Applies To: Core & Commercial
Version: 1.0.x

What Is a Creative?

A Creative is the advertisement itself.

If an Advertiser owns the advertising and a Campaign organizes it, the Creative is what your visitors actually see on your website. It may be an image advertisement, custom HTML, affiliate code, or another supported advertising format.

Every Creative belongs to a Campaign, allowing related advertisements to be managed together while sharing the same campaign settings.

Why Do I Need a Creative?

Without a Creative, there is nothing for WaypointAds to display.

A Campaign provides the management and organization, but the Creative provides the visual content that appears in your display zones.

Many campaigns contain more than one Creative. This allows advertisements to be rotated, refreshed for seasonal promotions, or tested using different designs while remaining part of the same Campaign.

What Information Can Be Stored?

Depending on the Creative type, you can configure information such as:

1. Creative title
2. Advertisement image
3. Destination URL
4. Alternative text
5. Opening behavior
6. HTML or affiliate code
7. Display dates
8. Approval status
9. Display options

WayPointAds stores everything needed to display and manage each advertisement correctly.

Creating a Creative

Creating a Creative is straightforward.

Open the Creatives manager and select New, or use the convenient Save & Add Creative option immediately after creating a Campaign.

Choose the Creative type, complete the available fields, review your settings, and save the record.

Once approved and associated with a suitable Campaign and Zone, the Creative becomes available for display.

Creative Approval

WayPointAds includes an approval workflow to help administrators maintain control over advertising content.

Depending on your configuration, newly created Creatives may require administrator approval before they become eligible for display.

This helps ensure that advertisements meet your website's standards before appearing to visitors.

Editing a Creative

Creatives can be updated whenever required.

You might replace an outdated advertisement, update a destination link, correct alternative text, or upload a revised image without changing the Campaign it belongs to.

This makes it easy to keep advertising current while preserving campaign organization and statistics.

Deleting a Creative

Creatives can be removed whenever they are no longer required.

Removing a Creative affects only that individual advertisement. The Campaign remains available and additional Creatives may be added at any time.

If a Campaign contains no remaining Creatives, it simply has nothing available to display until another Creative is created.

Best Practices

Well-designed Creatives are more likely to attract attention and encourage visitors to engage with your advertisements.

We recommend:

1. Use high-quality images.
2. Write meaningful alternative text.
3. Keep destination links up to date.
4. Match Creative sizes to their intended display zones.
5. Replace outdated advertisements rather than leaving expired promotions active.

Small improvements to your Creatives can make a significant difference to the overall effectiveness of an advertising campaign.

What Comes Next?

Now that you have a Creative, the final step is deciding where it will appear.

That's the job of Zones, which determine where advertisements are displayed throughout your Joomla website.