The findings, announced by global performance advertising firm Taboola (Nasdaq: TBLA), are based on an analysis of more than 500 million real-world ad impressions and around 3 million clicks. According to the research, AI-generated ads delivered performance comparable to those created by humans. Raw data showed AI ads recording a slightly higher average click-through rate (CTR) of 0.76 per cent, compared to 0.65 per cent for human-made ads. One of the most striking findings was that AI ads performed best when they did not appear overtly “artificial.” Ads that blended AI efficiency with human-like creative cues significantly outperformed both purely human-made ads and AI ads that looked obviously machine-generated. Interestingly, due to Taboola’s internal best practices and policy guidelines, AI-generated ads were more likely to include such trust-building elements than human-designed creatives.