What is A/B testing for Google Ads?
A/B testing in Google Ads involves testing components in similar ads in an effort to improve results and gain a higher return on investment (ROI) and/or click through rate (CTR).
Once you make changes to your ad, you can identify the better performing ad and what your customers respond better to.
What do we learn from A/B testing?
A/B testing helps us gain an insight into the customer’s intent and what drives them to click.
From A/B testing, we can gather whether the customer is motivated by costs, services, product quality or risk-free offers/guarantees.
The positive response of customers will show its effect in a higher customer interaction and ROI.
Where do we begin?
1. Outline the goal you want to focus on whether it be to increase sales, gain clicks, build brand awareness, generate more leads or increase social shares.
2. Identify the underperforming ads. You can look at the average positions, impressions, clicks, CTR and quality scores.
3. Measure your results accurately using:
- Google Ads Stats
- Google Analytics
4. Target a specific part of the ad to test. This could include:
- Headline
- Display URL
- Punctuation and capitalisation
- Wording and tone
- USPs
- CTA
- Offer
- Ad extensions
- Ad group keywords
- Device targeting
- Landing page – final URL
- Ad schedule
What do we have to do?
1. Go into each Ad Group and create a new ad to compete with the existing ad.
2. Decide the variable you want to test e.g. the USP of ‘Free Shipping’.
3. Change the components you want to test and decide whether you want to keep the same copy.
4. Let the ads run simultaneously for a significant period to gain data.
5. Track and record the results for both ads.
6. Determine which ad performed better and if the results were significant.
7. Place more of your budget into the higher performing ad.
8. Continue to use A/B testing as a method of your Ads optimisation.
If you currently have an Google Ads account and/or interested in professional Ads optimisation that includes expert A/B testing, get in touch with us at Digital Animals. We are Google Ads experts and know what it takes to get customers clicking!
About Author: Hayley Jennings is one of our digital marketing specialists at Digital Animals. She is passionate about helping clients get in front of their competitors and target customers using strategic Google Ads campaigns. Digital Animals is a great source of information and has the capability to help you at every step of the online marketing process. Please get in touch, we are happy to answer any questions you may have.