Your digital marketing costs can be affected by a huge variety of factors. From consumer behavioral patterns to the images and content you use will influence how your audience perceives your ads, which in turn affects the performance as well as the cost of your campaign.
A/B testing is a great approach that can help you find the combination of elements that help you keep your marketing costs low. Whether you’re running ads on Facebook or another network, A/B tests is a technique that relies on objective data to help you make the best possible choices.
With all of the above in mind, setting up different tests and knowing what they mean can be challenging, especially if you don’t have the right tools at your disposal. In this article, we’ll go over the definition of A/B testing and give you tips on using this approach to lower your digital marketing costs.
What is A/B Testing?
Before delving any further, it’s important to define A/B testing and explain how it works. Sometimes referred to as split testing, A/B testing is an approach that allows you to evaluate different versions of an ad to see which one delivers the best results.
It’s important to note that A/B tests can compare completely different ads or small variations within the same ad. For example, you can test different headlines, copy, or calls-to-action (CTAs) to figure out which color, shape, or other variant works best.
When is A/B Testing Suitable?
The concept of A/B testing has been applied in various other industries because it’s a dynamic approach. As a matter of fact, A/B testing could even be applied to conventional forms of marketing, but this doesn’t mean you’ll still get valuable data.
In the world of digital marketing, A/B testing is an ideal approach if you’re fine-tuning your campaign, working with a new audience, or trying out different offers. Many believe that the grass is greener on the other side and A/B tests allow you to try out different variables until you find the right fit.
Factors that You Can Evaluate Through A/B Testing
If you’re running a paid ads campaign on Facebook or another platform, you need to know about the different elements you can test. There are some variations depending on the platform and type of ad, but in most cases you will be able to compare different headlines, text copy, images, and any other additional type of content.
Headlines
The headlines on your ads are crucial because they are the first thing your audience will read. Your titles should be informative, engaging, and relevant. However, there’s a lot of information you can try to fit in a relatively small space.
A/B tests allow you to determine which variables work best. In addition to the actual information you include, you can change the tone, capitalization, and other formatting elements that affect how your ads perform.
Body Copy
The body or text copy is usually the largest written part of an ad. It should elaborate on the title, include information that entices prospects, and feature a CTA that tells users what to do next. This area has more space for detailed information, so you can test the content, copy length, and tone of voice among other variables.
Images
Although the title and content have limitations in terms of content length, images have the ability to transmit a complex idea without any words at all. However, testing these creative elements is a process in itself. Images can feature graphs, statistics, and different design elements, so you may have to run a split test just for your creatives depending on how complex they are.
Additional Content
There are many different ad formats you can choose from, but you can run some form of split testing on almost every single one of them. This includes push notifications, native ads, video content, paid social media posts, and other types of digital adverts that have numerous components.
How Can A/B Testing Reduce Your Marketing Costs?
Now that we’ve extensively covered A/B testing and how it works, it’s time to look at the ways it can help you reduce your digital marketing expenses. Split tests may vary in complexity depending on your industry and type of ad, so this marketing activity does represent an investment in terms of resources.
With the above in mind, the results you get through your A/B tests can help put you on a path to success based on facts and numbers. By running splits tests, you can:
Identify the Components that Are Producing the Best Results
Even if the rest of the components are perfectly crafted, having one element on your ads that discourages users from interacting with them can derail your entire campaign.
Through A/B testing, you can conduct research at a granular level. In other words, you can individually assess the performance of each variable to determine the best combination, thus increasing efficiency and reducing costs.
Craft Attractive Titles
As a general rule of thumb, the fewer conversions you rack up, the more expensive your campaign will be. The titles on your ads are meant to be eye-catching and relevant in order to improve conversion rates and lower overall marketing expenses, but there is no exact formula to find the perfect balance. Luckily, you can employ split tests and try out different headlines until you find the most effective version.
Create Engaging Content
The key to creating engaging content is to be relevant and practical with your advice. In other words, make sure that your written text as well as imagery serve a functional purpose. A good example would be including statistics that help viewers make better decisions or including a checklist that’s attached to an ebook or other type of resource.
Find Attractive and Relevant Imagery
As we just mentioned, the images you choose will heavily impact the performance of your ads, so you need to be practical with your content. When it comes to images, you have to focus on two main elements, which are aesthetic appeal and functionality.
If your image features functional information and presents it in an attractive, minimalist format, your audience will be able to easily process your message. Which, can help improve engagement as well as conversion rates.
Enhance Campaign Performance
A/B tests can be used in virtually all parts of your campaign, including your landing pages. If implemented properly, A/B tests can help you improve the overall performance of your campaign. This includes boosting lead generation, so you’ll have larger margins and more resources to invest in marketing.
Increase ROI
Return-on-income (ROI) is a key metric that will help you calculate profitability and overall success. The higher your ROI, the more money you’ll generate. A/B testing can help you minimize unnecessary costs and focus on the most profitable parts of your marketing machine, increasing ROI at the same time.
Implementing A/B Testing in Your Campaign
Although it’s a great tool, you need to know how to implement A/B testing into your campaign to get the best results. This technique is extremely flexible so you can implement it into campaigns that are already live or set up tests from the moment you run your campaigns.
There are many different factors you have to keep in mind when running split tests, including the average industry cost. Tools like ADCostly can help you determine the average costs of different placements on Facebook and other platforms. You can use this data as a benchmark for your own campaign and choose placements that are within budget from the get-go.
In order to implement A/B testing, remember to:
Start Big and then Go Small
When it comes to A/B tests, you need an organized approach. If it’s the first time you’re setting up these comparisons, start off by testing completely different ads. Once you have decided on the best general design, go small and start testing headline variations and similar changes to fine-tune the design.
Collect Statistically-Significant Data
One of the biggest mistakes affiliates and other marketers make is failing to collect statistically significant data. In other words, you need to allow your campaign to rack up enough traffic and conversions for the statistics to have true value. This will vary depending on your industry, so you need to find the sweet spot for your specific campaign.
Monitor the Historic Change
When running split tests, you should keep a close eye on historic data to see how the performance of your ads progresses over time. You also need to factor in seasonal changes and global events to make up for external factors to determine the success of your testing approach.
Learn More About Running A/B Testing
Learning about the different variants that impact the performance of your campaigns is the only way to gain full control of your budget. Therefore, you need to find a way to identify the elements that influence your audience and test different variables to see what effect these changes produce.
Split tests are a great tool that can uncover valuable information about your campaign. With this in mind, you need to take the time and learn how to implement these and use platforms like ADCostly to improve your chances of success.
