The short answer
Video dominates winning Meta ads: 1,968 of 2,443 on our board (81%), with a higher median estimated spend ($236K vs $173K) and most of the $1M+ ads. Images reach the top tier more often (13.1% vs 8.8%), but most of that gap comes from variants. Run both. Use video to reach and teach, images to test and close.
The head-to-head
On October 9, 2026, the Ad Radar board held 2,443 live Meta ads with $50k or more in estimated spend each, from 749 brands. Here is how the two formats compare.
| Video | Image | |
|---|---|---|
| Ads | 1,968 | 475 |
| Share of winners | 81% | 19% |
| Brands with at least one winner | 635 | 226 |
| Median estimated spend | $236K | $173K |
| 90th percentile estimated spend | $1.09M | $922K |
| Ads above $1M estimated spend | 219 | 46 |
| Ads above $5M estimated spend | 18 | 10 |
| Top-tier share | 8.8% | 13.1% |
| Median days live | 119 | 125 |
| Live a year or more | 13% | 17% |
Two stories sit in that table. Video is where most of the winning money goes: four out of five winners, a higher median, and most of the ads past $1M. Images are fewer but more efficient at reaching the top tier, and they run slightly longer.
Why images reach the top tier more often
The top-tier gap looks like a big win for images. Most of it isn't about the format. It's about how brands use it.
| Variants live | Image ads | Image top-tier share | Video ads | Video top-tier share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 272 | 3.7% | 1,471 | 4.7% |
| 2 to 4 | 127 | 15.0% | 452 | 15.0% |
| 5 to 9 | 53 | 28.3% | 40 | 77.5% |
| 10 or more | 23 | 78.3% | 5 | 100% |
Ad Radar's winner score uses variants as one of its signals, because a brand that launches many versions of an ad is betting on it. Compare like with like and images and videos look alike: identical at 2 to 4 variants, slightly lower for single-version images. The difference is that 43% of image winners run two or more variants, against 25% of video winners, and 23 images run ten or more against 5 videos.
So the real lesson is operational. Brands iterate images far more than video, because a new headline or a new picture costs minutes. That iteration is what puts so many images in the top tier. If you made video variants as freely, you'd likely see the same effect. We go deeper on that in ad variants as a scaling signal.
Video owns the top of the spend range
At the top of the board, video pulls ahead. Of the 244 ads with the highest estimated spend (the top 10%), 17% are images, a bit below their 19% share of the board. Above $1M, video has 219 ads to the image side's 46. Above $5M, 18 to 10.
A Meta campaign can push a lot of budget through one video that explains, demonstrates and sells. Images rarely carry that kind of load alone. But they can: the largest image ad on the board has a $25.7M estimated spend, built on 17 variants of one knee brace offer. See static image ads for that one and other image winners.
Where each format wins, by audience
| Reader awareness | Image ads | Image top-tier share | Video top-tier share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unaware | 174 | 7.5% | 8.9% |
| Problem-aware | 83 | 15.7% | 9.1% |
| Solution-aware | 90 | 12.2% | 11.3% |
| Product-aware | 21 | 4.8% | 8.6% |
| Most aware | 58 | 5.2% | 8.8% |
Images do best with people who already know their problem. A still image and a strong line of copy ("Help your dog feel like themselves again") can hit someone who is looking for a fix. With unaware viewers, video does a little better: it has time to teach. Video is also steadier across all five levels, between 8.6% and 11.3%, while images swing from 4.8% to 15.7%.
Here are two ads from the same pet supplement brand, one video and one image, both in the top tier:
Don't wait until your pet gets to that point.
- Est. spend
- $4.5M
- Days live
- 152
- Format
- Video, 54s
- Variants
- 16
The video version talks to owners who don't yet see a problem. An expert voice explains what happens to joints over time, which takes 54 seconds.
Help your dog feel like themselves again
- Est. spend
- $1.5M
- Days live
- 71
- Format
- Image
- Variants
- 3
The image version talks to owners who have noticed shorter walks and slower mornings. One line names the outcome they want, and it sends traffic to a quiz.
Same brand, same product, two audiences. The video teaches. The image catches.
Where each format wins, by niche
| Niche | Ads | Share that are images | Image top-tier share | Video top-tier share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep | 99 | 31% | 12.9% | 1.5% |
| Joints | 208 | 21% | 25.6% | 10.9% |
| Energy | 132 | 23% | 16.7% | 5.9% |
| Pet | 313 | 10% | 21.9% | 11.0% |
| Hair | 86 | 20% | 17.6% | 7.2% |
| Skin | 224 | 21% | 10.6% | 10.2% |
| Digestion | 239 | 15% | 11.4% | 5.9% |
| Beauty | 91 | 23% | 14.3% | 22.9% |
| Food and nutrition | 164 | 13% | 0% | 10.5% |
Images out-earn video on the top-tier measure in most health niches. Two clear exceptions: beauty, where seeing the product on a face matters, and food, where 21 image ads produced no top-tier winner. Many niche samples for images are small (the pet image group is 32 ads, the hair group 17), so read individual cells with care. The direction is consistent: problem-driven niches favor images more than visual-result niches do. Our niche pages, like joint supplement ads and beauty ads, break each one down.
Where each format sends traffic
Image winners do well when they send traffic to a page that does more work: dedicated landing pages (16.8% top tier) and quizzes (33%, from just 12 ads). Video winners do best with listicle pages (14.9%). Product pages sit in between for both. An image does less selling in the feed, so the page after the click has to pick up the slack. See homepage traffic from Facebook ads and quiz funnels for the page side.
Most brands only win with one format
Of the 749 brands on the board, 523 have only video winners, 114 only image winners, and 112 have both. That means two thirds of winning brands haven't found an image that clears the bar, or haven't tried. Given that images reach the top tier at least as often once they get variants, that looks like an opening.
A brand that runs both usually splits the job. A food brand on the board shows the pattern:
If as soon as you wake up, you go straight to that coffee pot first thing in the morning and make coffee on an empty stomach and don't actually eat for a while, you might want to listen up.
- Est. spend
- $659K
- Days live
- 180
- Format
- Video, 79s
- Variants
- 2
The video is a top-tier ad that teaches a habit change. It needs 79 seconds to describe a routine and explain why to change it.
NEW! Toasted Coconut Protein Creamer
- Est. spend
- $216K
- Days live
- 151
- Format
- Image
- Variants
- 2
The image announces a new flavor. No teaching needed, just the product and the news.
How to split your creative between video and image
- Make video your main engine for cold traffic. It holds most winning ads and most of the biggest spenders, and it handles unaware audiences slightly better.
- Use images for problem-aware buyers and offers. That's where they reach the top tier most often.
- Treat images as your testing lab. Run five headlines, three openers and two pictures. The image winners with the most variants are the ones that last.
- Give images a page that sells. A dedicated landing page or a quiz does better than dropping image traffic on a product page.
- Reuse what wins across formats. A winning video hook becomes an image headline. A winning image headline becomes a video's first line.
- Don't judge the formats on median spend alone. Images spend less per ad because they're used as many small bets.
For the full picture of formats inside video, see best video ad length and ad creative trends for 2026. On the Ad Radar board you can filter by format and niche to see which split your competitors are running.
Figures marked as estimated spend come from Ad Radar's model of engagement on public Meta Ad Library ads. They are estimates, labeled as such, and are best used to rank ads against each other.