Introduction
Creative Home
1.1. The home base
Creative Studio 🎨
2.1. Template overview
2.2 Create and working in your template
2.3 Working with your layers
2.4 Adjust formats
2.5 Animations and effects
2.6 Preview of template
2.7 The all-important "Save and publish" button
Creative Manager
3.1 Campaign sections & campaigns
3.2 How to edit your ads in Creative Manager
3.3 Preview campaign
3.4 Publish campaign
3.5 Export Campaign
3.6 Live Editing
Add-on tools
DCO - how does it work?
DPA - how does it work?
Studio is the workspace for the designer where you have full creative freedom and where you create templates with any format you might need as well as build up a design that is eye-catching and aligned with your brand's visual identity.
Creative Manager is where you use the templates created in Studio to generate campaigns, and version ads by e.g. changing the message and image, and exporting your creatives.
Meet your home base in Zuuvi. Here you have access to all the different aspects of the platform, stay updated with new features, and much more.
The most important aspects are:
See the video below for a tour of your new "home":
To stay organized add your templates to groups as this help you keep the structure of all your templates. You can divide your templates into e.g. customers, markets, dynamic, or product categories - it is all up to you.
Create as many groups as needed, then simply drag and drop templates around.
You can create multiple “sub-groups” to take your structure to the next level #stayorganized 🎨
Now let's look at how you can build the best workflow for creating a template when working in Zuuvi.👇
Now it is time to create your template, add images, amazing texts, and all the formats you need to empower creativity.
In the video below we will go through:
👆 Workflow hack: Start by building up a "Standard template" that contains all the formats and elements you frequently use with the perfect design that fits your CVI. This way you can simply duplicate the template and make changes, so you don't need to build it from scratch every time. (Pssst... rename your template by double-clicking on the name at the top of your workspace. You can also name your formats by clicking the 3 dots next to the format name and create your perfect structure) |
Building up a good workflow with your layers is important. So now let us go through how to create a great overview and streamlined design process.
First things first let's add some layers.
Simply drag and drop images, SVG files, and MP4 files into your workspace.
Text elements and other graphic elements are added to your left-hand menu.
The Image Editor is the perfect tool to ensure your image fits the format perfectly. With this tool, you have the options to crop, resize, and adjust your image as you like to achieve the desired look.
Now what do the different tools within the Image editor do:
Grouping layers is another easy way to create a better and more manageable layer overview. You will be able to toggle close and hide groups so there are fewer layers to manage when working on your ad.
Now how is this done? You simply have to:
Hold down "Shift" on your keyboard
Click on the specific layers you want to group
Press CTRL/CMD+G.
And voila you have created a group 🎉
A great next step is to name your groups to really take #Stayorganized🎨 to the next level.
You can also add animations to groups which you can see more about in Section 2.5.
☝️ Workflow Hack: |
As mentioned in the video in Section 2.2, when you add a layer it will be added to all formats in the template. Meaning that: All graphical elements, text boxes, animations, etc. will be duplicated to all existing formats as well as new formats you might add along the way.
Want to know more about how to add images, videos, and other creatives see 2.3 Working with your layers.
With deleting a layer the process is to choose the layer and press "backspace" on your keyboard.
Any layer you delete from one format will be deleted from all formats in the template. However, you do have the option to "Ignore" a layer on only certain formats excluding the element from the final design. You can read more about this in the next section 2.4.3.
Also as the meme explains... erased from existence - but what if it was a mistake? 🤯
Don't worry! You can undo it by clicking on CTRL/CMD + Z to bring it back to life.
Our magical feature “Ignore in formats” enables you to exclude elements from certain formats without having to delete them.
Now what does it mean and how does it work? Choose your layer, go under "Edit" and click off the formats which should not include the layer and the feature will ensure it is not part of the final ad's design.
Want to become an expert with the features?
We have created a guide for the readers out there 🤓
Once you have finished creating an "out of this world" design on your "master" format and you go to edit the next format changes to text elements, animation values, and image edits will become local to that specific format.
e.g. When you crop your pictures to fit the next format it will only affect that format.
Now that you have created the absolute best foundation for a great workflow, it is time to use your creative superpowers and play with animations and effects. This step is what truly pushes your ads to the next level and is a great way of creating eye-catching ads.
In Studio you are able to add as many animations and effects as your creative soul desires. In the video below we will show:
Here you have an overview of the animations - a great read if you ask the authors which are us but still 5/5 ⭐️🤓
If you are working with a static background picture a highly powerful tip is to add a Scale animation to add great movement and make it more captivating.
You can also lift your creativity by adding a "Move effect" on your text or image layer. This way you will be able to display multiple frames. Hereby increasing the number of messages and cool creatives you can display in a smooth way over the span of your ad.
☝️ Workflow hack: |
Next up we will look at how you can insert your ClickTag, to make sure your customers are re-directed to the correct landing page.
Within Zuuvi this process is quite easy. In your right-hand menu, you will see the tap Clicktag. Here you have the option to add a "Global Clicktag" as well as a "Content Specific clickTag". Sooo what is the difference?
Content-specific ClickTags will only be applied to the elements you choose when setting it up in Studio or Manager. Hereby only by clicking that specific element will the customer be redirected to this page
You can of course add both Global and Content specific click tags in the same creative, to ensure full control of your ad.
Learn more about the possibilities with our ClickTag feature 😄
Now that you have finished designing your formats, you have the option to send a preview of the ads to your client for approval or colleagues for sparring.
A cool detail about the preview link is that it will update automatically as you make changes and save, so you only have to send the link once 🤯
Now that you have created an awesome template, you are ready to enter Creative Manager. Let me introduce you to the "perhaps" most important button “Save and Publish”:
If you love guides here is a step-by-step on how to utilize "Save and publish".
Psst.... you are able to lock layers in Studio so that the design cannot be unlocked or moved when used in Creative Manager. This way you ensure control of the design.
Knowing where to start in terms of weight limits, formats needed and other limitations can be a bit tricky. Therefore we have created this Cheat sheet to ad production with the most common DPS 🤩
Overflow enables you to see and utilize the space outside your formats dimensions, so try to press CMD/CTRL+2 to turn overflow on/off.
So if you are having trouble catching the edges of your element to resize or cannot find an element you added in your format try to use Overflow 😄
Are you experiencing that your preview link is not updated and looks different from your view in the workspace?
The solution for this:
Try to Clear Cache on your browser. As we are an online platform this can hold on to old versions of your banner. We have created this guide and highly recommend installing the chrome extension for fast clearing.
A CTA button is a great way to grab attention to your banner. We have created a few guides to show how easily you can create a CTA as well as how to add a pulse effect:
All MP4 files need to be under 4 MB to be uploaded to Studio. This is to ensure that your final banner will not be too heavy to upload. We have two really effective tools which can help you get down the weight of your video:
In Zuuvi you can upload your custom font, and as soon you have uploaded it to one template the font will be available on all templates you have created or will create in the future ✏️
Also see this helpdesk for a short guide.
You can move your canvas around your workspace to optimize its position for the individual format.
Campaign sections are essentially groups for your campaigns. They help create an overview of your campaigns that everyone on your team can follow. #StayOrganized 🎨 Best practice we see from our customers is to divide them into e.g:
You can both create them directly in Manager by going under "Campaigns" and clicking on "Create Campaign section".
However, you can also create one when you are creating your campaign, then the new campaign will automatically be placed in the section.
Creating your campaign with your template from Studio is the next step on this wonderful Zuuvi journey.
How you create a campaign is truly simple. Go to "Create campaign" under "Campaigns", pick the template, and follow the few steps below 🚀
Want to level up your workflow in Manager - we have a small selection of must-read material:
In Creative Manager you are able to change text elements to display new messages. Simply double-click to edit the text element and write your new message. This feature let you change the CTA, headlines and prof read to catch spelling mistakes 🤓
You can easily change out the images on your ad in Creative Manager. Here is how:
Open "Assets" in the left-hand menu and upload your image by 'drag & drop' it up to “upload image”.
Choose your image layer and click on your new image in the asset library (....And then just take a moment to admire the magic that happens).
We have also created this video where I will show the workflow within Creative Manager through best practices:
Pssssst..... If you are hosting through Zuuvi then you have the option to push these edits to live banners. Our live editing feature is quite awesome and is explained by Emma in section 3.8
Before publishing the campaign, why not see a preview to ensure everything is perfect before you export? Now that you have made sure everything is 10/10 and there are no spelling errors (😅), you are ready to export. First, you have to publish the Campaign.
You can publish an entire campaign by simply going to the campaign and then clicking "Publish campaign".
Go to the section below to see how with a video and articles describing how.
👆 Workflow hack: You are able to both publish an entire campaign at once or publish a single ad if needed |
Congratulations, you have reached the final step ...... EXPORTING your campaign (take a moment and enjoy it) so you can share them with the world.
You can also batch export your entire campaign instead of the individual ad.
This feature is only possible if your ads are hosted through Zuuvi.
You have the option of live editing ads. This feature enables you to update ads that are currently live on websites. This way you have the option to:
We have made a number of guides for you to see the process of making the changes in Studio or/and Creative Manager:
When exporting for Social Media choose the export option MP4. If you have a camping with only Social Media formats, then the best workflow is to create a template with all the formats you need for Social Media.
If you already have a template with display ads formats and need the same design for a Social Media format simply add it to your template. Then it's all gathered.
PNG and JPG are of course also ideal for Social Media if you are running static ads on your channels.
Google ads have a long list of restrictions, the most noticeable being:
Become a Google ads expert and figure out how you can get your ads accepted with Google Ads.
When exporting for high-impact formats such as wallpaper, top scroll, mid scroll, etc. the optimal result will be achieved when exporting as Adnami.
When saying high-impact, you also have to say "responsive". So what are responsive banners you might ask? Well, in short, responsive display ads are ads that automatically adjust in size, appearance, and format to fit the available ad slots they will appear on. This means that the same responsive ad can appear on a smaller screen and simply scale up to fit those dimensions on a bigger screen - making your ad magical in all sizes.
Here in Zuuvi, making your ad responsive is very easy as you only have to "click" on the magic button when exporting your creative.
There is a bunch of great online tools which can help streamline your production process. We have created a cheat sheet where we have collected all the online tools we use on a daily basis.
Are you experiencing that your preview link is not updated or that your exported file looks different from your view in Manager? It's properly the cache in your browser holding on to an older ad design.
The solution to this is our Force update button:
You have the option to update your ad design from the template you have created in Studio. So if you want to add another format, add an animation, another text element, etc. you have the option.
You can move your canvas around your workspace to optimize its position for the individual format.
For following us through this tour of Zuuvi.
If you have any questions or need any help, just reach out in the chat or at care@zuuvi.com then we are ready to help
- All the best, Emma, Nikoline and Nicoline