Facebook and Instagram Ads, I think I made a discovery
Because I have no life, apparently, I was doing some reviews of my Facebook and Instagram feeds and discovered something interesting.
On Facebook, every fifth post was sponsored, and the majority (80%) of the non-sponsored posts I saw were videos (mostly shares from friends). The ads that were also videos seemed to blend. The ads that were NOT video stood out. I find that interesting.
On Instagram every sixth post was sponsored, and it was the opposite. The non-sponsored posts were mostly straight images. The few sponsored posts that were video stood out.
Not sure what this means, but it think I may have to do an a/b test where I run the same ad set with a straight image and a video on both platforms. I'll test if my hypothesis, that a straight image ad will do better on Facebook than a video would, and a video better on Instagram than a straight image would, is accurate.
Stay tuned if interested in my results.
Brian..That was very helpful to me as i launch in about 14 days
thank you .
My results article is now up if you want to check it out: https://www.indiehackers.com/@BrianJagger/facebook-instagram-video-vs-image-ads-results-c8ecb9b20b
People use a lot of video ads nowadays because it's easier to show your product and connect with your target audience.
From my testing (I run FB Ads for a living) videos tend to perform better also on Facebook, because, as I mentioned above, you can show your product and add a little bit of storytelling to make it more like a "non ad" video.
Keep us updated on your findings, would be great to learn :)
I totally agree with the mentality. I think branded creative content (narrative) is a huge opportunity market. And that's where the shared videos come in. But I find the prioritization of shared videos in news feeds as a huge example of why branded creative videos are the way to go, and why I feel sponsored non-videos may break up the news feed for more engagement. But I could be wrong, maybe in a couple years it'll all be video on FB? I think we'll do a :15 video vs. my top performing image for this test. I'll be really curious. Happy to be wrong, just want to know. As someone involved in video production and that world, I'd be very happy if I was wrong on this as it relates to Facebook.
My results article is now up if you want to check it out: https://www.indiehackers.com/@BrianJagger/facebook-instagram-video-vs-image-ads-results-c8ecb9b20b
Nice one Brian.
Images outperformed Videos by a lot. However, I suspect there is too much text in your thumbnail and Facebook doesn't love it.
One last try could be using the same image, both in the image ads and in the video's thumbnail.
That's a great suggestion! I will do that on my next try.
Interesting, please share the results of your AB tests :)
Will do!
My results article is now up if you want to check it out: https://www.indiehackers.com/@BrianJagger/facebook-instagram-video-vs-image-ads-results-c8ecb9b20b
Awesome, thanks for sharing Brian
Good catch. I'm interested in seeing what you find.
My results article is now up if you want to check it out: https://www.indiehackers.com/@BrianJagger/facebook-instagram-video-vs-image-ads-results-c8ecb9b20b
Me too!
FB / Insta tweak the algo often but right now one of the obvious reasons to use video is it's prioritized in the algo.
The non-obvious reason to use video is you can get much more information as an advertiser from the video engagement stats. That engagement info is used to create custom audiences (75% video views, 15 second video views etc...) and look alike audiences for targeting/re-targeting. And that allows you to get more ROI on your ad dollars.
My results article is now up if you want to check it out: https://www.indiehackers.com/@BrianJagger/facebook-instagram-video-vs-image-ads-results-c8ecb9b20b
I don'y disagree, the algorithm is exactly why I think a static image might break up the prioritization. To be clear, I'm talking about sponsored posts only, not organic. Organic I feel would be better with video due to exactly the reasons you stated. BUT, the re-targeting is a good point too.
Test went up today, running for seven days, I'll write an article about my findings early next week.