What is nova Creative Affinity?

nova Creative Affinity is a performance analysis tool that helps you understand which of your ad creatives are truly driving business results across Meta and TikTok. More than just impressions or clicks, it reveals which campaigns are converting, retaining, and bringing in high-value customers.

The tool brings together:

Paid media performance (Meta, TikTok)
Customer journey data (Google Analytics)
Real purchase behavior (Shopify or Salesforce Commerce Cloud)

With this, you can quickly see:

Which creative messages connect
Which campaigns deserve more budget
Where content is underperforming or being wasted

The Two Star Metrics

Affinity Score

This is a dynamic performance score based on your ad’s engagement, clickthroughs, conversions, and more. It helps you instantly identify what’s resonating with your audience.

Available for all ads (with ≥ $25 spend)
Refreshes with every new data load
Helps you spot promising creatives early — even before revenue rolls in

Use Affinity Score to evaluate creative potential — fast.

Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV tells you how much revenue is generated by users who engaged with a creative and later made a purchase.

Based on actual transactions matched to ad engagement
Calculated at the ad, ad set, or campaign level (depending on data availability)
Static over time: Once calculated, it doesn’t change — it reflects the total value generated up to when the campaign ended

Use LTV to measure the real business impact of a creative.

How They Work Together

Think of Affinity Score as your early indicator — it surfaces high-performing creatives even when purchases aren’t yet visible.

LTV, when available, is your confirmation — it tells you which creatives actually brought in paying, valuable customers.

Together, they give you both performance potential and proven outcomes — helping you make smarter creative and budget decisions.

Why LTV May Not Always Be Available

LTV depends on matching data between:

A person clicking an ad (tracked via UTMs and GA4)
That same person later making a purchase (recorded in your e-commerce platform)

If those two actions can’t be linked — due to missing UTMs, user tracking limitations, or technical constraints — we won’t be able to show an LTV. But don’t worry:

Ads may still show LTV at the ad set or campaign level, even if not available for individual ads
Affinity Score is always available and still highly valuable for optimization

Keep in mind: LTV is off by default for unmatched ads, but you can toggle it off to explore more data.

Step-by-Step: How to Use nova Creative Affinity

Whether you're reviewing a weekly performance report or prepping for a creative strategy meeting, here's how to get started:

1. Select a Time Period

By default, the tool loads the last 7 days. You can adjust this to a custom date range — up to 2 years of data is available.

2. Choose Your Platform(s)

Meta and TikTok are both selected by default. You can filter to view just one platform if needed.

3. Use the LTV Toggle

By default, the tool shows only creatives with LTV data available. This helps you focus on what’s driving revenue, but it may limit the results if:

You’re working with short timeframes
Your tracking setup doesn’t support full attribution

Tip: If no data appears, try toggling off the “Only show creatives with LTV” option to explore all results using Affinity Score.

4. Get Started

By default, results load at the ad level, where you’ll see LTV, Affinity Score, ROAS, Spend, and other key metrics.

You can switch views to Ad Set or Campaign at any time.

5. Apply More Filters as Needed

Fine-tune your analysis by filtering:

Funnel stage (Top, Middle, Bottom)
Ad format (video, carousel, static)
Business type or vertical
Ad status (active, paused, deleted)
Performance thresholds (ROAS > 2, Spend > $500, etc.)

Comparison & Aggregation Views

Compare Creatives Side-by-Side

Use the Compare view to analyze up to 4 creatives (ads, ad sets, or campaigns) across all available metrics.

Choose up to 2 metrics to highlight (e.g., LTV vs. CPA), while still having full visibility across the rest.

Use this view to guide creative testing, scaling decisions, or optimization strategies.

Analyze Creative Assets

The Creative Aggregations view groups ads by asset (video, image, etc.) so you can evaluate how one creative performs across different placements.

See total usage and aggregated results
Drill into the specific campaigns, ad sets, and ads using the asset
Spot patterns like "This video works well in TOFU but underperforms in BOFU"

Use this to understand what works — and where it works best.

Exporting Your Insights

Need to share results with your team or leadership?

You can export:

Your full filtered view (ads, ad sets, campaigns)
Your side-by-side comparisons
Your creative aggregation summaries

All exports come in CSV format and reflect your current filters.

FAQs

Why don’t I see any data?

You may have the LTV toggle turned on, and no LTV was matched for the selected time frame or platform.

Try toggling off the LTV filter and expanding your date range.

Why is LTV missing for certain ads?

This is normal. LTV requires a successful match between the ad click and a purchase.

If matching isn’t possible (e.g., missing UTMs or analytics data), that ad won’t show LTV — but the ad set or campaign might.

What does it mean if Affinity Score is high but LTV is low or missing?

This usually means the ad is doing a great job driving engagement, but hasn’t led to tracked purchases yet. It may be great for awareness, or it might need a stronger CTA or offer.