Are you Spending Money on the Best Version of Your Ads? You Can Test Right Now.
Advertising is the fuel that keeps pushing your business forward. Let me rephrase that – “Right advertising is the fuel that keeps pushing your business forward”. Whether you are pursuing Google Ads, investing in Facebook ads, or reaching out via emails, you have to be effective in your message. But, how do you know that your ad is doing what you intend it to?
The answer is using A/B or Split Testing. Never heard of it? Let’s change that today.
What is A/B Testing or Split Testing?
In the simplest terms, A/B or split testing is nothing but a statistical test to compare two or more variants of the same entity. The entity can be a digital asset like a website or an email, or a pay-per-click ad. The results of the test help determine which version delivers better performance but also allow you to understand if the difference between the two versions holds any statistical significance.
Here is an example to understand it better.
You have created an ad, and you want to see what CTA text will work better. Should you use “Contact Us” or should you use “Let Us Help”. You have defined a comparison, and you are ready to test.
Step 1: Pick the Variable
Zero-in on the variable that you want to change. In this particular example, the variable is the CTA text.
Step 2: Define a Hypothesis
You have to distill what you want the ad to do for you. Do you need to increase the clickthrough rate or a call for an inquiry or something else? This will be your criterion for the success or failure of the hypothesis.
“Changing the CTA text from “Contact Us” to “Let Us Help” will increase CTR by 5%.”
Step 3: Split Your Traffic
Now you have to decide on how you want to split the traffic between the two ads. A fair comparison can be made with a 50-50 split. But, that is not necessary. What is required is that the split generates statistically significant results.
Step 4: Analyze Results
You have to give the test ample time to give reliable results. This can range from 10 days to a couple of weeks. If you get mixed results, you may want to change the variables of the test. Many be the CTA text is not impacting the ad performance, and you need to test the font size, ad design, or something else.
Check the Performance of Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Emails
Google Ads
Google Adwords offers a feature called “Campaign Drafts & Experiments”. It allows you to create a Draft, so that you can run the test or “experiment” without effecting your original campaign. When the Draft is used for the test, it compares its performance to the original campaign while reporting results.
First Step: Select the campaign for which you want to run the test
Second Step: Choose the “Drafts” tab and click on “Create New” and name your Draft
Step 3: Pick the elements you want to change and click “Apply”. The changes are automatically saved.
Fourth Step: You can then choose to apply the changes to the original campaign or run them as an experiment
Step 5: You can then track the performance on the dashboard or use AdWords Script to generate an exhaustive report.
Facebook Ads
As you get testing, you may want to test every element from the images to the text to the headers, and more. However, that would need you to create multiple ads and also require more time to run. So choose wisely.
Step 1: Go to the main table of the Ads Manager that lists all the active campaigns on your account. Choose the desired campaign.
Step 2: Locate the toolbar above the Ads Manager and click on A/B Test
Step 3: Pick whether you want to duplicate a campaign or compare two existing campaigns. Then, choose from up to 5 variables to test. You can then schedule the period for the test
Step 4: Decide on the criterion to determine a winner. For example, it can be the cost per lead.
Step 5: Analyze the results once the test period is complete.
Emails
The procedure to run the A/B test for an email campaign of your house cleaning service depends on the service you are using to run the campaign. The most prominent names for email campaigns are Mail Chimp, Active Campaign, and Campaign Monitor. They have incredibly user-friendly A/B test solutions for their customers.
If you want, you can run a manual A/B test too. All you have to do is create two versions of the email, divide your email list in half, and send. Then, create an excel to record the response, and analyze it to find the better performer.
Why Do You Need It?
A/B testing or split testing is a litmus test that tells you whether your ad is performing as per your expectations. Here is why you need it.
Correct Your Bias
The assumptions you make while creating, let’s say an ad, are based on your understanding of consumer behavior. But, your customers may behave differently than what you expect from them. They can do it consciously or unconsciously, rationally or irrationally. So, these tests allow you to capture exactly what your customers like rather than guessing or relying on intuition.
Save on Marketing Costs
Pay-per-click ads can quickly add up to your marketing costs. So, when an individual clicks on the ad, you want them to convert. By running these tests, you significantly add to the probability of the “right” person clicking on the ad.
Beat the Competition
When you can effectively reach your customers and optimize your costs, it puts you in a better position to compete. You are infusing efficiency into your marketing efforts and constantly improving your performance to come out on top.
Use it Well
Your residential house cleaning business faces a lot of competition as is, and you need to bring on your A-game. A/B or split testing allows you to do just that.
