1.
The Ultimate Guide to
Facebook Ad Images
New Frontiers Marketing
We'll Show You How to Significantly Increase
Your Facebook Ad Click Through Rates, and
Cut Your Advertising Costs, By Using the Right
Kind of Images

2.
We love Facebook.
We love using it to socialise and interact with our friends, and to keep in touch
with people we know who live in different parts of the world. We also love
sharing our special moments with friends and family.
But as advertisers, what we love most about it, is the sheer depth and scale of
options that we have open to us.
With over a billion users, Facebook is perhaps the biggest source of information
about consumers that has ever been collected. You can target people based on
their age, their gender, their location, their marital status, their jobs, their buying
habits, even the car that they drive!
The fact that it has all of this information readily available, makes Facebook
invaluable to us as marketers. But as many people have discovered to their cost,
advertising on Facebook isn't like advertising on Google Adwords, it requires a
different approach and a different voice.
One of the most crucial parts of advertising on Facebook, and something that
can easily make or break your campaign, is the type of image that you use for
your ads.
As Facebook is a 'discovery' based advertising platform, i.e. users are shown
ads based on their interests, behaviours and demographics, as opposed to a
'response' based platform, such as Adwords, where ads are shown to people
based on specific things that they search for in Google, you will need to use ad
images that capture people's attention, and encourage them to go out of their
way to take the action that you want them to take. If your images aren't doing
this, it's likely that your Facebook ad campaigns will fail.
Whether you're already advertising successfully on Facebook, or you're
completely new to the game, we'll help you to get better results from your ad
campaigns at a lower cost, by showing you how to optimise the ad images that
you use. We'll help you to squeeze every last bit of profit from your advertising
efforts.
Introduction
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3.
●
▣ Get more clicks per 1000 impressions when bidding by cost per
impression (CPM), optimised cost per impression (OCPM), or Daily
Unique Reach (DUR), thereby lowering your overall average cost per
click
▣ ​Get more clicks in the initial stages of an OCPM advertising campaign,
thereby helping Facebook to optimise your campaign delivery quicker
than it would otherwise be able to, meaning that the campaign will
perform better, sooner, and that any inefficient ad spending will be
minimised
▣ Reduce the cost of clicks in a CPC advertising campaign, as getting a
higher click through rate will lower the cost of individual clicks
▣ ​Get as many conversions, leads, likes, installs etc. from your audience
as is possible, as well-designed, attractive images will entice many
people to take action, who would not have taken action if less
effective ad images had been used
​
And there are many more benefits besides.
Okay, so now that we understand why optimising your Facebook ad images
matters, how do we know what works, and what doesn't? Well, over the past
few years, we have spent a very significant amount of money on Facebook,
running campaigns both for ourselves, and for a wide variety of clients.
The Goals...and How to
Achieve Them
First of all, let's clarify exactly why optimising your Facebook ad images
matters, and how doing it can help you to get better results at a lower cost.
So, optimising your ad images will allow you to;
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4.
We've forensically studied what's got us results, and what has wasted our
money, and we've identified a certain type of image that yields the best returns,
and we're about to share this with you.
We've also taken note of advice and insights given to us personally by some
real heavy hitters of Facebook, whose yearly ad spends run into many millions
of dollars, meaning that they have an almost unprecedented amount of data
on how best to use Facebook's advertising platform. So, are you ready? Great,
let's begin!
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5.
The best performing ad images on Facebook, tend to be images of people.
In particular, people's faces. As with everything else, there are a couple of
exceptions to this rule, but we'll come to these a bit later on.
So, you should aim to use images of people, that are closely cropped to their
faces. But it's important that the photos don't look too staged or posed, and
that the people seem 'real-looking' and friendly. It's also best if they look
happy and good-spirited; images of people where they are unhappy, pained
or depressed don't really work on Facebook.
Just think, Facebook is a place where people go when they want to relax and
socialise, and if you're putting dark, depressing images in front of them,
you're going to come across as a buzzkill, and nobody wants hang out with a
buzzkill.
The tighter the cropping on the face, the better; and you get bonus points if
the person’s smiling. But remember, the images can't feel too posed - the
goal should be something that feels like a really nice photo a friend might
have taken.
You should also try to use images that have quite bright colours, as you are
trying capture people's attention. However, make sure that you don't use
images where the main colours are blue and white, as this is Facebook's
own colour scheme, and any blue and white ad images will likely blend into
the background, meaning that people and far less likely to notice, and click
on them.
Here's an example of two images that we feel would work well if they were
used in Facebook ads:
Key Insight 1: Use Images of
People
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6.
Okay, so this is all great in theory, but does it work in practice? In our
experience, yes.
A short time ago, we were running a Facebook ad campaign to drive
downloads of a free ebook we wrote that shows people how they can turn their
email subscribers into customers. Initially, we used ad images that simply
showed the ebook cover on a bright background:
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7.
The results were okay, but we felt we could do better, so we went away and
created some ad images that had people in them, and made sure the images
were cropped closely to their smiling, happy-looking faces:
Did it work? Yes, quite spectacularly so. When using the second image with
the people in, our cost per download halved, as the click-through and
conversion rates both increased significantly.
