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Split Testing Ads

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If internet businesses could become successful by throwing up a single ad and immediately reaping the benefits we would all be millionaires, the truth is finding the right ads for your pages and product can be tricky. Users should begin their internet campaigns with the expectation that campaigns may lose money before gaining. Start by creating several ads with different wording, for example you might try “Samsung Nexus S Free With Activation” if you offer cell phones and then try “Free Smartphone From Samsung” or “Free Samsung Android Phone Activations.” During each campaign write down the number of people who visited your site based on the number of impressions you served through your publisher platform, then determine how many people accepted the offer. The first number (site visitors based on page impressions) is your CTR (Click-Through-Rate), while the number of  buyers are your conversion rate (CTR / buyers). After a day of testing during different times figure out which ad works the best. After you choose a winner split test it against yet another ad until you are satisfied that you have the best converting ad for your website. Through split testing you can determine which ads are working during different times and then optimize your ad display times by ad to gain the biggest audience for the lowest future cost.

Here’s a simple chart demonstrating split testing:

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Website Page Optimization

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You can split test for weeks and still fail at advertising, however you can avoid the risk of failure by optimizing your website’s pages for better conversion. Start your optimization by installing a heat map on your website. A heat map is a piece of software which shows the “hottest” places on your website in terms of visitor click through rates. For example, users may click the top right ad on your page more than anywhere else, by understanding where a users eyes are traveling and their fingers are clicking you can place your best converting pages and products in those section.

Here’s an example of a Google.com heatmap, the red areas are where users tend to click the most:

Not only should you understand where users are clicking, you should also optimize your marketing materials for users. Write your pages for people and not for search engines. Engage your readers with exciting information and make sure they understand the importance of your products or information.

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Monitoring Results Against Competing Pages

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Creating checks and balances for your internet marketing optimization plan is just as important as setting marketing plans into motion. Split testing may provide results in the short term however trends change, users move on and it’s up to you to ensure they return. Once you have optimized your web pages and set your ads to timed intervals it’s important to continually monitor the success of those campaigns. If a certain page or product stops converting you may want to check your pages keywords or exact product names against competitor pages, are they using different keywords? Perhaps they are highlighting parts of the product or story you missed? If you’re using Adwords, Yahoo Ads or other ad platforms you may also want to check if your competitors are using ads that appear more engaging or offer a different angle.

Internet Marketing Optimization is not an exact science, even the best split testers and optimization firms are constantly tweaking their campaigns and testing new marketing practices, however by monitoring your ads and product pages and monitoring your competitors you can determine new and exciting ways to pitch your products to potential customers.