Facebook Ads: A/B Testing Your Ad Creative
Posted on 6th February 2025

When it comes to creating Facebook Ads, you may have run a campaign that hasn’t worked as well as you expected, or are thinking of creating a campaign but aren’t 100% sure on whether you’ve chosen the right ad creative.
If you’re in this position, then you should use A/B testing. This allows you to change different elements of your ads, run them, and then analyse the results to see which one works the best for your business.
Here’s how you can use A/B testing with your ad creative.
What Is A/B Testing?
A/B testing is the method of changing elements of your ad and then running both variants at the same time. The point is to see which variant works the best, and then to choose the best working ad to run on Facebook.
This helps you keep your cost-per-click low, and means you won’t be wasting money on ads that aren’t performing or are giving you a much higher cost-per-click than an ad that may be successful if you run an A/B Test.
Testing Variables – What Should I Change?
To do an A/B test with your ad creative, you can change multiple variables, including:
- Ad headline
- Ad copy
- Graphics
- Type of Ad – static, video or carousel
- Call To Action
You should only change one variable at a time. If you run an ad with a different graphic, copy, and call to action for an A/B test, you’re essentially running an entirely separate ad. You can do multiple A/B tests If you want to try different things to get the best result from your ad, using the past results to create the ultimate ad that gives you the best return on your investment.
How To Do An A/B Test
To do an A/B test, select your campaign and on the toolbar, click A/B test. Then, you can select the variable you want to change. Alternatively, you can do this by creating your initial campaign, copying your ad in the ad level and changing the variable for however many ads you plan to test. So, if you begin by changing the graphic, choose the alternative graphics whilst leaving everything else the same and then you can publish your ad. To get a good idea of the result, Meta suggests that you run an A/B test for 7 days, but can also run it for up to 30 days to get a full scope of how your ad has been performing. If you want, you can then keep the best performing graphic, but change the copy to see which copy connect most with people. You can test as much as you like, but you shouldn’t constantly be testing these ads and spending more and more money when you could already have an ad that works perfectly well without the need for constant changes and tests.
What Should I Look For
If you’re using Facebook’s A/B test function, they will automatically select the best performing ad at the end of your testing and display it to all of your audience. If you do it in the ad level, you will have to judge yourself based on the goal you set out to achieve – whether that’s the lowest cost per result, link clicks or conversions. You can use this to determine your best performing ad – switching off the others so your budget is directed at the ad that’s bringing you your desired results.
A/B testing is an important component in your paid digital marketing efforts, allowing you to get the best results from your ad campaigns, taking a poor campaign to one that becomes a key part of your business’s marketing strategy. Try it today and see how it works for your business.