We could probably have got even better results if the people in the image
had been dressed a bit less formally, but we couldn't quite find the right
images to use within our tight time deadline.
So overall, bright images that are not mainly blue and white, and that feature
happy, real-looking people, with a close crop to their smiling faces, are likely
to perform best for you.
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8.
The other type of alternative Facebook ad image that can work well, is quirky
images. The definition of what is, and isn't, quirky, is obviously rather broad
and subjective, and the guidelines about what kind of quirky image you should
use are pretty tough to define, but as a general rule, any image that catches
your attention, that confuses you slightly, and that makes you do a double-
take, can be considered quirky, and may work well as a Facebook ad.
Here are two examples of quirky images that we feel could get good results:
There are however, a couple of other types of ad image that usually perform
well, and it can be worth testing these types of image in your campaign.
The first of these ad image types, are pictures of children or animals, as some
people will respond better to images like this, than to images of adults. Again,
the same rules apply to images like this; use bright images (but no blue and
white!), of happy, real-looking subjects, and crop closely to their faces.
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9.
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10.
Key Insight 2: The Exceptions...
We mentioned earlier that there are a couple of exceptions when you would
be best served by not using images that are primarily of people. These
exceptions are, in fact, industries. Specifically, when you are selling
consumer electronics (e.g. smartphones, laptops etc.) or food items, we
would recommend that you use a different type of image.
For consumer electronics products, it's probably best to use images of the
products themselves, as they will likely be well known and high-tech enough
to be immediately desirable to your audience (as long as you're targeting the
right people of course). Similarly, as the features of the products will likely
be what interests people in them, you should focus on communicating your
product's amazing features, in a way that grabs people's attention.
Again, it's best to use bright colours, and to crop your images close to their
main subject. Below is an example of an image that we think is bad choice
for a Facebook ad image, as the colours aren't bright enough, and there is
nothing that reaches out and grabs your attention:
And here is what we consider to be a good candidate for being a Facebook
ad image, as the colours are brighter and more striking, and the graphic
reaches out at people more, and emphasises the central benefit and feature
of the product, which is the 3D display option:
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11.
Another exception when it would be best to not feature images that are
primarily of people, is if you are advertising certain foods. Here, you will
probably be most successful if you use attractive and appetising images of
the foods, which are closely cropped to the subject, and which again use
bright colours such as yellows, oranges, reds and greens, which will contrast
nicely with the Facebook colour scheme.
We feel the following two images are good examples of what could work
well as Facebook ad images, if you are promoting certain food products:
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12.
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13.
We've talked a lot about the right kind of ad images to use, but the question
now is, where can I get these images from? The good news is that there are
many places, both free and paid, where you can get high quality images that'll
work just great as Facebook ads. If you have a look through some of the sites
we list below, you should be able to find what you're looking for.
Paid Image Sites
But Where Can I Get
Images Like This From?
Shutterstock Corbis
Getty Images 123RF
Bigstock Fotolia
Istock Depositphotos
Free Image Sites
Pexels Pic Jumbo
Unsplash Pixabay
Stokpic Getrefe
Death to the Stock Photo Raumrot
Foodies Feed Splashbase
Flickr Splitshire
Gratisography Startup Stock Photos
Jeshoots Stocksnap
Life of Pix The Pattern Library
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14.
When you're creating your ads in the Facebook Ads Manager and Power
Editor tools, you may notice that you're able to select images from
Shutterstock to use with your ads. This is fine as long as you don't want to
edit these images in any way, but it's often best to put some of your own
branding, or text, or the offer that you're promoting, on to the image itself,
and you are not able to do this within Facebook, nor are you able to
download the images, alter them, then re-upload them into Facebook.
We therefore recommend that you source your own images, edit or brand
them yourself, and then upload them into Facebook and use them in ads
from within the Ads Manager or Power Editor.
The size of the ad images that you upload into Facebook should be 1200
pixels wide by 627 pixels high, for both newsfeed and sidebar ads. You can
use the same size images for sidebar ads as you can for newsfeed ads,
even though sidebar ads are a lot smaller, because Facebook will
automatically scale down the ad images for you, so that they fit the sidebar
ad dimensions.
If you're inexperienced with graphic design, or don't have access to
expensive tools, we would recommend that you create your ad images using
a free website called Canva.
In Canva, you can build your Facebook ad designs onto pre-made templates
in the exact size of 1200 by 627 pixels that your images need to be. To use a
Facebook ad template, go to the Canva homepage, then click on the box
marked 'More' and scroll to 'Facebook Ad' and select it.
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These free image sites are great, and you should be able to find what you're
looking for on them, no matter what you're promoting, but as there are so
many sites to choose from, and as the quality of their content varies, it can
take you a while to find the right images for your Facebook ad campaign,
especially as some of these sites can be hard to navigate.
