An interesting site. So far there hasn't been too much success in self-serve ad platforms (aside from Ad Sense / Ad Words / Facebook ads), but I don't know why exactly. I think that CPM campaigns work for building brand awareness / brand lift, but your typical mom-and-pop isn't really interested in that, and they aren't savvy enough to really make use of CPC / CPA. Maybe once they reach that level then having a template builder isn't really a big deal - they can make their own creatives too.
There is so much money in online ads that you are just a pivot away from major success. Adify, for example, started off as self-serve, then pivoted and sold to Cox for ~$300,000,000 a couple years later. So definitely be willing to try different things!
As for UI, the lightbox really kills the flow of the app. I think I'd rather have the user click on the template they like and go directly to making the template, and have the preview there. Also, most of the templates look pretty low quality - have you tested them out to see how well they convert? If I had to go down this road I'd start with just a thumbnail and text, ala the deck network or facebook ads. Just my $.02 though.
There is so much money in online ads that you are just a pivot away from major success. Adify, for example, started off as self-serve, then pivoted and sold to Cox for ~$300,000,000 a couple years later. So definitely be willing to try different things!
As for UI, the lightbox really kills the flow of the app. I think I'd rather have the user click on the template they like and go directly to making the template, and have the preview there. Also, most of the templates look pretty low quality - have you tested them out to see how well they convert? If I had to go down this road I'd start with just a thumbnail and text, ala the deck network or facebook ads. Just my $.02 though.