AI Ads Now Match Human Creative-And Sometimes Beat It
Taboola, working with researchers from Columbia University, Harvard, Technical University of Munich, and Carnegie Mellon, analysed hundreds of thousands of live ads on Realize over 500 million impressions and 3 million clicks. The takeaway: generative AI creative performs on par with human work in driving clicks and conversions.
Production has gotten faster and cheaper with AI. This study shows performance doesn't have to suffer because of it.
Key findings
- AI vs. human: performance parity. In raw results, AI ads posted a 0.76% CTR vs. 0.65% for human creative; under tight controls, performance was comparable.
- "Don't look like AI." AI ads that felt natural (not synthetic) delivered the strongest engagement, outperforming both human ads and "AI-looking" ads.
- Faces build trust. Large, clear human faces were a top driver of "human" perception and trust. AI ads, following platform best practices, used these cues more consistently than human-made ads.
- No trade-off on conversions. AI-generated visuals maintained or improved CTR without hurting downstream conversion rates.
- Early adopters. Food & drink and personal finance brands leaned in first.
Why this matters for creatives
You can scale production without sacrificing performance. That means more concepts shipped, faster testing cycles, and tighter feedback loops-without the fear of tanking ROAS.
The craft still matters. The best AI ads are the ones that feel human, grounded, and trustworthy.
How to apply this now
- Run "sibling" tests. For each ad set, publish an AI version and a human version on the same day with identical targeting and landing pages. Compare CTR and conversion, not just thumbs-up comments.
- Prioritize faces. Use a single, well-lit, front-facing human subject with natural expression. Avoid plastic skin, distorted hands, and uncanny eyes.
- Prompt for realism. Specify lighting, camera angle, skin texture, and compression. Add "authentic," "candid," "subtle retouch" and avoid "hyper-smooth," "overly glossy," or "3D render" cues.
- Keep copy clean. One message, one benefit, one CTA. Let the face and framing do the heavy lifting.
- Protect conversion quality. Track post-click events. If CTR rises but CPA worsens, refine targeting, headlines, and offer relevance.
- Use a style QA checklist. Skin tone consistency, eye alignment, hand accuracy, brand color balance, legible logos, policy-safe content.
- Bank winners. Build a library of top-performing AI prompts, lighting setups, and compositions for reuse across campaigns.
Methodology in brief
The research used a quasi-experimental "sibling ads" design-matched pairs of AI and human ads from the same advertiser, for the same campaign, on the same day. This controlled for advertiser identity, timing, audience targeting, and landing pages to isolate the creative effect.
"Taboola's platform provided us with a literal gold mine of real-world data that is simply unavailable in a lab setting. By analysing over 500 million impressions, we were able to move past the hype of GenAI and uncover its real impact in large scale settings," said Oded Netzer, Vice Dean for Research, Columbia Business School. "Our findings prove that when AI is used to enhance human cues-like the trust found in a human face-it doesn't just match human performance; it often sets a new ceiling for engagement."
Creative checklist for AI ads
- Subject: One prominent human face, strong eye contact, natural expression.
- Composition: Tight crop, minimal background clutter, brand color accents.
- Lighting: Soft, natural light; avoid extreme glow or plastic sheen.
- Texture: Preserve pores and micro-contrast; avoid overly smoothed skin.
- Policy & accuracy: Hands, eyes, text, and logos must look real and be legible.
- Variant set: Produce 5-10 controlled variations changing one variable at a time.
Level up your AI creative workflow
If you're building a high-output ad system, sharpen both tooling and process. A small upgrade to prompting, QA, and testing cadence can multiply results.
- AI tools for copywriting to speed up concepting and iteration.
- AI certification for marketing specialists to formalize skills and workflows.
Your membership also unlocks:
