Empowering Advertiser with a Self-Serve Media Buying Platform
Streamlining the ad creation journey for advertisers and account managers with intuitive tools and independent control.
Overview
Redesigned SPH Media's ad buying experience to empower advertisers to launch campaigns independently
Role
Team
2 UX Designers
1 UI Designers
1 Product Lead
1 Design Lead
2 Project Managers
Timeline
10 months (May 2023 - Feb 2024)
Estimated launch date to be updated
Dive Into The Problem Space
Buying ads was confusing, inefficient, and overly reliant on sales teams
Buying digital ads was
Advertiser struggled with
🎯Our Goal
Challenges & Constraints
Design had to serve both beginners and power users — all while navigating infrastructure gaps and stakeholder fears
Every project comes with its own set of obstacles—whether technical, business-related, or user-driven. Below are the key challenges and constraints faced during the redesign of the self-serve media buying platform:
Balancing Simplicity with Advanced Functionality
Technical Limitations
Reducing Sales Dependency
Stakeholder Alignment & Internal Resistance
Ensuring Transparency in Pricing & Performance
Compliance & Regulations
Approach & Process
We began with in-depth user research to identify key frustrations and opportunities:
User Interviews
Spoke with multiple small business owners and experienced advertisers to understand challenges in campaign setup.
Sales & Support Insights
Gathered feedback from sales, operation, marketing teams on common advertiser struggles.
Competitor Analysis
Studied global self-serve ad platforms (e.g. Meta, Google) to identify best practices and gaps.
Given technical constraints and business goals, we focused on delivering a streamlined MVP:
Guided Campaign Setup
Simplified the ad-buying process into step-by-step flows, reducing confusion.
Budget & Performance Transparency
Designed real-time cost estimations and performance projections to build user confidence.
Smart Defaults & Recommendations
Leveraged smart suggestions for targeting, bidding, and creative selection.
To reduce reliance on sales teams, we incorporated:
In-Product Education
Contextual tooltips, walkthroughs, and FAQs to guide users.
Template-Based Campaigns
Pre-configured setups for common objectives (e.g., brand awareness, conversions).
Error Prevention & Validation
Inline feedback to prevent mistakes before submission.
Success required close alignment with multiple teams:
Sales, Marketing & Ops
Worked closely to understand and steer towards the direction and approaches that are feasible for all teams and align with the business goals
Engineering
Worked within technical constraints while ensuring a scalable architecture.
Compliance & Legal
Ensured ad policies and data privacy regulations were met.
Solution: The Redesigned Experience
Before
Media planning knowledge and know-hows stay within individual sales manager
Advertiser rely heavily on the sales team to manually configure ad campaigns
Advertiser lacks visibility into pricing, targeting options, and campaign requirements
Create a step-by-step guided setup process with clear instructions and preset defaults.
Provide real-time validation and inline recommendations to reduce errors and user confusion.
Implemented an intuitive campaign setup wizard that allowed advertisers to configure campaigns independently, with built-in guidance at each step.
Added educational tooltips and FAQs within the platform for immediate self-help.
Designed pre-configured templates (packages) for commonly used ad formats and seasonal promotional package to further streamline setup.
✅
Advertisers could launch campaigns independently without needing sales team assistance
✅
Reduced campaign setup time significantly
✅
Improved advertiser confidence in managing their own campaigns
Before
Sales Team needs to switch between multiple platforms for media plan creation, feedback gathering and proposal finalisation
Manual review and approval process across multiple internal lines and levels
Streamline media planning processes into single platform
Enable one-stop internal review and approval process
Facilitate streamlined discount approval process for Direct Selelrs
Streamline media plan proposal for client on single platform, with capabilities to showcase multiple options and upload supporting documents
Facilitate Insertion Order endorsement seamlessly through SMP (without switching platforms)
✅
Reduced time spent switching between platforms for internal processes
✅
Improved workflow efficiency for the internal sales team
✅
Accelerated proposal turnaround time
Before
Users lacked clarity on pricing structures and expected campaign outcomes, leading to hesitation in ad spending
Advertisers found targeting and budget settings confusing, leading to inefficient spending and poor campaign results
Provide dynamic selection which filter through ad offerings and enable accurate media product purchase.
Explore ways to allow user preview and review steps before finalizing the campaign.
Clear and transparent price and ability to review before placing order, giving user greater control over the media buying process
Clear overview of the campaign information and allowing ease of navigation into different orders and ads planned for each campaign
Clear overview of ad and the status, and allowing user to upload the creative directly on the platform
✅
Significantly reduced campaign setup errors
✅
Minimized the need for follow-ups and corrections, improving operational efficiency
✅
Advertisers completed campaign bookings more efficiently
Impacts & Results
While the product has not yet launched, extensive user testing and internal validation suggest the redesigned experience will drive significant improvements in efficiency, usability, and adoption.
🚀
Early usability testing showed faster completion times, as users navigated the ad creation flow with fewer errors. The streamlined setup process reduced cognitive overload, making it easier for advertisers to complete tasks without assistance.
😎
The new guided media buying flow helps users select the right ad type, reducing confusion and reliance on support teams. Internal stakeholders anticipate a decrease in support queries related to campaign setup errors.
🔀
Direct Sellers can now create proposals in one platform, significantly reducing time spent switching between tools. The consolidated feedback system is expected to shorten the proposal revision cycle, improving turnaround time.
🌟Next Step
Learnings & Takeaways
Balanced automation and flexibility, built internal buy-in, and made education core to UX
Throughout the design and iteration process, several key learnings emerged that shaped the final experience and will guide future improvements.
Initially, we explored a fully automated media buying experience, but early testing revealed that users still wanted a level of control over key decisions. The final design struck a balance—simplifying workflows while allowing flexibility where it mattered most.
While designing for advertisers, we also had to streamline internal workflows for the Direct Sellers. Constant collaboration with internal teams ensured that both external user experience and operational efficiency were improved simultaneously.
Given the shift from a sales-assisted to a self-serve model, we realized that product adoption relies not just on intuitive design but also on clear onboarding and education. Future iterations may include tooltips, guided walkthroughs, and embedded support to ensure a seamless transition.
The original process required users to input a large volume of information at once, leading to cognitive overload and increased drop-off rates.
By breaking the process into structured steps with contextual guidance, users felt more confident and completed tasks more efficiently.