Klarna Ads Manager

As a Senior UX Designer at Klarna, I played a crucial role in developing the Ads Manager, a self-serve platform that revolutionizes ad creation and management for merchants. The platform, launched in the US, SE, and UK, streamlines ad creation, enhances usability, and significantly improves ad performance through innovative features like dynamic audience size estimation.

ClientKlarnaTime periodMay 2023 - November 2023IndustryBankingServicesSenior UX Designer

2023-12-15|Magnus UleniusBy Magnus Ulenius|5 Minutes

Overview

The Klarna Ads Manager empowers businesses to navigate digital advertising with ease. It enables merchants to create, publish, and manage ads efficiently, aiming to maximize reach and drive conversions through a user-friendly interface. The platform’s goal was to merge financial technology with advanced advertising tools, elevating the advertising experience for businesses.

The Challenge

Upon joining the project, I identified several challenges, including unclear copy and peculiar interaction design behaviors. User interviews and testing revealed a need for increased guidance throughout the ad creation process. The main objective was to simplify ad creation and management, allowing merchants to customize branded ads, schedule visibility, and monitor performance metrics seamlessly.

Before

After

Design and Development

Key steps in the design and development process included:

  1. User Interviews and Testing:
    – Conducted extensive user interviews and testing to uncover pain points and gather insights.
    – Identified the need for clearer guidance and more intuitive interaction designs.
  2. User Journey Workshop:
    – Organized a workshop in November 2023 to map out the customer journey and identify challenges.
    – Developed a collaborative roadmap for future improvements, focusing on user pain points.
  3. Innovative Features:
    – Introduced a dynamic audience size estimation component to provide insights into potential ad reach based on various parameters.
    – Implemented design changes to address usability issues and enhance the overall user experience.

Everyone will agree Magnus always brings new insights to the team and especially during the offsite workshop. I hope we can keep this up because I love it. Magnus is also very responsive and act quickly on the suggestions. Areas for improvement? Maybe I would put down “Let the Team Shine”, because Magnus is the brightest star on the stage.

Team member – Developer

Implementation and Results

The enhanced Klarna Ads Manager launched with significant improvements:

  • Streamlined Ad Creation:
    – Simplified the ad creation process, saving time and effort for merchants.
  • Enhanced Usability:
    – Improved copy clarity and interaction design, resulting in a more intuitive interface.
  • Guidance Integration:
    – Dynamic audience size estimation provided valuable insights, increasing the number of ad impressions.
  • Collaborative Roadmap:
    – The User Journey workshop fostered a team-wide understanding of user pain points, contributing to a strategic roadmap for future enhancements.

Achievements and Impact

Despite the project being decommissioned in late November 2023, the improvements made had a positive impact:

    1. Advertiser Engagement:
      – Over 70,000 advertisers gained access, with 3,500+ starting the onboarding process.
    2. Increased Impressions:
      – The platform achieved 3.5 million weekly impressions, demonstrating its effectiveness.

Campaign creation flow. Campaign option (default and expanded), Ad creation and Campaign summary.

The work that Magnus and his team did on the Ads manager is outstanding! Magnus is a very detailed oriented designer that fully owns and understand his problem space and that is constantly looking on how to improve the user experience. When I was struggling with some new design he immediately jumped in giving me the right feedback, asking the right questions and helped me get result. He is always open for collaboration and very supportive during meetings or in slack.

  • Fellow UX colleague

Key Takeaways

The Klarna Ads Manager project highlighted several important lessons:

  1. Customer-Centric Design:
    – Prioritizing user needs in design decisions led to substantial business outcomes and a better user experience.
  2. Collaborative Development:
    – Engaging the entire team in the design process fostered a collective understanding and drove effective solutions.
  3. Continuous Improvement:
    – Regular feedback and iteration are crucial for refining and enhancing the product.

Conclusion

The Klarna Ads Manager redesign demonstrates the power of user-centric design and innovative features in creating a platform that meets user needs and drives growth. Through meticulous research, collaborative workshops, and strategic design decisions, the project significantly improved the user experience for merchants, leaving a lasting impact on Klarna’s Advertiser Experience.

70.000+

Advertisers w. access

3500+

Started onboarding

3.5M

Weekly impressions

More Work
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