What to look for in an ad testing platform

It's no surprise that advertising teams are under more and more pressure each year. Creative must travel across more channels, meet higher performance expectations, deliver measurable business outcomes and adapt to constant change — all while timelines shrink. 

That’s why ad testing platforms have evolved from a “nice-to-have” to an essential.

In this article, I’ll dive deeper into why these platforms matter, what they actually do, how to best use them and the key things to look for when choosing your ad testing solution. Let’s dive in. 

Before diving into capabilities, it’s important to recognize what's driving these constant shifts. The answer is largely twofold: 

1. The explosion of creative volume across channels

Let’s be honest, modern campaigns rarely rely on one hero asset nowadays. Teams now produce dozens (if not more) of versions tailored for TV, CTV, TikTok, YouTube, display, retail media and more.

This means every campaign requires multiple versions of scripts, cuts, formats, lengths and hooks. And faster content cycles mean marketers need equally fast insights to keep up.

2. Higher pressure to prove creative effectiveness

Marketing budgets are even more scrutinized, and leadership wants clearer proof that creative choices drive outcomes.

CMOs expect teams to justify their spend with data, not instinct. Data-driven creative decision-making helps reduce wasted investment and increase confidence well before launch, making these insights a critical component of ad development. 

Now that we covered today’s expectations, let’s get into how these platforms help. 

Ad testing platforms have matured far beyond simple “like/dislike” surveys. Today, they offer insights from real consumers across the development lifecycle.

Evaluate creative at every stage of development

The best platforms help teams make informed decisions early, when changes are cheaper to make and faster to apply. 

• Early idea screening helps filter out weak concepts before full-scale production begins.

• Animatic/storyboard testing helps to guide narrative development.

• Pre-launch testing helps test how different versions that will span TV, digital, social and new formats perform.

• Final validation research ensures the finished spot is ready for in-market performance.

Provide standardized metrics for comparison

Maintaining and reviewing consistent metrics over time is what allows teams to learn more over time about what works and what doesn’t in their advertising. Ad testing platforms can help to establish and review these consistent metrics that matter.

• Metrics often include emotional response, brand recall, distinctiveness, purchase uplift and message clarity.

• Benchmarks by market, category and channel can reveal strengths and weaknesses at a glance.

Enable rapid iteration for better performance

Modern ad testing platforms also help accelerate creative improvement, not just evaluation.

• Quick reads or snapshot features can provide guidance on messaging, pacing or story clarity, making optimization easier.

• Teams can compare multiple versions or CTAs to identify the direction or messaging most likely to win with their audience.

Let’s take a deeper look at how insights and marketing teams are doing this. 

High-performance insights and marketing teams use these platforms not just to test a one-off ad, but to better understand their consumer and build smarter ad systems that work for their audience.

Here’s a few main ways they use these platforms to improve their advertising:

Reducing risk by validating concepts early

Early-stage testing not only prevents costly missteps (which is undeniably critical) but also reduces the time it takes to reach full-production. 

• Weak ideas can be identified and removed or optimized before large-scale production begins.

• Teams can validate whether positioning, key messages, tonal or celebrity choices and more are landing clearly and resonating with viewers.

Optimizing final creative before launch

Pre-launch tests help make final adjustments that impact ROI (exactly what you CMO is looking for!). 

• Teams are able to refine messaging, CTAs, visual cues and narrative structure to ensure it lands exactly how they meant it to before final cuts.

• This type of testing helps ensure the ad is distinct, capturing attention and resonating emotionally — all of which are crucial to in-market performance.

Building learning systems across campaigns

Why test one ad and start again with a blank slate next time around when you don’t have to? The benefit of creating connected learnings from each ad you test compounds over time, making you smarter the more you use it.

• Connecting insights helps identify patterns that emerge around what consistently drives attention, recall, sales and brand impact and more.

• These insights fuel better briefs and stronger creative across future campaigns.

How PepsiCo used Zappi to improve creative for the Super Bowl

A concrete example comes from how PepsiCo used Zappi’s advertising platform to test multiple animatic/storyboard versions of a Super Bowl ad for Cheetos Popcorn. They used Zappi to measure second-by-second emotional responses and brand recall from real consumers, then used those insights to optimize the tone, pacing and narrative — ultimately selecting a version with stronger emotional resonance, distinctiveness and brand fit before committing to production.

That kind of pre-launch validation helped reduce risk for an ad being launched at a major time in the US, as well as ensure creative effectiveness and support a data-driven decision instead of relying on instinct or internal opinion. 

“Since partnering with Zappi, our creative effectiveness has improved by 30% across all our advertising. This equates to PepsiCo gaining hundreds of millions in value!”

- Stephan Gans, SVP Chief Consumer Insights & Analytics Officer, PepsiCo

Of course, not all solutions are built for the pace and complexity of today’s marketing environment. Here are the non-negotiables:

1. Speed and automation

• Fast study/survey setup, automated sampling and instant dashboards.

• Easy-to-use interfaces and reports so insights teams can focus on guidance and learnings.

2. Consistent, validated methodology

• Metrics should meaningfully correlate with in-market outcomes and creative effectiveness.

• Results must be comparable across offerings, campaigns and channels to enable true connected learnings.

3. Flexibility across channels and formats

• Users should be able to test across TV, CTV, social, digital video, display, static creative, retail media assets and other emerging formats.

• The platform should have the ability to test across markets with consistent methodology.

Zappi’s advertising platform is built specifically for modern creative teams that need speed, scale, rigor and the ability to connect learnings over time.

A unified methodology across all creative formats

• Emotional, attention and brand metrics are embedded into every test, regardless of channel.

• This consistency allows teams to confidently compare performance across assets and campaigns.

Automated workflows that accelerate testing

• Research is completed in hours, not days or weeks.

• Automated setup and modular workflows make it easy to run multiple variations and iterate rapidly.

A scalable system built for enterprise teams

• Benchmarks across markets, categories and creative formats offer instant context.

• Supercharged by AI, Zappi's AI Quick Reports deliver fast, expert-driven summaries that instantly reveal how your ads perform and why.

As creative expectations rise and content cycles accelerate, ad testing platforms have become a need-to-have for organizations. But the right ad testing platform doesn’t just validate creative, it strengthens decision-making, lowers risk and helps to fuel continuous, connected learning across campaigns.

The teams that choose these platforms are the ones best equipped to deliver breakthrough creative, again and again.