1. Creative Ad Testing for
Top Performance
On Facebook & Instagram
How to Improve Audience Engagement by Optimizing Your Creative Across Social Channels

2. Today’s Logistics
● Session recording and slides will be sent
● Submit questions to our panelists
● Join in on our poll questions throughout
● Resources available as handouts
Persephanie Arellano
Webinar Coordinator

3. Overview Solutions

4. Today’s Speakers
Erik Mansur
VP, Product & Engineering
Lauren Guerrieri
Sr. Manager, Paid Social

5. Today’s Agenda
● Saturation & Overlap of Digital Advertising
● Creative Production & Creative Testing
● Split Tests For Improving Your Creative Performance
● Analyze Your Results & How to Improve Future Campaigns

6. POLL QUESTION
What do you find most difficult about Facebook
advertising?

7. of a brand’s advertising sales
lift comes from the creative,
according to a Nielsen survey.47%
Strategies for Creative Production

10. In-House Design Teams

11. Enterprise-size in-house creative team size: 300-400 PEOPLE
Midsize in-house creative team size: 20-30 PEOPLE
SMB/start-up creative team size: 5-10 PEOPLE

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In-House Creative Strategy

14. LANDSCAPE
VERTICAL
SQUARE

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Upper funnel ad campaign metrics
● Cost per engaged website visit
● Amount of “opener touchpoints”

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Mid funnel ad campaign metrics
● CPA/ROAS
● Website visits
● Amount of product trials

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Lower funnel ad campaign metrics
● New customer CPA
● New customer ROAS

18. Nuances of Facebook and Instagram Creative

19. Mid-2017 : 250 million DAUs
January 2019 : 500 million DAUs
Stories’ ad CTRs : Up 52% year-over-year

20. Ad Creative Best Practices

21. Stories Ads

22. It’s definitely ok for
Stories ads to
resemble Stories
posts

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Know thy audience
● Users are mobile and
distracted
● They must understand the
ad in seconds
● Make premise simple and
clear
● CTA must be easy to find
● Keep copy brief

24. Tell a story

25. Make the next steps crystal clear

26. Get vertical

27. POLL QUESTION
What has been your experience with Stories
advertising so far?

28. Carousel Ads

29. Showcase many products
or just one

30. Create seasonal themes

31. Target buyer personas

32. Illustrate the passage of time

33. Video Ads

37. Make the ad look like it belongs

38. Embrace brevity
● Mobile usage has reduced
attention spans
● Facebook recommended
length for video ads is 15
seconds
● Try to get your message
across in five seconds
● If using copy, take up less
than 20% of the ad

39. Show ‘em how
to do something

40. Use humor to
grab attention

41. Give it color,
make it move

42. Refresh frequently
to avoid ad fatigue
● How often should you
update ads? Watch your
metrics.
● Dipping CTRs usually
means it’s time to swap in
new creative.
● If new creative doesn’t
boost clicks, re-evaluate
your audience.

43. Final thoughts...

44. Why Brands Need to Regularly Split Test &
Optimize Creative

45. At A Macro Level...
Rising Costs
to Serve Ads
Increased
Competition
Decreased
Inventory

46. But Wait...There’s More Macro
Desire for
Hyper
Relevance
Rapid
Disruption
Lower
Attention
Spans

47. Creative is the variable to
achieving your business
goals...and it’s extremely
subjective.

48. Split Testing Best Practices

49. Best Practices for Better Results
Test creative with best
customers first to
determine viability of
concept and keep costs low
Align with 1 or 2 core KPIs to
better determine a
winner...and be specific
Innovate to push the
boundaries...be unpredictable!
Design for mobile + motion
first
Build and stick to a testing
roadmap: Set aside 5-10% of
monthly media budget for testing
Refresh frequently to avoid ad
fatigue

50. POLL QUESTION
How are you currently managing your Facebook
campaigns?

51. How to Setup Up Your Split Test

52. Two Methodologies for Creative Testing
1 A/B Testing 2 Multivariate Testing

53. Start with a Strategic Campaign Framework
Core Business Objective:
Increase first-time customers by 20%
Strategy: Drive higher user intent through product education, convenience and price
KPIs: Leads, CPL, Purchases, CPA, Site Traffic, CTR
MEDIA MIX: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest
Testimonials
(users and influencers)
Full-funnel
campaign mix
Trial Offers
Video
Sequencing
Micro-content Lead Gen Ads

