Hello my nerdy friends,
Can you almost double the CTR by simply changing the person in your ad image?
Let’s take a look.
The study:
Researchers ran a real Facebook ad campaign for a teeth whitening service.
They created 4 versions of the same ad. The only difference was the person in the image. One showed a younger woman, one an older woman, one a younger man, and one an older man.
They showed these ads to the same 4 groups and compared which version each group clicked more (Higgins et al., 2018).
🧪What they found:
When the person in the ad matched both the age and gender of the viewer, CTR was highest in every group.
Older women: 0.65% vs 0.27%-0.52%
Younger women: 0.25% vs 0.10%-0.12%
Older men: 0.38% vs 0.14%-0.22%
Younger men: 0.42% vs 0.13%-0.16%
When only age matched or only gender matched, CTR did not improve.
Why?
When we see someone similar to us, our brains treat the message as more relevant and important.
That increases attention and makes us more likely to click.
If only one part matches, like age but not gender, our brains do not treat it as a strong match.
Caveat
The study measured clicks, not purchases.
💡Takeaway
If you have a person in your ad, make sure the age and gender matches your target audience.
Stay awesome my friend,
Ksenia (the biggest nerd)
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