Images are one of the critical forms of expression in the introduction of financing projects on crowdfunding platforms. As the existing researches on the impact of image factors on crowdfunding project financing outcomes were limited, the influence of image cues on fundraising effectiveness was analyzed from the perspective of image semantic hierarchy. Image clues were extracted from the visual layer, object layer and concept layer dimensions, and their impact on crowdfunding project financing outcomes was analyzed based on the media richness theory. The moderating effect of project type on this relationship was also analyzed. Through empirical experiments, 6,336 crowdfunding projects on the Kickstarter platform were examined. The results show that image cues such as product images, team member portraits, the size of character images, and facial expressions can significantly improve the fundraising success rate of crowdfunding projects. Compared with technology, game, and food projects, the financing effects of publishing projects are more significantly affected by image cues. This study can help guide fundraisers of crowdfunding projects to use multiple media such as images and text to create attractive project presentations to improve the success rate of fundraising.