6 Facebook Ad Image Best Practices that will Send your Click-Through-Rate to the Moon

Are your Facebook ads targeted well? Do you have great content but are still struggling to increase your Click-through-Rate?

In this article I’ll explain six best practices for selecting Facebook Ad images. I’ll take a look at six examples where these best practices have been utilized, and one where they’ve been ignored entirely. This will give you a clear idea of what works and what you should avoid at all costs.

Tweetable Takeaways:

• Did you know the most successful image for Facebook Ads is of a smiling woman?
• Use Facebook picture contests to get user-generated images for your ads
• Find odd or exaggerated images to get Facebook users to do a double-take and engage

Facebook’s Own Ad Image Best Practices

Below are Facebook’s three ad image best practices. See what you think:

• Choose an image that is directly relevant to your product or service
• Use an image that is bright and eye-catching, even when viewed at a small size
• Avoid images that have many small details or text and opt for something simple instead

To be perfectly frank I only agree with two of Facebook’s ad image best practices.

As you well know (and I’ll debunk in the “Children and Pets’ section below), it is in no way essential for Facebook advertisers to choose an image directly relevant to their product or service. A picture of a completely unrelated tiger is just as eye-catching (if not more so) as a picture of the mobile phone you’re selling.

And while I agree your images should most definitely avoid small details, text can be a great eye-catcher. For instance, the word ‘FREE’ emblazoned in orange across a blue background will definitely catch a Facebook user’s eye. Value Propositions (see below) also work well.

Bright and eye-catching? Now that is absolutely 100% essential.

Size and shape

Size:

Before we take a look at some image examples, make sure your image is the right size and shape. For all ads, Facebook recommends your image be 1200 pixels wide, and no smaller than 600.

However, as most businesses are running right-column ads I’d like to say Facebook’s best practices here are again a bit ridiculous. A 144 x 72 pixel-wide image (below on the right) looks exactly the same as a 1200 x 600 image (below on the left) when you shrink it down 800%.

In case you were wondering, Facebook now allows the same image to be used in both desktop and mobile advertising.

Shape:

As I’m sure you’ll notice with Healing Paws Veterinary Care below, your image also needs to be in landscape (and far less detailed as well).

Six Ad Image Best Practices

1. Happy people

The image that has proved to convert best in Facebook ads is of a happy woman looking directly at the camera. FortisBC uses this strategy below, simply by showing a woman (and her baby) enjoying their company’s product.

How you can do it:

• Retailers can have a happy woman modeling their product
• Service-based businesses can show a happy woman who has benefitted from their service (like FortisBC’s image above)

2. Color

It will come as no surprise that Facebook’s color scheme is blue and white. If you employ the same colors your ad will blend into the News Feed and people’s already tired eyes will skip over it.

Toys ‘R Us and Koodo below do a great job of making their images stand out with bright orange and pink backgrounds.

How you can do it:

• If your product image, logo or mascot is blue take a page from Koodo’s book above and make a bright background or border
• Ensure the background or border you choose contrasts with the image itself
• Attract the eye with a bright color and encourage a conversion with a great CTA in the title or copy

3. Logos

An easily-recognizable logo may not attract the eye as well as a woman, a lot of color, a baby or a pet, but over time they’ll encourage conversion as Facebook users see it consistently and often.

TD Bank has been running the advertisement below off and on for almost two months now. Prominently featuring their logo increases brand recognition, and, as they’ve only targeted it within the area they have branches, it’s valuable brand recognition as well.

How you can do it:

• I’d recommend using Facebook Power Editor, creating a campaign, and having one of three Facebook advertisements be your business’ logo
• This allows you to combat a low CTR with ad rotation while still increasing brand recognition of your logo
• If your logo is naturally blue or colorless, be sure to use a colorful background or border

Only use your business logo if you are confident that your audience will recognize it. Otherwise Facebook users will skip over something they don’t think is related to them.

4. Value Proposition

A clear and solid value proposition is a great way to attract the eye. This could be the word ‘free’ highlighted within your image, or, like Marin Software’s image below, a feature of the product you’re promoting.

How you can do it:

• Run a contest and put the prize within the image: ‘Win a $250 gift card’
• Give a valuable takeaway from an eBook or guide: ‘Convert with A/B Testing’

Be sure to still include color within your image. A great value proposition will increase click-through, but won’t attract the eye without color.

Children and Pets

As two of the top five most-shared images on social media, pets and children are always a safe bet for your Facebook ad image.

Telus and AdRoll have chosen a cute cheetah and child below. Both images really bring home the fact that your image by no means has to be clearly associated with your product or service.

The goal of your image is to attract the eye, leave the message to your title and ad copy.

How you can do it:

• Find an image of a baby or pet with your product
• Come up with an image which works with the title
• For instance, if your product is an A/B testing ebook, how about a picture of twins in different hats?

6. Funny or Odd

Depending on your business’ audience, employing a funny or odd image can seriously increase your conversion rates. Not only do they attract the eye, they encourage your reputation as a fun, casual brand. If this is what you’re going for as your Facebook brand persona, go with it. If not, steer clear.

BarkBox has found a great image below. It’s eye-catching and also promotes their product (as the dog seems pretty happy with his BarkBox).

How you can do it:

• Use a fun image, like a cute pet or baby with your product
• Use an image that looks slightly off or exaggerated to cause Facebook users to do a double-take and engage

Asking your Facebook Fans for user-generated content (through a photo or Pinterest contest for instance) is great for uncovering funny, interesting, or inspiring images.

Testing

Knowing the top six image categories for Facebook is extremely valuable, but you should still test your individual images to be sure you’re getting the best response rate.

BlueNile is split testing the advertisement below – changing only the image to see which people respond best to.

How you can do it:

• Use Power Editor to create a campaign and, within it, create two advertisements
• Run the first advertisement for a set period of time, taking careful note of its metric performance within Facebook Insights – this advertisement is your ‘Control’
• After a set period of time, publish the next advertisement, changing the image, title, copy or Call-to-Action
• Watch its metric performance for the same period of time to determine which variation performed the best

If you feel an advertisement should be performing well, but isn’t, try changing its targeted demographic before throwing it out.

Conclusion

Hopefully you now have a better idea of what images work best for Facebook advertisements. Remember to test what people respond to for your own company, and watch your competitors to see what’s working for them.

Have you had any success split testing your Facebook advertisements? Are there any images you’ve found work best for an SaaS company? What about eCommerce businesses?

Start the conversation below!

By James [email protected]