As this data-driven digital marketing agency will tell you, testing tells you a whole lot. For a start, it tells you how your marketing campaign is working, and how you can refine it to make it work even better. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is no exception. For PPC success, you must test, test, test.
PPC is a form of Digital Marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. It’s basically a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to earn those visits in more organic ways. PPC is a key component of many online marketing campaigns and while it is capable of creating significant revenue, it also comes at a cost. This is why it is essential to test PPC ads regularly to check conversions aren’t evading you.
The simplest and most effective way to test your PPC ads is through A/B testing. This analysis simply runs two or more ads within the same ad group to see which one performs better. You can perform this test whether your PPC ads are on social media, search engines, or both.
The key factor is that just one variable is changed each time. For example, if you change the visual component, the text is left alone. If you change the text, you leave the visuals untouched. You’re basically offering variations of your ad to different users with alterations to only one element of each ad. It’s fairly easy to work out why you adjust one thing at a time; if you were to change multiple variables for each test, you would never be sure which one is impacting the ad’s overall performance. Of course, the options you change are essentially limitless so you will be able to work through them all and get a crystal clear idea of what works best – but remember, it’s important you only test one thing at a time.
Like any good test, A/B testing gives you the opportunity to gather data on each ad’s individual click-through rate and, ultimately, its conversion rate. Marketers commonly refer to A/B testing as “an online focus group for business.” It’s very simple to do but one of the best ways to understand what messaging resonates the most with your audience.
For example, with your offer, it might be “Buy Now and Save 10%” or it could be “Buy Now and Get a $20 discount” that works best. Or, looking at your Call To Action, do they respond favourably to “Call Now” or “Get a Quote”? Maybe they prefer quality over price, or fast shipping over large selection? Once you know what works, you can implement changes in your paid search campaigns, and also in the messaging you employ in other marketing materials e.g. direct emails and landing pages.
When you settle on messaging that works, your Clickthrough Rate (CTR) rises and Cost-per-click drops, meaning you have even more paid advertising at your disposal. With that extra advertising comes more tests and more priceless information; that helps you learn even more about your audience and drive your business to greater heights. That’s why it really is smart to learn more about the A to B of PPC testing. Working with a digital marketing agency that uses data to do better business is the smartest way to do it.
