So, I’ve been running relationship ads for a while now, and one thing I keep noticing is how hit-or-miss they can be. Some weeks my click-through rate looks great, other weeks it feels like I’m paying way too much for barely any results. It made me wonder if anyone else has been in the same boat and figured out better ways to actually optimise relationship ads so that the CTR goes up and the CPA doesn’t eat up all the budget.
When I first started, I honestly thought it was just about putting a nice picture of a couple and a catchy line like “Find your match today.” But the truth is, people scroll past those without a second thought. That was my first pain point—realising that generic images and vague text weren’t connecting with the audience at all. It felt like I was just throwing money at the wall and hoping something would stick.
After a few months of frustration, I decided to test small changes instead of redoing everything at once. I noticed that when I used images that felt a bit more “real” (like candid shots instead of polished stock photos), the engagement went up slightly. People seemed to respond better to ads that didn’t look like ads. For example, instead of a studio-shot smiling couple, I tried using pictures of everyday situations like two people grabbing coffee. It felt more natural, and that made the ads click with people a bit more.
Another big insight for me was the wording. I used to make the mistake of focusing too much on features like “find singles near you” or “chat instantly.” But once I shifted the copy toward emotions, like talking about “not feeling alone” or “finding someone who understands you,” I noticed the CTR improve. It was like people connected more when the ad spoke to feelings rather than features.
Of course, not everything I tried worked. For instance, I once experimented with long text in the ad, hoping to give more details, but most folks just ignored it. Short, simple lines worked much better. Also, overly bold promises backfired—if I said things like “Meet your soulmate today,” the comments would turn sarcastic, and that definitely didn’t help performance.
One thing I think is often overlooked is the audience itself. I wasted a lot of budget running ads too broadly. When I narrowed down based on behaviour instead of just age and gender, the results improved. People who had already been looking at self-help or relationship articles were much more responsive. It just felt like they were already in that mindset, so the ad landed better.
I’m not saying I’ve cracked the perfect formula, but combining a few of these tweaks really lowered my CPA. The clicks became cheaper, and more of them actually turned into sign-ups. If I had to sum it up, I’d say the three things that helped me most were:
More authentic images (less staged, more relatable).
Copy that leans on emotion, not features.
Smarter targeting based on behaviour, not just demographics.
There’s still a lot I want to experiment with, like testing video ads or using different calls-to-action, but at least I feel like I’m not blindly wasting money anymore.
If anyone else here is struggling with the same issue, I found a useful read that goes deeper into this. It’s called Optimize Relationship Ads for Higher CTR. It breaks things down in a way that’s easy to try out bit by bit, which is basically how I’ve been learning too.
Anyway, I’d love to hear if others have tried something different—like maybe creative formats or messaging angles I haven’t thought of yet. Relationship ads can feel tricky, but I guess the fun part is in testing and slowly figuring out what clicks with real people.
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