A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Whether it’s used for offline or online marketing, a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words.

With the increasing popularity of banner advertising through media buys, Facebook Ads, Myspace & Google Content Network, choosing the right images & banners for your campaigns are becoming more important than ever.

Let me explain you why choosing a creative banner ad can bring in crazy profits from experience and show you a real Facebook Ads stats I have tested;

Creative Images Bring Higher CTR’s

Getting higher CTR (click through rate) on your creatives will increase your chance of finding a profitable campaign (unless your landing page is totally unrelated to your banners).

Without getting into further explanation of the importance of using/finding creative images, let me share a Facebook Ads campaign I’ve tested recently.

I’ve created 90 images for this campaign, and tested all 90 in a separate ad group. Titles and descriptions of these ads were exactly the same. After each ad has received between 1000 to 2000 impressions, I have paused the campaigns to find my winner images.

32 images out of 90 didn’t get even 1 click. The winner image has received almost 0.3% CTR (which is not bad at all for Facebook Ads). The funny part is, I never thought this image would be the winner.

Below is the stats of top clicked ads:

Never Settle with What YOU Think is Good

If I wanted to test the offer pretty quick, and picked one image, I’d have paused this campaign and move on. The reason is; The image which I thought would bring the highest CTR, didn’t receive a click.

So, instead of making an assumption, I have tested the offer with real audience and had enough data to make a decision.

Keep Testing to Increase Your Profit

Whether it’s Facebook Ads, media buying or any type of banner advertising you are running, the simple recipe to successful online marketing campaigns is testing.

Don’t settle with the winner image, keep the top 10% (20 or 30%) and remove the ones without sufficient CTR’s, and keep adding new, creative and fresh images.

How Much $ to Spend on Testing a New Campaign?

This is a question I get asked all the time. It all depends on your budget. If I have a feeling that the campaign has potential, I test up to 10 times of the payout. So, if the payout is $30, I spend usually up to $300 for the initial test. Depending on the campaign, this number can go up or down. So, set your test budget (2x, 3x, etc.) and start testing.

To be able to succeed in online marketing, you have to adopt this mindset, and keep testing every single variable (banner, ad copy, display url, etc.) during the life of the campaign.