In the relentless quest for performance, marketers are battling ad fatigue and the need to deliver relevant, personalized experiences at scale. Static ads often fall flat, and even standard video can struggle to cut through the noise. Enter Dynamic Video Ads (DVAs) – a powerful creative format transforming how brands connect with audiences and drive results.

If you're a performance marketer aiming to elevate your creative strategy and unlock major ROAS improvements, Dynamic Video Ads aren't just an option—they're a necessity.

This guide breaks it all down: what DVAs are, their key benefits, the most compelling use cases, types of DVAs, and best practices for launching them effectively, especially using a platform like Smartly.

Why Video Belongs at the Center of Your Performance Strategy

Video is the new foundation of performance marketing. Static ads struggle to keep up with changing user behavior and rising creative expectations. Whether your goal is to stop the scroll, explain a complex product, or drive conversions at scale, video delivers across every key metric.

In fact, Smartly data and industry benchmarks show that video ads consistently outperform static creative when it comes to:

• View time and attention: People engage longer with motion-driven content
• Click-through rates (CTR): Video increases the likelihood of user interaction
• Conversion rates (CVR): Personalized video speeds up the journey to purchase
• Brand recall and lift: Even short video ads improve top-of-funnel impact

And with creative automation tools and AI-powered optimization, building and scaling video no longer has to mean weeks of production work. With the right strategy and platform, you can launch smarter video ads faster.

What Are Dynamic Video Ads?

Dynamic Video Ads are personalized video ads assembled in real time, automatically tailored to each viewer using feed-based or contextual data. Think of it like personalized video at scale.

A DVA = Pre-designed Template + Feed or Signal-Based Data + Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)

Whether it's a product catalog or live contextual inputs like weather or location, Smartly’s engine stitches together dynamic elements on the fly, creating hyper-relevant, personalized video for each viewer.

This makes DVAs distinct from standard video or static Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs). While DPAs are catalog-based static image ads, DVAs use video templates that incorporate motion, branding, and dynamic personalization for a more engaging, scalable experience.

Why Dynamic Video Ads Drive Performance

Dynamic Video Ads (DVAs) are a powerful tool for driving performance and unlocking significant return on ad spend. Their ability to deliver personalized, data-driven creative at scale makes them a must-have in the performance marketer’s toolkit. Here’s why they work so well:

Massive Scalability

Creating video variations manually is time-consuming, resource-intensive, and limits your ability to test and iterate. DVAs solve this by using a single, well-designed template to automatically generate thousands of personalized videos. This lets you cover your full product catalog or multiple audience segments without overwhelming your creative team, scaling your video output without sacrificing quality.

Personalization That Performs

Consumers expect relevance, and DVAs deliver by tailoring each video to individual viewers. Whether it’s showcasing recently viewed products, referencing the viewer’s location, or adjusting messaging based on the time of day or local weather, these ads feel timely and contextual. This level of personalization helps your brand show up in a way that’s more helpful than salesy, boosting trust and driving action.

Better Engagement & CTR

It’s no secret that video outperforms static creative in grabbing attention, but dynamic video goes even further. When viewers see content specifically relevant to them, like an ad that reflects the weather or location, they’re more likely to engage. This leads to noticeable increases in click-through rates (CTR), particularly on platforms like Meta and YouTube, where engagement is a core performance signal.

Improved Conversion Rates & ROAS

DVAs shorten the path to conversion by delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. Instead of serving a generic promotion, they show the specific product someone browsed or similar items they may be interested in. This tailored approach can significantly increase conversion rates (CVR) and boost return on ad spend (ROAS), as demonstrated by many Smartly clients who’ve switched from static video or image-based campaigns.

Creative Efficiency

By decoupling creative from production volume, DVAs allow teams to do more with less. You only need to build your video template once, then feed in dynamic elements to keep the content fresh and relevant across audiences. This frees your team from constantly iterating individual assets, enabling them to focus on higher-level strategy, testing, and optimization.

Brand Consistency

Dynamic doesn’t have to mean chaotic. DVAs give you the ability to lock in key brand elements—logos, colors, fonts, audio cues—while still customizing the messaging. This means every video feels aligned with your brand identity, even as the content flexes to fit different viewers. It’s the perfect balance between personalization and polish.

High-Impact Retargeting

Retargeting is where DVAs really shine. Rather than showing a generic reminder ad, you can serve a dynamic video that features the exact item someone viewed. This kind of tailored follow-up increases the likelihood of conversion and helps reclaim users who might otherwise have dropped off the path to purchase.

Get Started with Dynamic Video Ads

Dynamic Video Ads are a game changer for performance marketers, uniting automation, relevance, and creative scale together in one format. With Smartly’s robust DVA capabilities, you can turn static messages into high-performing, hyper-personalized video that converts.

Want to see it in action? Request a demo and explore how Smartly can power your next level of video performance.

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