A/B testing is the practice of running different marketing tests against one another in order to see which copy, images, or other factors connect the most with your target audience. What’s the purpose of doing this? As HubSpot puts it, “A/B testing is a very popular marketing method because it gives marketers an idea of what types of ads or UX visuals earn the highest conversion rates.” Sounds pretty great considering how essential high conversion rates are to the ultimate success of a campaign. Our marketing agency in Lincoln is constantly looking for ways to gauge which ads will be the most successful for our clients. That’s why A/B testing is such a fantastic advertising tactic. Now that we know what the definition of  A/B testing is, let’s dive into some of the best practices to follow while running ads online.

And for an even deeper look into how this practice works, read our blog on A/B testing basics!

Focusing on one variable at a time will help narrow the focus of your A/B testing. A variable can be something like the audience, changes in copy, or imagery. So let’s say that you want to run two ads against one another with different images. In that instance, you would (as much as possible) keep everything else about the two ads identical to one another. As Facebook says, “You’ll have more conclusive results for your test if your ad sets are identical except for the variable that you’re testing.”

By choosing one element to test, as opposed to multiple factors, you will have better luck choosing a winning ad and figuring out what makes that specific ad a winner.

What is considered an “ideal” in the world of online advertising? On Facebook, it would be things like the ideal audience to test within a specific campaign or the most ideal time in which to run the ads against one another. You can run a test for up to 30 days on Facebook, and it’s recommended that you run a test for at least 4 days to see actual results pool in from your ads. It is crucial that you don’t make any changes to the ad sets, ads, or budgets during the testing period.

You can’t always know how your audience will react to your ads. As a PPC agency, we are often surprised at which ad gets the greatest response from our target consumers. The good news is, Facebook does allow you to control aspects of your ads, making it easier to find what variables work best for your company.

When creating killer ads, it’s important to stay within client budgets set at the beginning of a campaign and to know what budget will work best for the kind of business that a particular client runs. Facebook can help you create a realistic budget, or you can utilize Facebook’s Ad Manager to set up an ideal budget yourself. Either way, allocating the correct amount of money towards your ad sets will help to keep you on budget and allow for high-conversion rates!  

As a general rule, we like to spend between $30-70 per ad over a period of 3-7 days before we choose a winner. 

Wondering what else our PPC agency does to gain conversions? Take a look at our blog on how to make gaining leads a priority! 

While there are many factors that go into creating successful campaigns, A/B testing is a fantastic way to start off on the right foot.