Are image generation tools good enough to create LinkedIn ads for a start-up? I tried to find out. 

Image generation tools have made a massive leap in the last few years. OpenAI's DALL-E 3 was introduced a few months ago, Stability AI released Dreamstudio earlier this year, and Midjourney continues to impress after its initial release in 2022. Though image generation tools are fun to play around with, I wanted to test their ability to create marketing materials, more specifically, LinkedIn ads for my start-up. 

I decided to conduct the test with a few well-known actors such as Midjourney and OpenAI's DALLE-3, and a start-up called Ideogram. The latter due to its ability to render text, which has and is a widespread challenge in the industry for AI image generation. 

Prior to the test, I decided to evaluate the results based on 3 criteria:

1. The ability to interpret colour palette instructions

2. The ability to render text

3. Overall look and feel

To minimise bias I used 3 different prompts with varying complexity across the 3 platforms. Moreover, all the images shared below are the initial outputs from the image generation tools, with no additional editing nor re-generation.

Testing Image Generation Tools

Prompt 1: Create a LinkedIn ad for an AI marketing start-up called Arcane. Only use the colors Lavender (Web), Magnolia, Russian Violet, and Plump Purple.

DALL-E 

Midjourney

Ideogram

Prompt 2: Create a LinkedIn ad where a cute puppy is holding a sign that says "Arcane" on it. Only use the colors Lavender (Web), Magnolia, Russian Violet, and Plump Purple.

DALL-E

Midjourney

Ideogram

Prompt 3: Create a LinkedIn ad of a vectorised person in the center smiling with the following headline text above "Marketers, try Arcane and make marketing joyful again". Only use the colors Lavender (Web), Magnolia, Russian Violet, and Plump Purple.

DALL-E

Midjourney

Ideogram

Result

Going back to the 3 criteria outlined earlier, here's my ranking: 

The ability to interpret colour palette instructions

1. Shared between Midjourney & Ideogram

2. DALL-E

The ability to render text

1. Ideogram

2. DALL-E

3. Midjourney

Overall look and feel

1. Ideogram

2. Midjourney

3. DALL-E

Ideogram stands out as the image generation tool with the best overall look and feel for the prompts used above. Now, this is by no means a comprehensive test, so feel free to play around with the tools yourself and vary the complexity to see if you're able to produce anything worth testing on your paid channels. 

Let me know if you have any questions or comments, and feel free to share this with your colleagues to spark a discussion in your marketing department.

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On another note, we're onboarding more people to Arcane 🤩

We are building a platform for Marketers, empowering them to leverage all the advances in AI for their work, so that it becomes more of a joyful experience.

If you're interested in learning more, click here!

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That's all! Please ping me if you have any thoughts, comments or feedback on this format. See you next time 👋

- Ben