This article is part of a series of twenty articles. Click to read: The Top 20 Web Marketing Concepts Your Next Website Design Company Should Know
There are many premium web properties to choose from when it comes to advertising your business online. Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, and LinkedIn each have different advantages and disadvantages over one another. While one may provide the best marketing method for a photography studio, another may work best for a local flower shop.
Industry specific benefits aside, on all of these platforms your ability to drive traffic to your marketing message depends exclusively on the quality of your ad. An ad is always comprised of ad copy (a few short lines of text) and, depending on the platform, sometimes contains an accompanying image. Even for experienced internet marketing experts, ad copy refinement is a never-ending process. You can never ‘set and forget your internet ads. To experience lasting success, regular performance testing of the ad, ad copy, and associated media will ensure the best possible results as the campaign progresses.
Why Test Your Ads?
The first goal of an internet marketing campaign is the generation of traffic that will eventually result in new leads and sales. This goal can only be obtained if your ads generate a sufficient number of clicks. By testing and experimenting with different ad-copies and images, you can find the ads that achieve maximum click-through-rates for your campaign. Using integrated tools in the various online marketing platforms, it is then possible for a web marketing expert to analyze the data and determine which variations of ads are resulting in the biggest bang for the buck. Accurate performance testing before and during every internet marketing campaign will ensure you are achieving maximum return on investment (ROI).
In addition, for most industries the online marketing landscape is one that is constantly changing. The advertising landscape will change as other companies introduce new promotions, pricing, and products. Ad testing as a process allows you to constantly monitor the performance of your ads and improve them as necessary to keep your business relevant in the marketplace.
A/B Split Testing
While multiple well-known methods exist to test performance of your ads, the testing method proven to work best is A/B split testing. This process is an effective way to test multiple types of web advertising including PPC ad copies, emails, landing pages, and banner ads. A/B split testing calls for the creation of two copies of ads with small variations between them, to check for improvements in results caused by the variation. Using A/B split testing allows you to try out different concepts, different words, and different images to see which appeal most to your target audience.
Tips for Improving A/B Test Results
The most important and basic requirement of A/B testing is making only one change at a time to judge the differences in results. Usually people make multiple changes in ad copies resulting in an inaccurate analysis. Make only small changes allowing you to focus in on the factors causing change in ad performance. Another significant issue is time given to your test to accumulate data. A/B testing takes time to generate results based on performance of your ad variations over time. Give your test some time to deliver actual returns.
Ad performance testing is crucial for the success of your next internet marketing campaign. It is a task that usually benefits from expert supervision and can be time consuming for those without past experience in web campaign management. If you want maximum return on investment you shouldn’t try to manage the performance testing yourself, hire an experienced online marketing firm that will manage the details of your display advertising campaign for you.
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