Being an account manager means that you are constantly walking the balance between what is ideal and what is possible.  We have all been in situations where creative assets arrive late or do not meet the best practices for a given campaign.  The best thing you can do is turn these non-ideal situations into an opportunity gain deeper insights.

Background

Earlier this year, our team planned campaigns in Facebook and LinkedIn for a client to drive leads for their B2B advertising product.  The client’s creative team provided images for both platforms that contained a significant amount of text.  We knew that text in the image would limit reach on Facebook, but Facebook’s text overlay tool did not flag the image for too much text.

Our fears of limited delivery were realized when the text heavy image launched in Facebook.  Almost immediately, Facebook limited delivery of the text heavy ad.  LinkedIn continued to deliver the text heavy ad without issue.

The client’s creative team provided two additional image variations that contained the same image, but with less text and graphics overlaid.  Our team know had two viable images Facebook and three for LinkedIn, so we launched all images together to get some creative insights.

Results

As expected with Facebook, the ad variation with the least text delivered a significantly higher CTR and engagement rate.  As you can see in the chart below, CTR declined on Facebook as more text was added to the same image.  This result aligns closely with best practices outlined by Facebook, so no surprises here.

The same three images were tested as sponsored content image ads in LinkedIn with completely different results.  The image with the most text delivered the highest CTR and engagement rate on LinkedIn.  The chart below shows the increase in CTR as text is added to the same image used across ad variations.

Analysis

The text heavy images performed significantly different in Facebook and LinkedIn due to differences in audiences and the platform in general.

LinkedIn’s audience is likely searching their feed for information that is relevant to their professional life making them more receptive to more information on the image itself.  The LinkedIn feed is also significantly less cluttered, which helps images with a lot of text and graphics stand out.

Facebook’s audience is not professionally oriented and is less receptive to information heavy ads in general.  Ads on Facebook are also competing in a very cluttered feed, which helps images with less graphics and text stand out.

Takeaways

This creative test demonstrates the importance on continually testing whatever assets are available to gain a deeper understanding of platforms and accounts.  The results of every test will turn into future recommendations, so be sure you are always searching for those deeper insights.