Amplify Ads

Condé Nast
Interface design
2022

Condé Nast’s Amplify division focuses on elevating the performance of their online advertising campaigns and digital content distribution globally. The Amplify ads manager utilizes proprietary machine learning algorithms, analyzing vast amounts of data to optimize targeting and spend and ultimately boost ad performance.

The challenge

The task at hand was to create something of a super ads manager — while each social media platform provides its own ads manager, the Amplify team needed to be able to efficiently manage and optimize ad campaigns across multiple social media platforms, all from one place. The challenge in this was to design an experience where so many capabilities are presented to the user in a clear way and a large number of assets can be managed effectively.

Solutions

Designing for efficiency

Due to the ever-evolving nature of social media advertising and the growing list of capabilities continually being added, the need to maximize efficiency in the campaign creation and management process was crucial. In earlier stages of design, this process was more segmented, with the levels of campaign creation (campaigns, ad sets, ads) in separate create and edit flows. I eventually combined these flows in a design that features a sidebar navigation for one or more campaigns and their nested levels. Combining these flows created lengthy settings layouts but ultimately allowed campaign managers to view and manage everything quickly from one place.

Enabling ads management at scale

To manage a high number of campaigns at scale, we needed to design and develop a pretty sophisticated campaign list view that features a number of filter options, surfaces a large amount of information and allows for bulk editing via multi-selection. The design also had to accommodate for slightly different management experiences, often derived from the campaigns’ objectives. Managers can customize their list views to get to the right information faster.

Managing creative assets

Campaign managers at Condé Nast assemble ad creative for each platform while building out campaigns. This meant that Amplify ads has to account for all of the configurations and placements for each of the platforms’ creative types and provide accurate previews. This proved challenging, especially when having to rely on platform APIs. The team debated whether or not we should attempt to provide and maintain accurate creative previews within the interface or force the user to link out to external previews. In these situations, I try to provide the ideal experience in design and see if we can work through technical issues as much as possible, scaling back if necessary. In this case, we were ultimately able to work through API call refresh issues and provide helpful previews to the user.

Ensuring clarity within complexity

Similarly, it was a challenge to inherit and maintain a vast number of settings controls for each platform, merge in Conde’s own proprietary optimizations and other inputs, and lay it all out for the user in a clear and efficient way. It was also important to ensure that user input was easily scannable and reviewable in a sea of other settings fields, so I designed the sections to roll up into expandable summaries when the user revisits the form. Form sections were reviewed and tested extensively with users to validate that the messaging was clear and accurate.

Impact

The Amplify ads platform continues to be the workhorse that powers Condé Nast’s social media advertising across the globe. Social media advertising plays a vital role in how Condé Nast distributes its brands’ content, making this platform a key instrument in the overall success of this business. I was the sole designer of this platform from inception and am proud to have made a substantial contribution to such a prominent organization.

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Campaigns published