Why Using Irrelevant Images May Increase Ad Performance

Lately I’ve been seeing an interesting trend.

Whenever I scroll through my feed on Facebook, I’ve been noticing something different about the ads I’m seeing, specifically the images.

For examples:

There was a lead generation strategy ad that popped up in my feed and the image was simply an overlay of lemons.

There were plenty of ads I saw that used memes as images.

More recently, I’ve seen pictures of attractive-looking couples just posing at a beach or something.

And the one thing all these have in common?

They all have nothing to do with what they’re promoting.

Ok, yes that is true. But it’s not the answer I’m thinking of.

What’s the other one thing?

They’re eye-catching.

Not only do they stand out from the posts from your friends and the groups you’re in, but they stand out from their competing ads as well.

But does it really matter if the image has nothing to do with the promotion itself?

In these cases, no.

These businesses simply used unexpected images to grab their target audience’s attention, then let their ad copy and landing page do all the heavy work.

Now this concept can be applied to emails too.

In a world where people’s inboxes are flooded with spam and aggressive big business promotional emails, how are you supposed to flag down your reader’s attention with your emails?

The answer:

Be different...Mind-blowing, I know.

Send your reader emails that interrupt their mundane routine of them receiving blatant sales emails and ignoring them, even trashing them.

If they’re constantly getting emails with the subject lines that way, “% OFF” or “SALE,” then simply don’t use those words in your own subject lines.

If the emails they’re getting are full of graphics and color, try using plain text.

I’m not saying you have to do those, but the point is to break the pattern.