Get More Facebook Engagement With These 3 Easy A/B Tests

When it comes to Facebook ads, A/B testing is one of the best ways to hone your strategy and start getting more clicks, more engagement…

And ultimately, more profit.

There are quite a few parameters for which you can employ A/B testing.

You could split test different audiences, or different headlines, or short copy versus long copy.

But one thing you might not have thought of is split testing the visual imagery in your ads.

Visuals stand out.

In that few split seconds where your ad first registers in someone's visual field, the images are what stands out. Reading the text comes later.

So this is an area where you want to figure out what catches someone's eye and grabs their attention for just long enough to get them to read the whole thing.

You can test imagery, types of images, colors, and more.

In a recent post, AdEspresso lists several easy but impactful ways you can split test imagery to get more mileage out of your Facebook ads.

Split test your ad image colors

A study by Consumer Acquisition found that ad images have a huge effect on your ad results — they’re responsible for 75%-90% of ad performance.

That’s exactly why testing your ad image’s background color can help improve your campaign ROI big time.

For example, Infusionsoft is testing two ad images with a completely different layout and color code.

Facebook split testing tip: Let your experiments run until you’ve got at least 100 clicks on each ad, even better if 300. This way, you’ll ensure that your test results are statistically valid and a variation didn’t win by chance.

Split test a stock photo vs. an illustration

Testing a stock photo vs. a custom illustration is a test that you can run after every 3-6 months. That’s because the winning option from the last experiment man have grown old and people are tired of seeing it.

For example, if you’ve discovered that a custom illustration has a 40% higher conversion rate, it can lose its advantage over time when it’s not new and interesting to your audience anymore.

Eventbrite, for instance, is split testing a colorful stock photo against a highly simplistic ad with a custom background.

AdEspresso makes split testing images within your campaign extremely easy. You can simply upload your stock photo and your image into the campaign builder to have a split test created of the two images.

Once the split test is created, you can use the ads reporting tool to analyze the performance of each image in your campaign to see which ones are yielding the best results for you.

Test colorful vs. light ad images

There are arguments that support both options.

Our eyes are naturally drawn to colorful images. However, a light ad image with a white background could really differentiate from the rest of the news feed content, immediately catching your eye.

For example, would you rather notice the light ad or the darker carousel ad by Squarespace?

Don’t limit yourself to testing your ad’s colors. Try removing the background color for good and see what happens.