Getting More Insights with Creative Text

Creative Text can help you refine the creatives you're looking at by searching for specific terms being used in ad copy. This feature is now available both within Pathmatics Explorer and Pathmatics Report Builder. Read on to understand our methodology and how to take full advantage of these insights.

Use Case Examples

Leveraging creative text can provide insight into a variety of advertiser messaging strategies such as:

Viewing your competitors' creative messaging during the spring sale season and how much spend was geared towards this advertising initiative.
Viewing what dates an advertiser or set of advertisers started incorporating keywords like "coronavirus" or "stay at home" into their creatives, and how much ad spend went towards these ads.
Comparing the creative messaging an advertiser is using in display ads vs. social media ads.

What We Capture

Each Device and Creative Type contains a unique methodology required to capture the creative’s text or audio messaging.

Text Source by Device and Format:

Desktop Display	OCR* Text or HTML Text
Mobile Display	OCR* Text or HTML Text
Desktop Video	Transcribed Video/Closed Caption
Mobile Video	Transcribed Video
Facebook	Post Text**
Twitter	Post Text**
Instagram	Post Text**
OTT	Transcribed Video/Ad Title Text***
Snapchat	Post Text**
TikTok	Post Text**
YouTube	Transcribed Video/Closed Caption/Ad Title Text***

* OCR stands for "Optical Character Recognition." OCR is a technology that recognizes text within a digital image.

** At this time we only capture the post text from a social post (i.e. we DO capture post text, we DO NOT title, display link, CTA, image OCR, etc.).

*** At this time we receive ad title text that corresponds to the video, which may include the advertiser, product, video topic, and keywords.

Regions

We capture text from creatives across regions for different devices.

Regions with Creative Text by Device and Format:

Desktop Display	US, CA, UK, AU, NZ, DE
Mobile Display	US, CA, UK, AU, NZ, DE
Desktop Video	US, CA, UK, AU, NZ, DE
Mobile Video	US, CA, UK, AU, NZ, DE
Facebook	US, CA, UK, AU, NZ, DE, FR, IT, ES, BR, MX, JP
Twitter	US
Instagram	US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, CA, AU, JP
OTT	US
Snapchat	US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, CA, AU
TikTok	US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, CA, AU
YouTube	US, UK, DE, CA, AU, NZ

Non-English Language Capture

For non-English HTML, OCR and Social Post text, we are able to capture the actual text the advertiser used in the ad.
For video ads, a transcription service is used that allows us to transcribe ads into English. Please note: as a result, creative text transcribed from non-English video ads may be of poor quality.

Percentage of Creative Text Captured

Each device has a different text capture rate. We capture most, but not all, text for the devices and formats listed above, with some limitations:

Instagram Story posts have no text capture
Facebook and Instagram Uncaptured creatives have limited text capture
OTT: ad title text does not include full transcription; the text may include advertiser, product, video topic, and keywords
We are currently unable to capture text in GIF display ads

Examples by Device

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Desktop Display

Mobile Display

Desktop Video and Mobile Video

OTT

YouTube

Snapchat

TikTok

How to Export Creative Text in Report Builder

Once you have set your report criteria in Step 1 of Report Builder, continue on to Step 2.
Select Creative Text from the Creative Details dropdown.

Searching for Creative Text in Explorer

While viewing an Advertiser, Brand, or Category, click Explore Creatives to get deeper insights from creatives.

Creative Filters

Narrow down creatives to only the set you’re interested in. Learn what the most commonly-used creative size, type or duration is for a given Advertiser, Brand or Category. Dive deeper into the creative strategy and intent by narrowing down the creative set.

Click All Creative Filters to filter Creatives by size, type, and video duration.

The filter will specify the number of creatives that match each size, type, and duration, so you can get insight into the most common characteristics.

Creative Keyword Search

Search keywords or phrases to dive deeper into understanding who brands are targeting with their messaging, what the creative intent is, which buzzwords are most effective, and what campaigns they are running.

Use the search box to search for keywords or phrases. This will search text visible on the creative, like the text on a Display image or Post Text from a Facebook ad.

Any creatives that match the word or phrase you searched for exactly will display.

For example, if you search “gift”, any creatives with the word “gift” will display. If you’re also interested in seeing creatives with the word “gifts”, search for “gifts” as well.

To search for creatives that contain two or more keywords, search for multiple keywords at once, then hit enter.

For example, searching “floor cleaning” or “cleaning floor” will display any creatives that have both words in them, in any order. Creatives that have only “floor” or only “cleaning” will not display.

To search for creatives that contain at least one of the keywords you searched for, search for them separately.

For example, searching for “floor” and then “cleaning” will display creatives that have “floor” OR “cleaning” in them.

Export Creatives

Click the Export dropdown at the top right to export the creative set in ZIP format.

Key Functionality