The Formula of Winning Image Ads

What's up, Marketers! This is Aazar.

This newsletter is about leveling up your paid growth marketing skills by analyzing the best brands' paid strategy, tactics, positioning, and value props.

This newsletter is divided into:

• Sharing what I've learned

• Sometimes sharing some other performance marketers’ lessons with you

• And I analyze & compare the best ads on the internet (this issue)

And welcome to the 150+ new subscribers who joined us since last week’s issue. Do check out these three blogs to get value from this newsletter immediately:

• How this brand 13X-ed their revenue within 18 months

• MEGA Swipefile Facebook Static Image Ads (FREE)

• How to make skit ads

The last newsletter was probably the best in terms of reader’s feedback. So, I thought about sharing a similar concept today as well.

I’ve analyzed 1000+ proven winning ads in the past 14 months. 

These were not just any ads. They stayed longer than 30 days in the ad library for these accounts and are only top-of-the-funnel ads. 

You can find some of my swipe files of winning static ads here.

📢 Announcement: 

Over the past 14 months, I've analyzed 10,000+ ads and carefully curated the top 50.

The best part?

Now, you can steal my proven Facebook Ads static ads and instantly recreate them in Canva or Figma with your branding in 2 clicks or less in collaboration with ready-made templates for only $99 here in partnership with Atria.

Some of these ads are:

1. Us vs them

2. Testimonial

3. Before & After

4. Press release screenshot

5. Ads that don't look like ads

Get the best canva templates

Back to the analysis: 

1. Positive vs Negative Headline

Do headlines need to be negative or positive to get the attention? I found out that 88.7% of these images have something positive headline in the ad. 

Only 11.3% of these images started with something negative.

When I analyzed the video ads, the comparison showed the opposite is true. 

Example with positive headline:

Example with negative headline:

Key takeaway: Video ads start with negative. Image ads start with a positive.

2. Branded vs Non-branded

I wanted to understand what percentage of ads are winning that are branded vs non-branded. You know, when an ad doesn’t look like an ad, it has higher chance.

Branded ads won 36%, whereas non-branded ones won 66%. There was another observation. 

Branded ads that were doing well on the ad accounts had vibrant colors. The colors stood out, so it made sense.

Example for branded ad:

Example of a non-branded ad:

Key takeaway: Choose a vibrant color if you’re going with the branded ads. But try more non-branded ads to blend in. 

3. Clear vs Clever Headlines

We marketers love being clever instead of clear. I thought about analyzing these winning ads to determine this and end this debate.

Only 2.3% of the ads were clever, and 97.7% of the image ads were clear, simple, and easy to understand.

Here’s an example of clear ads:

Here’s an example of clever ads:

Key takeaway: I think it is clear :) 

4. Length of the headline

I wanted to understand if the winning ads have the length of the headline that makes them win more:

I chose between 2 to 7 words. 

39% of the headlines were three-worded, 26% were two-worded, and the rest were evenly distributed except for 7 or 8 worded (they were very few).

Example of a three-worded winning headline:

Example of a four worded winning headline:

Key takeaway: Keep your headlines 3 to 4 worded. 

Caveat: A, the, is, or other helping verbs were not considered. 

5. Questions vs statements

I wanted to know if statements work better in video headlines, like in the video, which had 91% of the hooks being statements.

In single-image ads, only 4.8% of the ads had questions (9% of the videos had a question hook jfyi), and the rest were statements.

It makes sense because you want to communicate value fast, within milliseconds. 

Example of an image ad with the question:

Example of an image with a statement:

Key takeaway: Make a statement like a claim or benefit in the headline. Ask less questions.

6. With the product vs without the product ads:

As someone who sells a service and a product, I always wanted to know if having a product in the ad works better because I first came from the service side.

42% of the winning ads had a product in them, while 58% of the ads did not have it.

I wanted to dig deeper and figure out if ecommerce/DTC had more products in their ads.

99% of the ecommerce products had their product in them. This is super clear for ecommerce folks now.

Example of the ad with the product:

Example of the ad without the product:

Key takeaway: If you’re a physical product company, showcase your product in the ad unless you can show transformation, and it is apparent.

7. Text heavy vs no text-heavy ads

Should I have too much text or too little text on the image? If an ad had more than 20 words in it. It is text-heavy. So, let’s find out in these winning ads.

18% of the winning ads were text-heavy, while 82% of the winning ads were less text-heavy.

This makes sense. People want to consume and decide if they are interested immediately.

Example of a text-heavy ad:

Key takeaway: Suggestion – use less text-heavy ads when you make image ads, especially when you sell a product.

8. Social proof vs no social proof:

We know that marketing without social proof is hard. But how much does that impact on ads?

Let’s find out. I consider PR, logos, reviews, or comments about the brand as social proof.

Only 20% of the image ads had social proof, including the testimonial ads, while 80% didn’t.

It makes sense if you run ads at the top of the funnel. You only want to communicate the big idea.

Example of an ad with social proof:

Example of an ad without social proof:

Key takeaway: Social proof may help, but your best ads might also come from non-social proof. Try both.

9. Emotionally evoking 

I always believed that they'd perform better if ads were emotionally evoking. These are the emotions I considered while evaluating these ads:

• Instant gratification

• Happiness

• Fear

• Trust

• Sadness

• Anger

• Belonging

• Guilt

• Price

• Surprise

• Hope

• Joy

• Nostalgia

• Awe

• Sexual desire

• Surprise

• Shame

• Boredom

• Distrust

Almost all ads could be said they focus on some kind of emotion. 

77% of the ads were emotionally evoking with words or images while 23% of the ads were functional.

Example of a functional ad:

Example of an emotional ad:

Key takeaway: This confirms my hypothesis that emotionally evoking words or visual ads are more likely to win. So, make the ads with emotions first in mind. 

10. The image communicates the BIG IDEA 

The BIG IDEA is the central theme around which every other element in your copy revolves. Great copywriters like David Ogilvy and Gary Halbert used the big idea in their copy. 

The Big Idea helps to focus the thoughts of your reader. 

It is also that powerful idea that differentiates your product from your competitors and makes it easier to persuade your readers to take your desired action—which may be to buy from you.

The Characteristics of a Powerful Big Idea (According to Andrew Gould):

• It must be unexpected 

• Boil it down to one or two sentences 

• Make sure your big idea is relevant to your prospects 

• Make your big idea tangible or concrete 

• Prove your big idea beyond doubt 

Let’s see how many ads communicate the big idea, especially with their imagery.

91% of the ads had a big idea loud and clear with their image concepts. While 9% failed to communicate the big idea with an image but failed to distill it down but still with copywriting might have won.

Example of an ad without the BIG IDEA (some of you might disagree with me but the below ad didn’t have anything special in the image):

Example of an ad with the BIG IDEA:

Key takeaway: Make your ad visual with THE BIG IDEA :) 

So, that’s all from this week:)

Happy Growing with Paid Social,

Aazar Shad

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