This blog highlights how to leverage quantilope's Ad Optimizer to confidently turn "gut feelings" into effective brand growth strategies.
Key Takeaways:
- quantilope's Ad Optimizer combines advanced AI-driven analysis with advanced method market research to refine advertising assets before they go live.
- Brands can leverage the Ad Optimizer to understand campaign effectiveness, brand associations, messaging impact, and scene-by-scene performance of Category Entry Points (CEPs).
- To leverage the Ad Optimizer, brands simply upload an audio/video asset to the tool and receive detailed results in moments.
- Below are several examples from the 2026 Super Bowl, highlighting ads where CEPs were prominent or have room for improvement (Nerds, Budweiser, Hellmann's, and Lay's).
Table of Contents:
In the high-stakes world of advertising, where a single 30-second Super Bowl spot can cost upwards of $8 million, brands can’t afford to rely on "gut feelings." Whether you’re launching a global campaign or a targeted digital ad, the difference between a viral success and a total miss lies not only in aspects such as break-through, brand linkage, or emotional engagements (aspects that traditional ad pre-tests focus on) - but also in how effectively you trigger Category Entry Points.
Category Entry Points (CEPs) are the specific cues, triggers, or motivations that “prompt” a consumer to go out and shop in a category. As a result of research by Professor Jenni Romaniuk and Professor Byron Sharp of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, CEPs capture the "why, when, where, etc. " of a purchase decision. Understanding CEPs for your brand’s category is ultimately how you build Mental Availability: the “mental presence" your brand occupies in consumers’ minds in those crucial buying situations.
So, how do you determine how well your current advertisements perform against top CEPs for your category?
quantilope’s Ad Optimizer is designed to take the guesswork out of this process. It combines advanced AI-driven analysis with proven market research methodologies to help brands refine their creative assets long before they hit the market. Using the tool as part of an ad testing process saves brands valuable time and money to ensure their final advertising messaging is effective for the right people, at the right time, for the right reasons.
How to use quantilope’s Ad Optimizer
The beauty of quantilope’s Ad Optimizer lies in its simplicity and speed. Once you have a list of CEPs for your category (whether you’ve generated these through a Better Brand Health Tracking study, on your own, or through the help of quantilope’s CEP Generator), you simply upload your creative assets* to the tool and gain detailed analytics back in a matter of seconds.
*Note the optimizer analyzes visual assets (with or without audio) — but not audio alone.
The Ad Optimizer performs a frame-by-frame analysis of your asset’s visuals and accompanying audio. You don’t simply get a pass/fail grade, but rather a granular look at what’s working within your messaging and where there’s room for improvement.
Ad Optimizer insights include:
- Campaign effectiveness: understand which buying triggers (CEPs) come through strongest in your ad overall.
- Association breadth: discover if your advertisement aligns with a broad range of CEPs rather than just one.
- Message comparison: determine the right messaging based on a side-by-side comparison of various CEPs.
- Scene-by-scene optimization: identify specific frames that strongly communicate a particular CEP.
Below are a few real examples from the 2026 Super Bowl to demonstrate what this output looks like.
Confirming campaign effectiveness | Nerds
After running this Nerds spot through the Ad Optimizer, Nerds achieved high Presence Scores for 'As a treat,' ‘To enjoy myself,’ For something sweet,’ and 'To feel happy,' meaning the cues were prominent and unmistakable.
Knowing this, Nerds confirms this is an effective ad spot to go live.
Broadening Associations | Budweiser
In this example, we see that Budweiser’s ad is limited to just one CEP: “While spending time outside.”
To increase the chances that people will think of Budweiser for a variety of occasions (Network Size), Budweiser can consider refining this advertisement to include additional CEP-focused messaging in other areas of the ad (e.g. “after work” or “to unwind after a long day”).
Comparing Messaging Performance | Hellmann’s
You can also use the Ad Optimizer to compare CEPs directly, similar to an A/B Test.
In this example from Hellmann’s, you’ll see a comparison of CEP A: “During lunchtime” against CEP B: “At a diner or restaurant.” This is helpful for marketing teams who are deciding between two key messages in the creative ideation phase. In this case, Hellmann’s may want to thread “lunchtime” messaging more consistently throughout the ad by incorporating it into “diner” or “restaurant” context.
Brands can even use quantilope’s Ad Optimizer to test early stage creatives such as storyboards or animatics to help optimize the final asset.
Scene-by-Scene Optimization | Lay’s
As a final example, here we see how to use the Ad Optimizer to analyze your creative asset frame by frame. Rather than scrapping an idea altogether, you can use the tool to identify which frames are communicating your key message most effectively, and refine/iterate from there.
Here, Lay's effectively taps into the CEP “for a sense of comfort.” If that’s the CEP they want to go after, they can refine the rest of their ad spot to incorporate more elements of “comfort.” Alternatively, if they want to go after an entirely different CEP, they can cut that frame and work on improving other elements of the ad.
Turning insights into actionable strategy
The goal with any advertising initiative is to increase Mental Availability and gain Mental Advantages (areas where your brand outperforms on a given CEP, relative to expectations). quantilope’s Ad Optimizer is your way of making sure the ads you produce contribute to both of those goals.
The examples above highlight how marketing teams can turn their creative ideas into effective growth strategies by focusing on the right category triggers through CEP analysis.
Along with assessing campaign effectiveness, message testing, and scene-by-scene optimization, creative teams can leverage quantilope’s Ad Optimizer to:
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Refine editing: If the tool shows key message only 'peaks' at the end of the ad, you can re-edit the spot to shift those situational triggers earlier, anchoring the association link before the viewer drops off.
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Optimize for different channels: Use the tool’s insights to create short form videos for social media that focus only on frames that strongly communicate the intended message.
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Benchmark against competitors: Use the tool to analyze competitors’ ads as you’re developing yours so you can tap into key areas where their assets fell short.
Don't leave your biggest creative bets to chance. Leverage AI-driven insights to ensure every frame of your next campaign is communicating messages that set your brand up for growth.
Request a demo of quantilope’s Ad Optimizer using the form below!
