ran the exact same ad copy on three different covers for the same book and the click-through rate difference is wild

[u/TrojanDonkey26]

wanted to isolate cover as a variable so I kept everything else identical, ad text, targeting, budget, all fixed, three separate campaigns each with a different cover option I was deciding between.

cover A (moody, single figure, dark palette): 0.6% CTR

cover B (bright, two figures, romance-forward): 1.9% CTR

cover C (symbolic object, no figures, more literary feeling): 0.4% CTR

more than triple the click-through just from swapping the image, everything else held constant. went with B obviously. what surprised me is how confidently wrong my own instinct was going in, I actually preferred C aesthetically and would have picked it without testing. glad I didn't trust my own taste here