Agencies test once or twice, if at all
Most ad creative goes from brief to live with a single internal review. There's no time, budget, or framework for putting it in front of real users before paid spend turns on.
Ad creative tested in real conversations.
Brand managers ship ad creative blind every week, a hero image goes live, a video drops, a landing page launches, and the only signal back is CTR. Diaform runs AI-led interviews on your creative before it ships, so you hear the real reaction, the real objection, and the real reason someone would (or wouldn't) click.
14-day free trial · No demo required
Test the execution, not just the idea
Concept testing tells you whether the idea has legs. Creative testing tells you whether the execution actually lands. Diaform sits firmly in the second bucket: you upload the asset, an ad, a hero variation, a packaging mock, a script read, and the AI interviews real people about what they see, what they feel, and what they'd do next.
Because the AI runs the conversation, every respondent gets probed on the answer they actually gave. "I'd click it" turns into "what specifically pulled you in?" "It's fine" turns into "what would make it not fine?" You stop guessing why a creative resonates, and you stop shipping the ones that don't.
Why most creative gets shipped on instinct
Focus groups bias toward the loudest voice
Traditional creative testing favors articulate, confident respondents. The quiet 80% who'd actually buy your product never get heard, and the feedback you do hear is filtered through a moderator.
Clicks tell you nothing about the why
A/B tests show you which creative wins. They never tell you why. You ship the winner, the next campaign starts from zero, and the creative team is back to guessing.
How Diaform changes creative testing
AI-led interviews capture the gut reaction
Every respondent goes through a structured interview on the asset. Per-answer sentiment captures the first instinctive reaction, before they rationalize it.
Voice answers reveal real emotion
Voice is consistently more candid than text. When someone reads your tagline aloud and pauses, hesitates, or laughs, the AI captures it, and you hear it.
Run a creative test overnight
Share one link in the morning, review synthesized results by the next standup. No agency briefing, no panel scheduling, no two-week recruit.
Structured 'click + why' probing
The AI asks what they'd click, then probes on the why. Across respondents you see which element of the creative actually does the work, the headline, the image, the offer.
Sentiment + theme synthesis automatic
Reactions are clustered into themes across respondents the moment they finish. You see what resonated, what fell flat, and the verbatim quotes that prove it.
Multilingual for global creative
Test the same creative across markets in each respondent's native language. Summaries come back in English so the global team works from one set of insights.
How a creative test runs
- 1
Upload the creative or share the link
Drop in the ad, the hero image, the packaging mock, the video, or the landing page URL. Add brand context to the knowledge base so the AI references your positioning correctly.
- 2
Set the testing question + probing intensity
Tell the AI what you want to learn, first impression, perceived value, click intent, brand fit, and how aggressively to probe on vague answers.
- 3
Share one Diaform link
Send the link to your panel, customer list, or audience. Each respondent runs their own AI-led session in the browser, no signup required.
- 4
Review per-asset summary
Get a synthesized report per creative variant, sentiment, themes, top quotes, and the specific moments that landed or fell flat.
What you can put in front of respondents
Ad creative pre-launch
Test static and video ads before paid spend turns on. Find the version that earns the click and understand why it does.
Landing page hero variations
Run hero headlines, images, and CTAs through real conversations. Catch the messaging that confuses before it hits production.
Packaging design
Show packaging mocks and capture the shelf reaction, what stands out, what reads as the category, what feels premium versus cheap.
Video script reads
Test scripts before the shoot. Voice answers reveal which lines land, which feel forced, and where attention drops.
Brand identity testing
Put logos, color systems, and brand visuals in front of real people. Hear the associations they trigger before you commit a rebrand.
Naming research
Test product or brand names on pronunciation, association, and recall, with the AI probing on each name individually.
Traditional creative testing vs. AI-led creative testing
Focus groups, agency testing, survey panels
- Loudest respondents dominate the room
- Two-week turnaround minimum
- Surveys give numbers, not the why
- Single language, single market
- Expensive panels and moderator fees
Diaform
- Every respondent gets probed individually
- Run overnight, results by the next standup
- Theme clusters with the verbatim quotes attached
- 30+ languages, summarized back to English
- Flat monthly pricing, no per-respondent cost
Frequently asked questions
Q
How is this different from concept testing?
Concept testing validates the idea, does this positioning, promise, or proposition resonate at all? Creative testing validates the execution, does this specific ad, hero, or packaging do its job? Diaform runs both, but on this page we're focused on execution: real reactions to the creative you're about to ship.
Q
Can respondents see images and videos?
Yes. You can attach image and video assets directly inside the interview, or share a link to a landing page. The AI references the asset in its questions, so respondents are reacting to the actual creative, not a description of it.
Q
How fast can I get results?
Most creative tests turn around overnight. Share the link in the morning, drive responses through your panel or customer list during the day, and review synthesized results, themes, sentiment, top quotes per variant, the next morning.
Q
How many people should I test with?
For directional creative reactions, 15-30 respondents per variant is usually enough, themes saturate quickly when every interview probes on the why. For statistically significant claims, run a larger panel; the platform scales without extra moderation cost.
Q
Can it test multiple creative versions in one interview?
Yes. You can show several variants in a single session and have the AI probe on each individually, then ask comparative questions at the end. You get per-variant sentiment plus the head-to-head reasoning behind the preference.
Q
Does it work for non-English markets?
Diaform runs in 30+ languages. Each respondent answers in their native language and the synthesis arrives in English, so global creative tests run as one project, not five.
Q
How much does it cost?
Diaform starts with a 14-day free trial. Paid plans are $89/month (Pro) and $149/month (Business), with no per-respondent cost. A single creative test typically pays for the plan many times over compared to a focus group.
Explore more
Dive into the other ways Diaform can power your research.
Concept testing
Validate the idea before you brief the creative, test propositions, positioning, and value props with AI-led conversations.
Brand research
Run brand perception, awareness, and association studies with real probing, go beyond the brand tracker scorecard.
AI market research
Use AI-led interviews for the broader market work, segmentation, jobs-to-be-done, category exploration.
Ready to upgrade your feedback loop?
Stop guessing why users leave. Start an automated interviewer in seconds and get the deep insights of a Zoom call at the scale of a survey.
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