Adwords Ad Copy Testing
Throughout many places in this tutorial we have mentioned how
important it is to test your ads and now finally, here is a whole
chapter about ad testing.
We can't stress how important testing is! You might be an AdWords
guru and still need a lot of testing to finetune your campaign. Yes,
you do need to track
your conversions in order to see how things are going but you
need even more to test before you launch a massive campaign.
If you are a beginner, then testing is even more important � you
might want to start with a single ad or two only and test them till
you spot the winner and only after that expand to include more ads.
You should never-ever skip testing because if you do, you will be
running inefficient ads and this costs a lot of money. Additionally,
you can also damage your Quality
Score, which means more lost efficiency and more money down the
drain for the next months!
There are various third-party tools that allow to test the
efficiency of your ads. However, the best tool you have is inside
AdWords itself, so you don't have to look any further. What I'm
talking about is the split test tool, also known as A/B testing.
What's A/B Testing About?
When you perform an A/B test, you are comparing version A to
version B. This means you write two versions of the same ad, run them
at the same time and with the same parameters (i.e. bid amount,
location, daily budget, etc.) to find which of them has a better CTR.
After you find the ad with the better CTR, you remove the other
one, write a new version of the same ad, run it and compare its CTR
with the CTR of the winner from the previous round. When you repeat
this multiple times, you will inevitably find the version that
performs best.
An A/B Test Example
For instance, here are two versions of the same ad we used in a
previous chapter:
A)
Headline: Best Organic Skincare!
Description Line 1: Make Your Skin Fresh and Young
Description Line 2: All Organic Skincare - 10% Discount
Display URL: http://mycosmetics.com/organic-skincare
B)
Headline: Best Organic Skincare!
Description Line 1: Affordable Natural Cosmetics
Description Line 2: All Organic Skincare - 10% Discount
Display URL: http://mycosmetics.com/organic-skincare
The variations are minor but essential. With the second version we
hope to attract the attention of users who are not only looking for
organic skincare but who are also budget-conscious. Since natural
cosmetics could be very expensive, we could expect that for many of
our clients prices do make a difference. The second line stays the
same in both ads (but you can change it, if you want) because in the
second ad we want to stress once again the financial benefit � a
10% discount.
We run the two campaigns simultaneously for let's say a week, or
at least till we get 20-30 clicks on one of them. If one of the ads
has already got let's say 10 clicks, while the other has none, we can
stop here. What matters is that we need to give it some time to see
which one performs better. If we stop after 2-3 clicks, for example,
the results will not be precise. Because of this, we want to give
them time � enough to pick the winner and not too much to waste
money and endanger our Quality Score.
So, after we've run the test, we noticed that version A
outperforms version B. Obviously, not all our potential clients are
interested in the price only � they want the benefits, too. This is
why we'll test a new version of A) � we'll keep the discount data
because it is good to have it but we'll add free shipping over $50
offer. Here is what it looks like:
Headline: Best Organic Skincare!
Description Line 1: Make Your Skin Fresh and Young
Description Line 2: 10% Discount Free Shipping over $50
Display URL: http://mycosmetics.com/organic-skincare
We test this one against the winner from the first pair and see
which one wins this time. We delete the one that lost, write a new
version of the winner, test it against the winner, and so on. We'll
do this till we reach a CTR we are pleased with.
How to Set a Split Test in AdWords
It's very easy to set a split test in AdWords. Just open the Ads
tab and click New Ad.
This opens the same dialog you are familiar with from the time you
created the first ad. Fill in the fields and save it.
If you are surprised that there is no A/B Split Testing mentioned
anywhere in the interface of Google AdWords, this is just fine �
you don't need to have a separate page, or a special tool. All you
need to have is right there in the Ads tab � from there you create
the second version and there you see the CTR of the two ads directly
- this is enough to determine which ad is the winner. It doesn't have
to be complex in order to be working, right?
You can set as many A/B tests as you want but our advice is to
keep their number low. Otherwise, it gets easy to become confused
what you are testing. Also, after you delete a loser ad, make sure
you have a copy of its text on your computer, so that you can have it
for reference in the future.
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