Best Practices for Facebook Ad Images

Get a good CTR and save big on your CPCs! When advertising on Facebook – 80% of your ads’ success depends on the attractiveness of your image. Getting the right image is a trick you’d need to learn early on itself for your ads to be successful. Here is why you need to get a good image in place:

A good CTR on Facebook is 0.12%, However, this CTR differs from one industry vertical to another. Here are some best practices for Facebook Ad Images and ways of improving CTRs:

1. Clear image with few elements

Avoid images that have way too many elements in them. This would make it very cluttered and the prospective audience would not want to pay attention to the image.

Go for an image with a plain background where the product being advertised is in complete focus.

This image on the other hand has too many things going on. The brand name, the product itself, the discount are all pushed into a tiny space.

Learning: Using a clear image helps you gain 2 times better CTR than using images with too many elements in it.

2. Images with people

Images that show a close up of people work better than those where people only appear in a distance. Using images with people showcasing an emotion is better than having images where a person’s emotions don’t come through.

This image clearly shows love and happiness and is ideal to use for instilling an ‘aww’ feeling. A great image for banking, insurance, child protection plans.

This one on the other hand is too distant for a viewer to understand any emotion from.

Learning: Using an image with a close up allows you to improve CTRs by 2X. Distant images, on the other hand, are known to reduce CTRs 2X.

3. Close up of a product + a far shot

Use an image that shows a close up of the product and a far shot.

Learning: Using a close up + far shot allows CTRs to improve 3X. This kind of an image is known to work for clothing. Interestingly, this works great for men and women.

4. Don’t use a white / blue background

Most of the Facebook UI is based in white and blue. Using these two colors in your images would mean that viewers would find the ad almost merging with the Facebook interface itself.

Here is an example of such an ad

If you do use a white / blue background, make sure you give your image a very distinct border to ensure that it does not just merge in to the UI.

Learning: Images with a blue / white background tend to bring in CTRs 2 / 3 times lower than the average Facebook CTR.

5. Using text in images

Using some text in your images helps. However, the trick is to know how much. Don’t go overboard.

This image has way too much text for a person to find the image appealing. Also, the text is very small to read and hence this image would not gain good CTRs.

This image on the other hand, has the product as the main subject and some text which adds to the image’s appeal.

Learning: Using text in your images brings in CTRs that are average or slightly above average. However, it helps create a photographic space in your customer’s mind. He will come back to the site and remember the brand name / price, etc.

6. Mentioning prices / sales / deals

Mentioning a price point or mentioning that you are offering a sale / deal helps.

However, always keep the product as the most important element. Avoid what you see in the below image.

As seen here the discount occupies far more prominence than the product itself.

Learning: Mentioning prices / deals is known to bring in CTRs that are better than average. A point to keep in mind here is using odd numbers in your image helps improve CTRs. Mention prices as Rs. 699 / Rs. 999. This helps CTRs by 2 – 3 times.

7. Use a logo if the brand you are marketing is prominent.

Not just logos. Brand names help too!

This would work for all prominent brands like Nike, Adidas, Levis, Reebok, Pepsi, McDonalds.

Mentioning the name of a brand brings in an instant connect. Do this for all brands that are prominent and well known.

Learning: Brand logos are known to boost CTRs by 3X. Brand names boost CTRs as well, but are not as helpful as logos. Logos form an instant connect.

8. Use bright colors

Colors such as red, blue, yellow work very well!

Learning: Colors such as red, blue, green stand out in the offline world. It holds true for Facebook advertising as well.

9. Line of sight

If you have humans as the main subject in your image it is advised that you do not show them look out towards the left.

When the subject of your image looks to the right, so will your viewer. In such a situation 

the chances of the viewer reading the text are more. Hence using such images work better.

Learning: While CTRs for such an image may be around the average itself, the fact is that a viewer will read your ad description and hence the chances of him/her coming back to the site to view products on display are more.

10. Using landscape images

Opt for images with a landscape orientation as opposed to those that are portrait.

A landscape image lets you utilize the full space available in your Facebook ad.

This causes the ad to appear like spam.

If you keep all of the above mentioned points in mind you’re sure to have some amazingly high CTRs and very low CPCs!

The article has been reproduced from here.