Don't worry though, because to help you out, we've done all the hard work for
you. We've spent dozens and dozens of hours scouring these sites to collect
the best, most Facebook ad suitable images, into one collection that has 313
fantastic images across 12 categories that you can either use straight away,
or edit into your own designs. It's hard to know what kind of images will work
on Facebook when you haven't used it much for advertising before, so our
image pack will take away the guesswork for you, and give you only the best,
most likely to succeed, images from across the range of free image sites that
we listed above. You can get the image pack here.
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15.
The ad creation interface will then look something like this:
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16.
Once you're finished, you can download your design by clicking the
'Download' button in the top right hand corner.
One thing you need to bear in mind however, is that if your ad design has
text that covers more than 20% of it, it won't be approved by Facebook, as
they consider designs with over 20% text content as being potentially of a
low quality. You can check to see if your design is over this 20% text limit, by
using this tool.
So, these image sources, and this guide to Canva should help almost
everyone to find and create Facebook ad images that will get you great
results, but what if you've tried as hard as you can, and you still just can't
find the right images for your campaign? What can you do then?
Well, if you're really struggling, something else that can work well, is using
cartoon style graphics to promote your product or service, like the ones that
Adespresso use in their Facebook ads:
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You can then upload the images that you've sourced, and make your design on
the blank canvas of white space. You can add text and graphics through the
buttons on the left hand menu, although some of the graphics you may have to
pay for.
Using Canva, we managed to create the Facebook ad image we showed you
earlier, of people looking at a downloadable pdf, on a light green background.
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17.
Notice how these graphics feature people, albeit in cartoon form, and
see how they're all looking straight at you to try to engage the target
audience. We're not sure about the blue backgrounds however, as this
means the ads will more easily blend into Facebook's blue colour
scheme, but perhaps the ad images are well designed and attention-
grabbing enough for this not to matter.
If you can't find the right images to use, and you have access to a
decent graphic designer, then using these kind of bright, attention
grabbing cartoon graphics, which feature people who are looking
straight at the audience, are a good way to go.
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18.
As we mentioned, this image with people in got us far better results
than the one without, but once we'd proved that this image was
performing better than the other, we didn't stop there.
Instead, we created a similar image to test against it, to see if we
could improve our click through and conversion rates even more, and
after running the ads until each one had been seen approximately
10,000 times each, we had a clear winner.
Key Insight 3: Split Testing
When it comes to Facebook ad images, no two are created equal.
Even though you've followed all the rules and got yourself some great
ad images that are sure to make your campaign a roaring success,
some ad images will perform better than others, so it's important to
create multiple images to test against each other, and once you've
identified which ones perform best, you can scale these up, while
pausing the others.
Split testing Facebook ads is easy from within the Ads Manager or
Power Editor tools, and we'd recommend testing 4-6 images initially.
Let them run for a while, and once they've had a few thousand
impressions each (exactly how many impressions is a matter of
personal preference, we usually allow for between 7000 - 10000 per
ad), you should be able to see which ad images are getting you the
best results.
Here's an example of a split test that we did on one of our own ad
campaigns; firstly, let's look at the ad image with people in that we
showed you earlier:
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19.
The following ad image features a different ebook cover layout, and
we found that it had click through and conversion rates around 10%
higher than the previous image.
We knew we were on to a winner, so we paused all of the other ads,
and put all of our resources into promoting this one. As expected,
we were then able to sizeably reduce our cost per lead as a result
of the increased click through, and conversion, rates that the new
image provided us with.
So, the question now is, when should you stop testing new, slightly
different images against your best performing one? And the answer
is, only when your campaign is over.
Be aware that every time you can find an ad image that increases
your click through and conversions rates, this means that your
advertising campaign has become more efficient and more
profitable, and over the course of a large scale campaign, this
could result in you making a significant amount more money.
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20.
Conclusions and Takeaways
So, over the course of this guide, we've shown you which type of ad
images fare best on Facebook for a range of different industries, and
by following these guidelines, you should be able to significantly
increase the click through and conversion rates of your Facebook ads,
allowing you to run far more profitable Facebook ad campaigns for
your company.
To help you absorb and enact the guidelines, we've put them together
into an infographic of key takeaways below:
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21.
The Next Steps...
So, you should now know how to significantly increase the profitability
of your Facebook advertising campaigns by using a specific type of ad
image that will get you the best results in a range of industries.
However, finding these particular ad images can be a long, drawn-out
process, and an expensive one, if you use paid stock image sites such
as Shutterstock, Fotolia, or Getty Images.
To help out, we've sifted through thousands and thousands of images
from the free stock image sites we listed earlier, to find 313 images
across 12 categories, including Business, Health and Beauty, Love, and
Exercise, that we know will work fantastically well as Facebook ads,
either in their current form, or as a base to create your own designs
from.
When you haven't had much previous experience in optimising
Facebook ads, it can be hard to pick the right images to use, and any
mistakes can be costly, so why not take away the uncertainty, and the
painstaking work of seeking out suitable ad images, by simply clicking
on the link below to go and pick up our Facebook ads image pack,
which is sure to make your Facebook advertising campaigns more
successful, more efficient and more profitable.
Thank you for reading this guide!
Get 313 Fantastic Facebook
Ad Images!
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