Every ad creative generator now promises to turn text prompts into stunning visuals. Some deliver. Most don't—at least not for commercial advertising work.
The Core Tradeoff You Need to Understand
AI image generators fall into two camps:
Artistic excellence tools (Midjourney) create stunning, emotionally resonant images that stand out visually. But they struggle with text rendering, precise specifications, and brand consistency.
Precision tools (DALL-E 3, Adobe Firefly) follow prompts accurately and handle text well. But the outputs often feel generic—technically correct but creatively flat.
For advertising, you usually need both: visuals that capture attention AND meet specific brand requirements. No single tool does both perfectly.
The Major Players, Honestly Assessed
Midjourney (v7)
What it does best: Artistic quality. In blind tests with designers, Midjourney images are preferred 74% of the time over DALL-E 3 and 82% over Stable Diffusion.
Real limitations: Text rendering is unreliable—a dealbreaker for ads requiring readable copy. Discord-based interface has steep learning curve.
Best for: Hero campaign visuals, brand identity development, fashion and luxury brands, conceptual imagery.
Pricing: $10-120/month depending on plan.
DALL-E 3 (via ChatGPT)
What it does best: Prompt adherence and text rendering. When you need signage, product labels, posters, or typography in images, DALL-E 3 is the only reliable option.
Real limitations: Outputs often lack the artistic flair of Midjourney. Sometimes feels like stock photography.
Best for: Marketing materials with text, product mockups, social media graphics, branded content requiring typography.
Pricing: $20/month (includes ChatGPT Plus), commercial usage rights included.
Adobe Firefly
What it does best: Commercial safety. Trained exclusively on licensed Adobe Stock images, so you're not inadvertently using copyrighted work.
Real limitations: Requires expensive Creative Cloud subscription. Output quality trails Midjourney and DALL-E for pure generation.
Best for: Enterprise teams with legal concerns, designers already in Creative Cloud, projects requiring bulletproof IP protection.
Pricing: $20-60/month as part of Creative Cloud.
Stable Diffusion
What it does best: Complete control. Open-source means you can modify the model, train custom versions, integrate into any application. Zero per-image costs when self-hosted.
Real limitations: Requires technical knowledge. Quality achieves about 87% of Midjourney for artistic content.
Best for: Technical power users, custom brand aesthetic training, high-volume generation where per-image costs matter.
Pricing: Free (self-hosted) or $10-50/month (hosted services).
Leonardo.AI
What it does best: Product photography and character consistency. Character Reference feature maintains consistent characters across multiple images.
Best for: E-commerce product shots, brand assets, campaigns requiring consistent characters or mascots.
Pricing: $10-48/month.
The Workflow That Actually Works
Successful advertisers aren't choosing one tool—they're combining them strategically:
- •Concepting phase: Use Midjourney for mood boards and creative exploration.
- •Client work: Switch to DALL-E 3 for rapid iteration and precise execution.
- •Final production: Use Adobe Firefly for commercial-safe final assets.
- •Product shots: Leonardo.AI for consistent, realistic product photography.
- •Custom needs: Stable Diffusion for specialized requirements.
What AI Image Generators Still Can't Do
- •Consistent brand assets. AI can't reliably reproduce your exact logo, typography, or visual system.
- •Accurate products. AI will approximate but rarely nail actual product details—labels, packaging, specific features.
- •Text you can trust. Even DALL-E 3's text rendering fails often enough that you should never trust it without verification.
- •Legal certainty. Except for Adobe Firefly, these tools have unclear IP provenance.
- •Emotional resonance at scale. AI can generate hundreds of variations, but identifying which ones connect emotionally still requires human judgment.
The Practical Decision Framework
Choose Midjourney when:
- • Artistic quality drives campaign value
- • You have time to learn the interface
- • Text isn't needed in the image
- • You're working on brand identity or concept development
Choose DALL-E 3 when:
- • You need text in images
- • Rapid iteration with clients matters
- • Precise prompt adherence is critical
- • You want conversational, beginner-friendly workflows
Choose Adobe Firefly when:
- • Legal/IP concerns are paramount
- • You're already in Creative Cloud
- • You need to extend or edit existing assets
Choose Stable Diffusion when:
- • You have technical resources
- • Custom model training is valuable
- • Budget constraints are severe
- • Privacy or content flexibility matters
Choose Leonardo.AI when:
- • Product photography is the primary need
- • Character consistency matters across campaigns
The Bottom Line
AI image generators are genuinely useful for advertising creative—but they're tools, not replacements for creative judgment.
The winning approach: use multiple tools for their specific strengths, maintain realistic expectations about what AI can and can't do, and always plan for human review and refinement.
The advertisers getting value aren't the ones generating thousands of images and hoping something works. They're the ones using AI to accelerate specific parts of the creative process while maintaining human oversight of quality, brand consistency, and emotional resonance.
Speed multiplied by judgment. That's where AI image generation actually delivers.
