Lance Wolder on Social-Inspired Ad Formats & Engagement at PadSquad

1. In your experience, how do ad formats that mimic social media interactions (e.g., swipeable, tap-to-reveal) perform compared to traditional banner or static ads? 

Our approach emphasizes thoughtful implementation of social-inspired elements across platforms, recognizing that each environment, whether mobile, desktop, or CTV, requires nuanced creative adaptation to maximize consumer connection. By carefully tailoring social interaction patterns to match platform-specific consumer behaviors and expectations, we create experiences that feel native and intuitive regardless of where they appear.

When familiar social features are used in the right context, they have been proven to drive a 5.81% engagement rate and 11X more exposure time than standard banner ads. This effectiveness is further validated by PadSquad's Social Skin creative, which is proven to outperform standard ad formats, driving 39% higher lift in brand favorability and 21% higher lift in purchase intent compared to standard ad formats. 

With a strategic application of familiar social mechanics, we’ve created a comfortable, engaging experience that resonates with audiences and drives measurable performance across diverse media environments. 

2. Which features of social platforms (polls, UGC, reactions, etc.) have you successfully adapted for your digital advertising strategy? 

We’ve successfully adapted a variety of social features into our display, video, and emerging formats—what we refer to as Social Replicas. These are ad experiences designed to emulate the familiar UI/UX of popular social platforms, creating a seamless and intuitive environment for the viewer. From social stories to feed-inspired layouts, these formats mirror the native content experience consumers are accustomed to, driving stronger engagement.

We’ve layered interactivity such as likes, shares, reactions, and swipe-ups, to invite consumers to engage with the ad the way they would on social platforms. We also incorporate both UGC-inspired and authentic UGC elements to build a sense of relatability and authenticity throughout our campaigns. Social-inspired overlays, familiar navigation cues, and contextual visual treatments reinforce the look and feel of the platforms where consumers spend the most time.

As we design these experiences, we’re mindful of how they translate across screens. What works well on mobile might need to be adapted for larger formats, including CTV, where viewing behaviors and interaction patterns differ. Social Replicas are designed with the environment, audience, and campaign goals in mind. This ensures each execution feels native and effective, no matter the screen.

3. How does your team ensure brand authenticity when designing ads to resemble user-generated or influencer-style content? 

Because we're not simply using the same exact asset in a new box, we're crafting unique ad experiences for each campaign to match its objective. Our belief is that the assets used in social are an incredible resource for brands, but our view is that you can't simply place it in another box outside of the social platforms.

4. What metrics do you use to evaluate the success of socially inspired ad formats (e.g., engagement rate, watch time, CTR)? 

Each campaign has unique objectives and outcomes, but many times we are designing the experience to hit on that key objective: video views, reach, engagement, site traffic, or even lifts in brand health metrics. The value of using the assets in new and different ways is what makes custom creative so valuable.

• Engagement metrics: interaction rate, completion rate

• Attention indicators: scroll depth, scroll speed, video completion

• Creative-specific actions: reactions, shares

• Traditional performance metrics: CTR, conversion rate, ROAS

• Brand impact: brand recall, brand preference, purchase intent

5. Is there any industry-specific compliance that limit your use of more informal, social-inspired ad styles? 

This is an area where it's not a compliance issue but one of technology limitations and lagging consumer behaviors/adoption: Interactive CTV. Unfortunately, the industry is asking for something that consumers don't innately grab the remote to do, more than that, the tech stacks for TV aren't in a place where there is uniformity in the ad serving standards, with new walled gardens in this ecosystem making the challenge even more prominent.

6. How frequently do you A/B test traditional versus social-style ad creatives?

Repetitive content risks ad fatigue and disengaged audiences. That’s why we experiment with a variety of creative formats and features, refreshing assets and messaging throughout the campaign to drive performance. Our testing goes beyond simply comparing traditional versus social-style ads. We continuously evaluate how different formats and features perform throughout the campaign. 

We also strategically adapt messaging to speak to different audiences and campaign phases. For example, the same ad format can be customized to highlight back-to-school essentials for younger students while showcasing back-to-college gear for older audiences. Similarly, an entertainment brand might evolve its messaging from “Coming Soon” to “Watch the New Trailer” to “See It This Weekend,” using unique creative assets and tailored CTAs at each stage.

This agile, audience-first approach not only helps prevent ad fatigue but ensures sustained engagement over time. By emulating the feel of social media interactions, we create a more seamless and familiar ad experience—one that drives deeper, more meaningful audience engagement.