One of the most critical elements of paid media advertising is your ad angles—not just your fancy creatives. Beyond images and copy, the angle is the core message that resonates with your audience. It’s the problem you’re solving and the emotional trigger you're tapping into.

An angle is the essence of your messaging—the "why" behind your ad. It connects your audience’s pain points to your product or service. The right angle can make or break a campaign. However, identifying the right angle isn't always straightforward. Sometimes the ideas you expect to perform best can underperform, while seemingly “less promising” angles can unexpectedly deliver 200% better results.

Here’s my process for identifying the best-performing angles through systematic A/B testing:

I begin by testing 10–20 different images to optimize the visuals. My goal here is to find the creative that delivers the highest Click-Through Rate (CTR). At this stage, I don’t incorporate any messaging or angles—just the images themselves.

Once I’ve identified the winning image, I move on to testing the copy. I duplicate the ad set and test various angles by changing only the copy, while keeping the image constant. This ensures that I’m isolating the impact of the angle itself.

If my team is struggling with creativity, I bring in freelance copywriters who specialize in the product or industry to generate fresh angles. A diversity of perspectives often leads to unexpected winners.

One thing I’ve learned through testing is that it takes time. On platforms like Facebook, a minimum of three days is necessary for the algorithm to optimize and stabilize. It’s important to let the campaign run its course before making any decisions.

Here’s how I structure the testing process for images:

Step 1: Set your objective to "Website Conversions"—optimize for leads in lead-gen campaigns or for purchases in eCommerce.

Step 2: Create the ad set, select your targeting, and design your first ad.

Step 3: Duplicate the ad set 9–19 times, changing only the image in each ad. This allows me to pinpoint which visual resonates best with the audience.

Once I’ve identified the image with the highest CTR, I move on to testing the angles:

Step 1: Duplicate the winning ad set for each angle your team has developed.

Step 2: Edit each ad with a unique angle.

Step 3: Let the ads run for three days at $20 per ad set before making any cuts.

No matter how much experience you have with paid media ads, predicting ad performance before launch is almost impossible. Even with proven creatives or targeting settings, the platform can yield unexpected results.

The big question is, after running A/B tests, when do you shut off, adjust, or scale ad sets? This requires understanding the Learning Phase and how to interpret Facebook’s signals during optimization.

When you first launch a new ad set, Facebook enters the learning phase, testing how different audience segments respond to your ad. This is where Facebook shows your ad to smaller "pools" of potential customers to gauge engagement. It’s essential to let this process unfold for at least a few days before making changes. However, if you see strong results early on—based on previous tests or experience—it may be worth keeping some ad sets running through the learning phase.

During the testing phase, my primary metric is CTR. Once I know which ad has the highest CTR, I analyze conversion data to see how that correlates to cost and performance. Interestingly, a lower CTR ad can sometimes outperform a high-CTR one in terms of conversion, forcing a more nuanced optimization process.

For instance, if an expensive ad brings in the most conversions, I spend time understanding why that specific combination of image and copy works better. I often break down the ad into its key elements and test variations—adjusting the image or going more aggressive with copy to drive higher CTR without sacrificing conversions.