Static vs dynamic ads: which one to run
Video is not automatically better. Here is where a still image beats motion, and what the budget maths actually says.
The Krevya team
Paid media6 min read
The industry has decided that video wins. The accounts we look at say something less tidy: statics keep pace on cost per purchase in almost every catalogue category, and they cost a fraction to produce and to iterate.
What a static is good at
- One idea, understood in under a second, offers, price points, a single strong claim.
- Testing at volume. Twenty statics cost less than one decent video and teach you more.
- Retargeting, where the audience already knows the product and needs a reason to finish.
What video is good at
- Anything that has to be demonstrated: a texture, a transformation, an assembly step.
- Cold audiences who have never heard the brand and need thirty seconds of context.
- Trust-heavy purchases where a face saying the words does the work.
The budget maths
A useful split for a small account: 70% of your creative budget on statics you can refresh weekly, 30% on two or three videos you keep for a quarter. Refresh the statics on a schedule, not when performance drops, by the time it drops you have already paid for the fatigue.
Format is a delivery choice. The angle is the ad. Get the angle wrong and the best video in the category will not save it.