How do you test which advertising version works best?

1 Choose your goal

Before you start testing, you need to define what you want to achieve with your ads. Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales? Your goal will determine what metrics you will use to evaluate your ads, such as impressions, click-through rate, cost per lead, or return on ad spend. Your goal will also help you choose the right platform, format, and audience for your ads.

2 Create your variations

Once you have your goal, you need to create different versions of your ads that vary in one or more elements. For example, you can test different headlines, images, copy, or calls to action. You can also test different audiences, placements, or bids. The number of variations you create depends on your budget, time, and sample size. Ideally, you want to create enough variations to test your hypotheses, but not too many that you dilute your results or confuse your audience.

3 Run your test

After you create your variations, you need to run your test and collect data. You can use different methods to run your test, such as split testing, multivariate testing, or sequential testing. Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is the simplest and most common method. It involves showing two versions of your ad to two randomly selected groups of your audience and measuring their performance. Multivariate testing is more complex and involves testing multiple elements of your ad at the same time and measuring their interactions. Sequential testing is a more adaptive and flexible method that allows you to adjust your test based on the results as they come in.

5 Apply your learnings

The final step is to apply your learnings and optimize your ads. You can use the results of your test to choose the best performing version of your ad and scale it up. You can also use the results to identify areas of improvement and generate new hypotheses for future tests. Testing is an ongoing process that helps you refine your ads and increase your return on investment.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?