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Use split testing for more and cheaper clicks

June 12, 2008

When you create your first ad, don’t stop there and hope for the best, even if the ad appears to be attracting a good number of clicks. There is always room for improvement and AdWords provides plenty of functionality to help you.

Set up a split test

From your current ad, click the Create New Ad: Text Ad link to set up a second ad. It need not be radically different from the original ad. Subtle changes – maybe just replacing one word with another – can make a significant impression on potential visitors. Or you could go to the other extreme and use all new wording.

Google will rotate the original and second ads. All you have to do is compare the clicks and clickthrough rate. Your market will tell you which ad is the better.

Keep testing

When you have acquired enough clicks to be able to make an informed decision, get rid of the weaker ad and create another new ad to repeat the test. In this way you will gradually gain more and more clicks and Google will reward you with reduced costs per click. So you win on two counts!

Making the decision

How will you know when it is time to dispense with one ad and start testing with another? Ideally after the ads have acquired around 30 clicks (or one of them has). If you make the decision any sooner you are more likely to be influenced by chance rather than market opinion. And that could send the test into a downward spiral. Leave it too long and you could be missing out on more custom by running the weaker ad.

To help make that judgement call, two PPC gurus, Perry Marshall and Brian Teasley , have a nice little tool at www.SplitTester.com that will take the stats from the two ads and give a confidence rating on the long-term response rates.

Keeping it all under control

Make a record of every ad you test, including the wording, start and end dates, clickthrough rate and number of clicks. Three reasons:

When comparing two ads, you need to make sure you check the statistics over the same period of time, that is from the start date of the later ad.
You may wish to revert back to an older ad.
You do not want to inadvertently use ad wording that you have already used.

Filed in: Pay Per Click