Following on from our previous post about starting out with testing your digital ads, we now get into the more specific checklists for conducting A/B testing (and/or multivariate testing) for landing pages, Pay-Per-Click ads, display ads and social media ads.
Landing Pages
- Headline: How eye-catching is your headline?
- Call-to-Action: The copy of your CTA says it all. Also consider testing CTA location and button colour.
- Copy: Test different copy. What works better: bullet points, a numbered list, or paragraphs?
- Images: Test different images and image location.
- Offer: Test different offers— what works best? A content asset? A contest? A discount or promotion?
- Forms: Test different form lengths and locations.
- Site Navigation: Test adding or deleting site navigation from your landing page.
- Colours and Design: Determine which colours and design works best to attract your audience.
- Page Length: Should your landing page be long or short? Should it scroll?
- Responsive Design: Mobile is important. Test how different responsive design templates look on different devices.
Pay-Per-Click Ads
- Landing Pages: Which landing page works best for which ad? This way you can work to increase your Google Quality Score.
- Advert Headline: Your headline is extremely important for conversion in PPC. Test multiple headlines.
- Advert Copy: You don’t have much room to convert your buyer. Test different ad copy to see what engages your audience the most.
- Advert Extensions: Do ad extensions work for you? Play around with different URLs or CTAs.
- Advert CTA: Make sure to test your ad CTA. What works better, a CTA for a contest? Promotion? Content asset? Video?
Display Adverts
- Advert Design: Make sure to test different ad designs. What colours work best? What images work best?
- Advert Types: Test your message using various forms of rich media. Try out video, flash, and cinematographic adverts.
- Advert Delivery: What sort of delivery works best for your display ads? Try different overlays and pop-ups.
- Copy: Test different copy to see what connects the best.
- Advert CTA: Try out different CTAs, CTA copy, and locations to see what combination works best for your ads.
- Websites and Adverting Networks: Test out different websites and ad networks to see where your audience engages with your ads the most.
- Advert Targeting: Try out different ways to target your banner ads. Test out behavioural vs. demographic vs. location, and so on.
Social Media Ads
- Advert Design: See which designs work best for each social network. You may find that different images and design styles work best for one social network and not another.
- Advert Type: Many social networks today have the option for native video ads. Test those out to see if your audience resonates.
- Advert Headline and Copy: Most social networks enable you to add headlines and copy to your ad. Test out different tones and even hashtags to see what engages your audience.
- Advert CTA: Make sure to have a CTA for your social ads. Test different CTAs and offers for each social network to see if you find a pattern.
- Advert Targeting: Adverting targeting is a critical part of advertising on social channels. Test out different audiences and targeting options to see what works best.
- Dark Posts: Want to test an ad but don’t want your audience to see it? Test your ads using dark posts, which are ads that are only shown to those outside of your network based on targeting.
If you need assistance with creating your digital/website marketing strategy, specific adverts or even the A/B testing process contact the team at Website Design Centre.
