A/B Split Testing with Ads Machine

A/B Testing, the most common form of multivariate testing, is an extremely powerful strategy for increasing the effectiveness of a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising effort.

As an introduction, if you are new to the concept, A/B Testing is a method of advertising testing in which you test two different ad text elements (ad variations) for the same keyword to see which performs better. Once you find out which one is most effective in increasing the Click-Through and Conversion Rate you run the test again with a new ad text that replaces the poorly performing one, and continue like so in a continuous cycle.

There are many strategies and techniques on how to actually apply this theory, for example a very helpful article on how to efficiently use A/B Testing is outlined in one of Garry’s excellent post: Simple A/B Testing for Pay Per Click Ad Text Elements.
In the post, Garry outlines a simple check-list you should keep in mind when you are testing your ad text elements:

Keep a control ad, one ad that is kept unchanged for each and every test. Make sure you choose “rotate ads” so that each ad gets equal billing. After writing ads, make sure all of them are actually running (you might get disapproved ads after submission to your search engine) Before declaring a “winner” run a statistical significance test to determine error.

He also suggests a few elements in you text ads that you should manipulate at each iteration of the A/B Test:

“(BRAND) Official Site” versus Keyword-only headlines Price listed in the ad versus prices on the landing page only Free shipping or not (depending on your product) Superlatives like “best” or “cheapest” are golden, if you can get exceptions for them (proof you are the best) “www.” versus not having “www.” before your domain name Directories after your display URL versus not having directories Using “Free” anywhere in your ad versus no mention Dynamic keyword insertion

A/B Testing with Ads Machine

You hopefully understand how important continuous ad text testing is for a successful advertising campaign, that is why we, at Affinica, designed Ads Machine with A/B Testing in mind. In fact, when you create a new campaign using Ads Machine you have the ability of specifying two ad texts, viewing them side-by-side.
You can also load previously saved ad variation and make a few tweaks if you wish, or use the built in token replacement system to experiment with complex ad variations.

In the next post I will show you how to leverage the power of Ads Machine’s token replacement system to create ad variations with a higher Click-through and Conversion Rate.