Have you got an ads manager who responds to all your suggestions with something about 'testing'?

Let us explain.…

Testing is the backbone of high performing ads campaigns. The answer to many campaign related questions or suggestions is, we just don’t know until we test it. So, what is it exactly that your ads manager is testing, and why?

What is being tested?
The three most common areas where ads managers will be constantly testing are:

• Elements of ads

• Audiences

• Offers

Ads
All the little elements of an ad need to be tested to find what works best for your campaign. Copy, headlines, creative, call to action buttons etc. Single image, video, carousel, landing pages, placements…. all of it. To do this effectively it needs to be tested in isolation, ie, you can’t test a different call to action AND a different headline at the same time because you won’t know which is having (or not having) the impact. Because there is so much you can test in an ad, this is usually an ongoing process as ads managers optimise ads.

Deciding that you really like the look of an ad, or you think every ad should have a certain call to action, doesn’t mean it will get your the best return.

Audiences
In the post iOS14 era, ‘go broad’ is the rule of thumb. But ads being ads, just running broad audiences isn’t always the way to crack your campaign. Testing different types of audiences (interest based, dynamic, lookalike etc), and different audiences within the types (different interests and different exclusions, higher or lower percentage lookalikes, different custom audiences etc) will help find the audiences most wanting to interact with your ads.

This testing is also ongoing; ads and audiences will eventually fatigue, so even when you’ve found a winning solution the next move needs to be in the pipeline ready for if it flags.

Offers
Your offers are key to your whole funnel, and tweaking them for optimal conversions will lower your cost per acquisition. It’s not only about finding the one offer which will give you the highest conversions, but also finding the offer, or sequence of offers, which will increase your customer’s lifetime value. If you run a subscription model, how many months do you need to offer an initial discount in order to retain your customers long term? A top tip for anyone new to the market, or with limited budget, is to look at your more established competitors with bigger budgets. The chances are they’ve already tested the model which works for them, which would be a good starting point for you.

If you don’t have a subscription model, but rely on repeat business, this still applies. What offer brings customers in regularly enough that they build a strong relationship with your brand and deliver the best return on investment long term?

Why all the testing?
The most obvious reason to test is to optimise your campaigns. Finding the copy which yields the best results is obviously hugely valuable, and knowing that your conversions soar when you use a certain image, is golden. Knowing what offers hook your audiences in long term is also essential for seeing a good return from ads.

How to know where to start?
Testing is the only true way to know what works, but how do you know what to start testing with? Go with the knowledge you already have on your business. You already know a certain amount about your customers; build out some personas based on what you know and go from there. Also, see what your competition are up to. If they’re successful the chances are they’ve been testing their campaigns for long enough to have good insight on what works.

If you visit their Facebook page, click on Page Transparency, See all, Go to Ad Library, you’ll get an idea of the ads they’re running. The chances are, at least some of their ads will be going to the same, or similar, audiences to yours, so it’s good to see what you’re up against.

How long to test for?
This largely depends on your budget and the traffic going through your campaign, but as a rule of thumb we don’t write anything off in less than two weeks.

It’s really easy to make assumptions when building campaigns about what an audience will respond to best, and whilst it’s a good idea to give instincts a run, ads managers should always, always read the data and test them against alternatives.

Drop us a line if you have any testing related questions.