If you’re an e-commerce marketer managing hundreds or thousands of SKUs, finding the right platform to power your dynamic product ads (DPAs) is critical. Many turn to Smartly.io for campaign management, but as demands evolve, it’s worth reviewing https://dynamicproductads.com/smartly-io-review-and-alternatives-for-catalog-ads/ to see how it compares to more specialized tools designed for catalog-based advertising.
What Smartly.Io Offers (And What It Doesn’t)
Smartly.io is well-established for its automation features and ad management capabilities, especially for large teams working across multiple markets and ad channels. It helps streamline workflows and campaign execution at scale. However, when it comes to catalog ads, its creative flexibility and dynamic visual customization often fall short of expectations.
Many brands find that Smartly.io limits their ability to personalize visuals at the product level such as showing sale tags, urgency prompts, or category-specific designs without extensive workarounds or additional manual input.
Why Creative Automation Matters For DPAs
The success of a catalog ad campaign isn’t just about targeting and delivery it’s also about how your product is presented. Creative matters. Personalized, visually rich ads that reflect current pricing, stock levels, and promotions perform significantly better than static templates.

Platforms like Confect.io provide a creative-first approach to DPAs. Instead of working with rigid layouts, Confect allows marketers to build flexible templates where visuals adapt based on real-time product data. Whether it’s changing a background color for seasonal sales or highlighting low-stock items, the design rules are completely automated.
What You’ll Learn From The Smartly.Io Overview And Comparison
The in-depth breakdown at dynamicproductads.com highlights exactly where Smartly falls short for catalog advertisers and where alternatives like Confect.io step up.
Key areas of comparison include:
- Creative flexibility: Easily apply different visual elements across products.
- Data-driven automation: Auto-generate creatives based on product attributes.
- Ease of use: Launch new campaigns without technical complexity.
- Cost efficiency: Get more value from your ad budget with better performance.
The Right Tool For The Job
If your primary goal is to manage complex campaigns across multiple formats and regions, Smartly.io may still be a good fit. But if you’re focused on optimizing product-level creatives and scaling catalog ads quickly, you’ll want a platform specifically built for that purpose.

By choosing a solution that automates design changes and tailors each ad to the viewer and product, you’re not only saving time you’re increasing conversion rates, ROAS, and brand consistency.