Objective

NA-KD recognized that dynamic product ads perform well, but often lack brand impact. Conversely, editorial ads deliver visual appeal but are resource-intensive and limited in relevance. NA-KD sought to combine the brand impact of premium editorial imagery with the scale, personalization, and performance of feed-driven dynamic product ads on paid social. The objective was to move beyond traditional dynamic product ads and separate static editorial campaigns, and instead create a single automated format that increased engagement, lowered acquisition costs, and drove incremental revenue—without adding manual production burden to creative teams.

Solution

Together with their agency Precis, NA-KD used the AI-powered advertising platform Smartly to launch “Automated Editorials” on Meta. This new solution appears as a polished single-image editorial ad but behaves like a personalized dynamic product ad. Using Smartly, the team built image templates that turned NA-KD’s existing lifestyle, lookbook and UGC assets into a canvas for performance: editorial images formed the backdrop, while automation and a product catalog powered personalization with logos, messaging and relevant products. This approach allowed NA-KD to preserve its distinctive brand look and feel while generating hundreds of on-brand variations at scale.

To make the creative truly dynamic, the team first strengthened the data foundation. Products supported by suitable editorial imagery were labeled in the feed and mapped to custom image fields, specifying which items could appear in Automated Editorials. Smartly’s creative templates were used to produce creatives for all key placements at once, while automated campaign management handled campaign setup, scaling across markets and audiences. Rather than running separate editorial and catalog campaigns, NA-KD consolidated into a single feed-driven setup that supplied richer creative and conversion signals back to Meta.

To evaluate performance, the team ran a multi-cell lift study comparing business-as-usual (BAU) campaigns—using separate editorial and dynamic product ad setups—against the unified Automated Editorials approach. The new format significantly increased creative diversity, scaling from a handful of static assets to more than 200 dynamic, editorial-style creatives, while reducing the burden on creative resources. Performance gains were equally strong: Automated Editorials delivered approximately 60% more revenue, a 95% increase in click-through rate, and a 38% lower cost of sale, while also reducing cost per click by 46% compared to BAU.

Based on these results, NA-KD has begun reusing the same templates to support rapid sale and promotional messaging and is exploring opportunities to scale the approach across additional categories and business objectives.

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