Best Practices for AB AD testing in Adwords

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DigitalMenta

SEM · 31 / 03 / 2016

In Adwords, the announcements represent one of the most important elements to test, especially because we have 2-3 seconds to differentiate ourselves from the competition. A relevant and attractive advertisement can increase the CTR and quality level, resulting in a lower CPC in the auction.

When starting an ad test, we must define the objectives of our test: What do we want to achieve? Do We Want To have more traffic? Do We Want to increase the conversion rate?

It Is very important to do AB testing of ads and make decisions once The data is statistically relevant, to make sure that the new ad copy will bring us long-term benefits. As we are talking about a test AB, we recommend to try one variable at a time, to know exactly which is causing the resulting obtained. For example, try two ads with different titles but with the same description and URL visible. If we try with a different title and the first descriptive line, we will not know which one has caused the result that we have obtained.

Recommendations for an effective ad AB Testing

As ‘tips‘ OF the AB AD tests we’ve been doing in Digital Menta , we have the following:

  •  The VISIBLE URL has its own history and quality level. When doing several tests we have noticed that every time we have changed the visible URL we have obtained a lower CTR due to a lower position (because the quality level has been affected).
  • Finish the first description of the ad using a ‘. ‘ Point. This way you get a longer title in Google results, which increases the CTR.
Ad Extensive Title Adwords

Ad Extensive Title Adwords

  • We Advise making changes greater than just changing a punctuation sign. From experience, when making such small changes, the data takes much longer to have statistical relevance, which delays the decision-making process.
  • Do not take into account the first week of the data from AN AB ad test, because the data may be distorted and give us a result that is not statistically relevant. The reason is that Google in the first days is going to favor the announcement that already has history in the account (even if we have the configuration in alternating the ads uniformly).
  • Use remarketing in search campaigns.  Create Lists of Remarketing Depending on the different steps that users are taking on our website and show different ads for different types of users. They Are much more personalized ads because we have more detailed information about the user, and have a higher CTR and quality level.
  • Test different messages depending on devices. Some time Ago we did a very interesting test with ‘ Emotional ‘ ads, and different results were obtained in computers and mobiles. Let’s talk about this test a little bit lower.
  • Expect to have statistically relevant data. This will take a longer period of time if the results are narrow or a shorter period of time if the results are farther away.

Get Data Driven is a very useful tool for calculating the results of THE AB AD tests that we recommend using. You Only have to add the number of clicks and the number of conversions for each ad and the tool indicates if the results are statistically relevant. Sometimes it seems that an ad has better performance than another, but when analyzing the numbers it is possible to see that the new ads do not represent a real improvement.

Experiment with emotional ads in Digital Menta

A very interesting test we’ve done in Digital Menta It’s been emotional ads. In this case, the first descriptive line of the ad was changed by an ‘ emotional ‘ descriptive line, which related the user to his need. We also add humorous notes where the type of service/product has allowed us. A very important point with the emotional ads is that you have to keep trying with different phrases – it is very likely that the first time you do not have the expected success. The important thing here is to relate to the user and get aroused an emotion, and this can be difficult to achieve, but not impossible!

What we have also noticed is that emotional ads tend to work better on computers than on mobile devices. This may be motivated by the degree of intentionality of the users when searching on different devices – on the mobile they need speed and rapidity, and then in this case an emotional announcement can damage our CTR, which is an important factor in the Quality Score.

Some Extra Tips

Then more ‘ tips ‘ FOR AB ad testing (we’ve been DOING in DM):

  • Capitalize the first letter of each keyword of the ad, to attract attention and make the ad stand out on the page.
  • Include prices – if your potential customers are more price sensitive, and yours is competitive, you can include price and promotions in the ads.
  • Quality of service – if your product/service is more expensive than the competition, but you offer a higher level of quality, it includes this feature in your ad copy.
  • Conversion Rate – Try the same ad with a different landing in a group and you’ll see which one has the best conversion rate.
  • Extensions added – Apparently Google cares about this aspect and considers it when calculating your quality level. Simply having them has a positive impact on the account and increases the ad CTR, which occupies more space on the page Including all you can!

Here at Digital Menta We like to do tests whenever we can: AB Testing Advertising, bidding experiments… It’S What gives us a competitive advantage and makes our accounts one step ahead of the competition. To try and improve the CTR of your ads!

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