Do Hyperlocal Facebook Image Ads Outperform Standard Candidate Videos?

Problem Addressed

Maximising the engagement of facebook ads can be critical to getting the most out of digital campaigns but it can be hard to know what data to centre. We wanted to find out if hyperlocal issues would outperform national isses to see if framing and messaging can really bring about stronger engagement outcomes. 

Approach and Implementation

The test was part of a planned series of fourteen social media experiments designed to optimize engagement through hyperlocal messaging strategies on Facebook and Instagram. However, the unexpected announcement of the 2024 general election in May forced most participating candidates to withdraw, ultimately limiting implementation to just three tests. The remaining experiments were suspended due to campaign finance limitations in battleground constituencies and candidates’ need to focus on traditional campaigning.

Despite limited quantitative outcomes, the pilot established valuable operational frameworks for managing multiple concurrent tests, developed robust candidate partnership protocols, enhanced rapid deployment capabilities, and provided critical scaling insights that later benefited the Online Recruitment Programme during the compressed election campaign.

Evidence & Evaluation

A Facebook A/B testing initiative comparing hyperlocal imagery against standard political video content found that candidate photos featuring town centers significantly outperformed generic candidate videos. The hyperlocal approach achieved an 8.13% click-through rate versus 7.2% for candidate videos, with a 33% lower cost per click ($0.14 vs $0.20) and more than double the conversion completions (22 vs 10).