I recently co-authored an eBook with Elisa over at Wordstream called “Tricks to Get the Click: 10 Ad Text Best Practices.” While writing it the one thing that stood out the most was the need for a systematic ad testing process. I’m talking beyond just a system for picking winners. I am talking about a system for planning out what to test, when, for how long and how to use what you learning to influence other channels.
Part of the reason for having an ad testing plan is that it help insure that you learn from winning ads and incorporate the winning messaging into future ad testing. Sure sometimes you will want to write completely new ads but often times you can combine winning messages together to create super ads!
The following process is how I’ve been structuring my ad tests since writing that eBook. Of course we name everything over here at Hanapin, so this is called the Ad Testing Matrix (which is different than the Ad Matrix).
1. Plan out the duration of your tests
The click volume of the account/campaign/ ad group you are working in will determine the length of your test. I like a few hundred clicks before picking a winning ad so I typically think through how long it should take me to get to 500 clicks across a few ads. If it would take 2 weeks to reach that point then I would plan for my tests to last 2 weeks and so on.
2. Identify the best message you currently have
For “best message” I don’t mean the entire ad but the best call-to-action, headline, or description line. To do this you can do a Sumif formula off an ad report and determine which of your messaging is the strongest. (Eric wrote a great post on this and other useful Excel PPC tools.
3. Pick new messaging to test
Using the ad testing matrix, pull out the best features, benefits, and call-to-actions of your product or service. Then write a headline, or description line that best illustrates this. Now you have a new message that you can test in conjunction with the old messaging. Yes, in conjunction. You are going to coming the two and see if you can create a new, better ad with the old messaging plus new messaging.
4. Write additional new messages that you will test down the road
Here’s the proactive, planning part of the ad test plan. At the same time that you pick the next ad you will write, create some additional new messaging that you will test. In an excel doc you can map out these tests by adding in the new messaging at the testing durations you schedule at step one of this process. (Below there is a link to a sample matrix that will give you a better idea of what is meant by all this.)
5. Always compare the control with the new messaging
When you begin a new test you will compare the control (the most recent winning ad) to the new messaging that you are testing. If the old one wins then you’ll back up to the control and test the next new message in your testing matrix. If the new version wins then you’ll pause the control and repeat. In the perfect world you’ll win about half the time so don’t get frustrated if a few of your new messages take a step back. Keep at it and you’ll find the CTR/CR gains you are looking for!
6. Record results
Seems obvious, but I’ve seen it all too often when PPC account managers conclude ad tests but do not record results. They simply pause the old ad, upload the new and then move on with their life. It’s a shame, for a lot of reasons. Partly because you do not use that information to influence future tests and partly because it makes it harder to report your results at your next quarterly PPC review. If you’ve mapped it out it’s easy to add a graph with CTR (hopefully moving up and to the right) along with some arrows pointing to dates on the graph where new ad messaging was rotated in. It’s data that can inform the business on other channels and it makes you look great for being so organized and scientific in your testing!
That’s more or less it! Now you can sit back, wait for results to come in, and upload the new tests with your predetermined messaging at your predetermine durations.
Not sure what I mean by all this? Below is a sample of the ad testing matrix that hopefully will shed some additional light on this process:
In this sample I continue carrying on the winning messaging throughout. So you can see that the “Over 500,000 Happy Customers” shows up a few times but then is replaced by “Free Shipping” after that messaging won in my fake test!
Oh, and before you slam me in the comments section, a couple caveats to this are that this matrix works for a generic messaging test. So if you have multiple products/services you probably need to add a campaign field to the testing matrix to insure you are testing relevant messaging that is as specific to the produce as possible. You’ll also want to make your message generic enough that you can try to squeeze your keyword(s) into it so you can keep ad relevance high!
