Systems and methods are disclosed for generating and utilizing photo advertisements (“ads”). In one embodiment, a computer server obtains and stores user-created photo advertisements. Each of the user-created photo advertisements is generated based on a corresponding photo ad template having one or more photo wells such that filler images of one or more participants are inserted into the one or more photo wells. For each user-created photo advertisement, the one or more participants include at least a user by which the photo advertisement was created. In addition, the computer server effects use of the stored user-created photo advertisements as sponsored advertisements.