahoo Creative to bring dynamic formats to life—without compromising control. By working within OMD’s existing media strategy, we helped  enhance campaign execution with engaging, performance-optimized ad experiences.

"What made Yahoo Creative stand out was their ability to work within our media strategy—not around it," said Kellyn Freeman, Associate Director, Digital Investment at OMD. "We maintained full control over our inventory, while their team brought our creative to life through dynamic, performance-optimized formats. It was a true partnership that elevated both our execution and our outcomes.”

Collaboration Drives Success 

What’s the point if it doesn’t drive outcomes? The performance we’ve seen across the funnel has validated our investment and helped our clients achieve better outcomes in their campaigns.

Amongst advertisers measuring conversion outcomes, we’ve seen a 6x increase in conversion rates on average — highlighting the incremental upside of deploying advanced creative strategy as a complement to your programmatic media activation in Yahoo DSP.²

One of the bedrocks of Yahoo Creative is the advanced and data-centric dynamic creative capabilities. The concept of personalization isn't new, but the ability to execute it seamlessly is an art we’ve mastered. With the rise of first-party data, AI-modeled audiences, and the convergence of brand and performance goals, our dynamic tools help tailor messaging across the user journey.

We brought this to life with our partners at eToro. They needed support to deliver personalized, high-impact messaging across both display and video. We leaned in and brought their vision to life across global markets. 

“Yahoo Creative’s multi-variant dynamic offering has enabled us to scale creative production efficiently and personalise ads across display and video, which has resulted in a significant decrease in acquisition costs per customer. By extending dynamic creative capabilities into Germany, we've been able to boost the impact of media through tailored messaging at scale," said Max Judge, Digital Marketing Manager at eToro.

What sets Yahoo apart is how closely Yahoo Creative works with Yahoo DSP—bringing creative and media together in a more connected experience. This tight integration helps marketers move faster, work smarter, and drive better results across every channel.

“One unique advantage at Yahoo when developing these new creative offerings was the opportunity to seamlessly connect Yahoo Creative and Yahoo DSP — consolidating logins, enabling mirrored audience access, and integrating performance and spend data directly into the platform,” shared Bryan Hess, Senior Manager of Display & Video at ALG Vacations. “These unique points of integration make access, setup, and optimization more intuitive and fluid with your media buys at every step.” 

Unlocking Efficiencies Across Teams and Partners

It has been exciting to see the incremental value creative has added to Yahoo DSP for partners like ALG Vacations, BRP, Convene, eToro, and OMD — all of whom have benefited directly from our new creative solutions with Yahoo Creative.

“We truly appreciated the Yahoo Creative team’s thoughtful and design-forward approach. They took the time to understand our goals and delivered polished, high-quality creative that elevated our brand presence. The refreshed ad units not only launched quickly, but also drove stronger results across every channel,” said Abby Peskorse, Director of Demand Generation at Convene.

The impact of our technology extends beyond client benefits—it’s also transformed our internal operations. Our design and development teams are now empowered to do more. We've delivered 11x more creative builds compared to the same time last year, giving our team more time to focus on design innovation and skill development.³ One designer even tested 30 AI tools in 30 days, sharing learnings to help upskill the entire team.

It’s been incredible to see how our investment has elevated both our clients and our internal teams—bringing the original vision for Yahoo Creative to life, faster than we imagined.

Just Getting Started

The past year our focus has been clear: build smarter technology and strengthen the relationships with the advertisers who trust us. We’ve made major strides, but this is just the beginning. 

As we look to the year ahead, we’re focused on accelerating that momentum. Our priority is continued product innovation that delivers real value to advertisers—advancements  with AI-powered optimization, faster creative tooling, and expanded personalization capabilities to drive precision, speed, and scale.

We’re excited about what’s next! 

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¹ Advertiser Perceptions Omnibus, April 2024

² Yahoo DSP Internal Data, April 2024- April 2025

³ Yahoo Creative Internal data, Q2'24 - Q2'25