Testing Facebook's Standard Creative Enhancements
In October, I ran a test to see whether Facebook’s algorithm would favor ads using its built-in creative enhancements. I launched four separate ads, each using the same image/creative and copy but varying in which type of enhancement was applied.
Here are the variants I tested:
- No enhancements
- Standard enhancements
- Music enhancements
- All available enhancements Facebook had to offer
Typically, Facebook suggests advertisers use, at minimum, the standard enhancements.
The Results
The ad with no enhancements received the most spend and produced the most leads. That being said, the ad using standard enhancements received a significant amount of spend and a cheaper average cost per lead. The music-enhanced ad only resulted in the fewest leads among those tested at a higher amount of spend, making its CPL the highest. The ad that combined all enhancements had a moderate overall performance.
Findings
My hypothesis that Facebook would favor ads using its own features, resulting in cheaper advertising and CPLs, was partially supported. While the standard enhancements offered the cheapest overall CPL, the creatives without any enhancements received the most spend and largest overall lead flow. While we optimize towards the cheapest leads we can get, the client places a large focus on maintaining a large lead flow. With this being said, we decided to abandon Facebook’s enhancements, allowing our ads to maintain their spend levels while also remaining cost-effective.
The addition of a music enhancement seems to do more harm than good, yet it is difficult to tell whether this is because music, in general, does not pair well with these ads or the specific music Facebook used does not pair well.
While Facebook's enhancements may result in cheaper CPLs, they may not necessarily lead to the largest overall lead flow. It’s important to strike a balance between maintaining a high number of leads while also keeping advertising costs under control.
Overall, the decision to use or not use Facebook's enhancements should be based on specific campaign goals.