Microsoft Advertising has announced Ad Creator, a new feature that extracts images from your site so that they can be used in your ads. Ad Creator is currently in pilot; those interested in joining the pilot should contact their account representative.

The Ad Creator library within Microsoft Advertising. Image: Microsoft.

Why we care. Visuals within your ads (for applicable formats) can lead to higher clickthrough rates. They may also help audiences recall your brand/ads.

With regard to this particular feature update, the Ad Creator can help you save time when creating ads by acting as an automated repository for your site images, since you won’t have to upload them manually. The built-in editing capabilities, which are now nearly ubiquitous in these types of features, may also be a timesaver, particularly for those that don’t have access to a design team.

Ad Creator’s editing capabilities. The Ad Creator comes with a lightweight photo editor, known as “smart effects” (shown below).

Ad Creator’s smart effects. Image: Microsoft.

Using smart effects, advertisers can differentiate their ad images from their site images by applying background colors, background blur, filters and/or cropping the images.