54. Creative Testing with the 7-Day Method
New Creative
Test
First
24-Hours
Initial Insights
2-4 Days
Actionable Insights
7-Days
Campaign Analysis
Align on KPIs &
Budget ($20-$25 to
start)
Decide on Testing
Strategy: audiences,
creative, ad units,
placements
Launch creative in
tandem with all
variables
Gauge which ad
variation the
platform is
serving
Review
impressions,
Reach, Clicks,
CTR, CPC
Evaluate ad variations
gaining higher
engagement and
resonance
Make initial
optimizations: turn off
audiences/variations
Optimize towards
the winning ad
creative variation
Continue testing
winning creative
with new audiences,
placements
Launch next
creative test

55. Leverage A Campaign Testing Blueprint
PlatformAudience
Site visitors
Look-A-Likes
CRM cuts
Engaged Shoppers
Cosmetics Interest
Content Theme
Evergreen
Top
Products
Special
Offers
Ad Type
Standard
Video
Tactical
Bid Type
Bid Level
Site
Visitors
Lowest
Cost +
Bid Cap
Sample
Output
Auto Placement
FB and IG broken out
Dynamic
Single
Image
Carousel
Carousel
DPA
Collections
DPA
Carousel v. Static
Images

56. Budget Planning & Sample Allocation
Ongoing Base Monthly Budget: $100,000 per market
● Budgets percentages above are a sample and will be fluid based on performance
● $100,000 minimum if cross-channel approach is leveraged for every Go To Market launch
● Tactics include: Awareness, Prospecting, Retargeting, Remarketing, App-Install initiatives
TACTIC Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4
[FB, TW, LI, IG] – AWARENESS 25% 15% 10% 10%
[FB, LI, TW] – PROSPECTING – USER ACTIVATION 35% 35% 30% 35%
[FB, IG, LI, TW] – RETARGETING – USER ACTIVATION 25% 30% 40% 40%
[FB, IG, SC] – APP INSTALLS – USER ACTIVATION 15% 20% 20% 15%
$100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000

57. Analyze the Results

58. How to Measure Creative Performance
Alignment with core KPIs
CTR in comparison to
evergreen baseline
Post engagement: likes,
comments, shares
Speed to first purchase
made: Audience relevance
Relevance + Resonance
New Site Traffic
Determine a clear winner
or split results
Actionable insights to inform
phase 2 testing iteration

59. Expand ad unit [POST ID]
with new and existing
evergreen audiences to
build more engagement and
further develop as an
evergreen ad creative
5x
ROAS
1x
ROAS
Turn off and file away as
low performing for now
but potentially revisit
again to run in future
audiences or tactics
Clear Winner: Actionable Insights

60. Evaluate
purchases/revenue/CPA
in comparison to ROAS
KPI - gauge traffic and
daily performance
2.5x
ROAS
2.4x
ROAS
Potentially continue to run
both if revenue is close or
equal to the winning
creative
No Clear Winner? Gauge the Bigger Win

61. Next Steps:
How to Improve Future Campaigns

62. Split Tests to Improve Creative Performance
Ad Types: Test ad units like short
video, IG Stories, carousel, and static
with the same imagery or video
CTA: Ads should have a clear call to
action: Test buttons besides Shop
Now - Try Get Offer or Sign Up
Emojis: Test using emojis in the copy
to appeal to a younger demo - start
with a/b testing emojis in the headline
Placements Types: Break out IG
Stories and Messenger to test various
creative with these unique
experiences
Snap Install
1
2
3
IG Stories
4
5-Star Customer Reviews: Leverage
5-star customer reviews in copy - test
star emojis with 5-Star Reviews in the
headline
Copy: Always start with the headline -
test ALL CAPS v. Regular text (for an
additional layer: with and without
emojis)
Mobile v. Desktop: Test ad units and
creative with mobile-only
DPAs: Test DPA carousels (default)
with DPA mobile collection ads on
both FB and IG
6
7
8
5

63. Key Takeaways: Let’s Get Testing!
Creative is subjective
Focus innovation around
motion creative
Stick to your testing roadmap
Use the 7-day method to
measure quickly, scale
winning creative and move to
the next test
Was it relevant? Did it resonate?
Test breaking out placements
Develop unique creative for
vertical and square placements
Leverage actionable insights
from testing and communicate
learnings to creative team

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65. Q & A
Erik Mansur
VP, Product & Engineering
Lauren Guerrieri
Sr. Manager, Paid Social