Do you struggle with conversion in your ad campaigns? If you’re not doing so already, you should be practicing A/B testing, one of the easiest and most effective methods of increasing conversion rates.

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing is exactly what it sounds. In essence, A/B testing is trying out two different ads and seeing which one does better. Most large successful companies test everything, from their website home page to the subject line of the monthly mailers, to see what angles work best and which they should therefore pursue.

How it works

With the simplest version of A/B testing, there are two elements: the control and the variable. The control is your initial ad, while the variable is an ad that takes a different angle and challenges your control ad. For example, we might have “Boost your business with Beetle Inc’s strategic creative marketing services” as our control (A), and “Stand out from the crowd with strategic creative marketing from Beetle Inc” as our variable (B). One is taking a ‘business’ angle, while one is taking a ‘marketplace’ angle.

Next, we will publish both ads and measure their performance. In this absolutely fictional example, let’s say that A was converting at a rate of 23%. With split testing, we saw that B converted at a rate of 48%. This means that the conversion rate of B was 25% higher.

Taking it to the next level

Now we know that taking the ‘marketplace’ angle works better than taking the ‘business’ angle, so we’ve decided to stick with it. But the human brain is a strange thing; sometimes certain things will appeal to us for little to no reason, and we might be able to get this ad to perform even better. So let’s get even more picky and hone our new ad down to the best possible version of itself by A/B testing different versions of the same ad.

In our new test, we’re going to use the ‘marketplace’ angle as our control (A) and a modified version as the variable (B). So now our test looks like this: A is “Stand out from the crowd with strategic creative marketing from Beetle Inc” and B is “Get more eyes on your business with Beetle Inc’s strategic creative marketing services”.

We already know that the ad acting as the control was converting at 48%. In this fully fabricated illustration, the variable (B) converted at 43%. Not bad, but our original ad was stronger, so we’ll keep it as it is.

Playing the long game

Over time, we can play different angles to see if there’s an even better one out there, and we can get unbelievably finicky with different phrasing, styles and call-to-actions. We can even use the A/B testing model on targeted audiences, seeing what resonates best with our different target markets, and using this info to selectively advertise different angles or products to distinct customer bases. A/B testing isn’t just for ad campaigns, either – you can A/B test every element of your business’s online presence.

The most important thing is to keep testing your ads and honing them for better conversion rates. As digital marketing guru Neil Patel says, “‘A/B testing’ stands for ‘Always Be Testing’”.

However, if you’d rather get an experienced advertising company with a proven track record to smash all your advertising needs for you, get in touch with us to see what we can do for you.