How to Change Image on Facebook Ad

When you spot a mistake or have a brilliant new idea for a Facebook ad creative, your first instinct is to change the image right away. But editing a live ad isn't as straightforward as it seems. This article will show you the right way to change an image on a Facebook ad, explain why editing a live creative isn't recommended, and then provide a few next steps after you update your visual.

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Can You Change an Image on a Live Facebook Ad?

Technically, yes, but you really shouldn't. While Facebook's Business Manager allows users to edit certain components of an ad at the campaign and ad level, changing the ad's main creative - such as an image or video - effectively creates a new version of the ad. This simple action causes two major repercussions that can do far more harm than good for your campaign and its overall performance.

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1. It Resets the "Learning Phase"

Each time you publish a new ad, Facebook's algorithm enters what it calls the "learning phase." During this period, the system actively works to figure out the best audience to show your ad to based on the objectives you selected, such as conversions as opposed to brand awareness or engagement, to maximize performance. This phase is extremely important for setting up success and can be sensitive to material changes. It's often indicated in the ad set's "Delivery" column and is usually complete after the ad achieves approximately 50-100 conversion events in your selected time frame. Any substantial edits made to an ad, ad set, or campaign - such as changing its bidding strategy, budget, audience targeting, or adding or changing assets in the campaign - will force the ad to restart the learning process from scratch. This can lead to unpredictable jumps in your cost-per-result and a period where you may not achieve the desired results that you would've otherwise had if you hadn't made changes.

2. It Erases Your Social Proof

Even more critical is losing your social proof. All of the likes, reactions, comments, and shares your ad has accumulated are tied directly to that specific creative (image or visual). These engagement metrics are invaluable as they signal trust and interest from users on Facebook, which leads to lower cost-per-impressions, making your ads feel much more credible. Altering the image asset to a new image causes Facebook to reevaluate what the ad has accumulated, which in turn leads to less social credibility than it would otherwise have amassed. If your ad has many reactions and a host of praising customer comments, why would you erase it?

The only exception to all this is when a new advert is still in draft or being approved by Facebook. During draft mode and its approval phase, there has been no ad spend meaning the creative will not have been exposed, making changes safe as you will not reset any progress, nor will it have gathered any social proof or likes, meaning any change is totally safe!

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3. It Muddles Insights

Another significant reason not to alter creatives midway through a live campaign is that it robs your organization of valuable insights into what is truly connecting with your target audience. In other words, how can you be sure what you tested as images and creatives if you keep tampering with the campaigns at different intervals?

You might argue that you will use data like ad spending dates versus the actual results to understand campaign performance, which in hindsight should work but doesn't quite account for the lag in attribution and user journey from prospecting to retargeting and eventual purchase. This makes it difficult to determine what truly worked, robbing your ability to gather creative-based insights.

The Best Practice: Duplicating an Ad

Rather than edit your live campaigns to run tests and introduce changes mid-flight, the best course of action is not to touch your current assets at all levels. Instead, do as all pro-level social media marketers tend to do, which is to duplicate existing working pieces of creative within a campaign structure and simply change a variable within it.

When running a duplication, a whole host of benefits become available to the business:

• Preserving data for your campaign: Your original ad continues running. Your campaign spend, performance history, and social engagement remain unchanged. You can then run comparison tests and draw insights as to which of the assets perform better than others, enabling what is best known in the performance marketing world as an A/B Test.
• Test with a clean canvas: When running your duplicated asset, you can get a better sense, as mentioned earlier, of what your audience or target customer prefers. You can easily compare variables against one another and truly understand how to best target new users or re-engage existing ones.
• Low downside & high upside: Duplicating a currently working ad with all of your data and hard-won social proof intact is ideal for those running Meta Ads or Facebook Ads at scale. The potential upside of running a new asset that performs well offers a far higher return than not running a duplication test. This approach could make your entire media organization a more sophisticated advertiser and provide ideas later used in other top-of-the-funnel awareness-based media such as Out Of Home Billboard or traditional Linear TV ad spots.

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Step-by-Step on Changing Ad's Creative on Meta

Here’s the step-by-step process:

1. Access your Meta account using your account information.
2. Once you’ve accessed your Meta for Business account, be sure to choose your Ads Manager to begin the process. Ensure you also have the necessary permissions.
3. Select the current campaign & ad set you would like to change your creative for. We highly recommend sticking to those that have performed or are performing consistently well.
4. Select the ad you'd want to duplicate. This will trigger a blue border surrounding the selection, be mindful to ensure it aligns with your approval criteria.
5. Click on “Duplicate.” This option will appear as a popup beneath the name of the ad. After clicking, a new window should open.
6. You are now in the ad creation panel and ready to make a creative switch. Move to “Ad Creatives” and then choose. Click “Clear All” to remove the old image visual and replace it with your new ad creative.
7. After confirming your selections and rechecking ad settings such as headlines, ad copies, CTAs, etc., you can publish the duplication or schedule it.

Best Practices for a Seamless Experience Changing Creatives

Choosing the Right Image

Here are some things to consider when choosing your images:

• Resolution: Choose the highest possible resolution available for your needs. Never compromise on having clear, high-quality images on Meta's social media platforms.
• Clutter: Try using a single color on your visual with bold and easy-to-read copy. The less cluttered your assets are, the less visually overwhelming they may appear.
• Mobile-First: Remember that most of the Facebook or Meta platforms are being viewed on mobile devices. Make ads that are specifically designed for mobile users, using assets formatted for a vertical layout. You won't regret it.

Monitor and Evaluate

Your work doesn't end as soon as you select 'publish' on your campaign. You must continually monitor for reach and gather new insights, whether it's a low cost of acquisition for an older campaign, or great CTRs and high ROI with new assets.

Final Thoughts

While you can’t exactly "change" a live ad's image without resetting its progress, the duplicate method is the standard process for iterating and testing new ideas while preserving all of your hard work on Facebook. It gives you the space to innovate freely with the best assets, helping you gather data and insights to become not just a better advertiser but also a better brand overall with insights that can power work beyond paid campaigns, such as organic social content.

We know manually comparing results across multiple ad platforms like Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and others can often be a hassle, especially if you're not fully comfortable using the platform's native analytics. But the good news is, there's a better way. Explore Graphed to learn more.