GenAI ads perform just as well as human-made ads, according to a study commissioned by Taboola.
In raw data, AI ads saw a slightly higher average click-through-rate (CTR) (0.76%) compared to human ads (0.65%), though they performed comparably when researchers applied the tightest statistical controls.
The study, AI Ads That Work: How AI Creative Stacks Up Against Humans, was conducted by researchers at Columbia University, Harvard University, Technical University of Munich and Carnegie Mellon University.
The researchers analysed hundreds of thousands of live ads running on Realize, Taboola's performance advertising platform.
“Taboola’s platform provided us with a literal gold mine of real-world data that is simply unavailable in a lab setting. By analysing over 500 million impressions, we were able to move past the hype of GenAI and uncover its real impact in large scale settings,” said Oded Netzer at Columbia Business School.
“Our findings prove that when AI is used to enhance human cues—like the trust found in a human face—it doesn't just match human performance; it often sets a new ceiling for engagement.”
The study found Human faces are the "secret ingredient" for trust.
One of the most important factors in making an ad feel "human" and trustworthy was the presence of a large, clear human face.
AI-generated ads were more likely to include these trust cues than their human-made counterparts.