At Primer, running ad tests is our niche. It’s the best and fastest way to grow. But what exactly do we test for our agency partners? Here’s what we test on ads (and what we recommend you test, too)!
Test Images and Videos
The most important thing to test is ad creative. According to a Meta study, it’s the biggest lever for growth. Creative fatigue causes winning ads to go stale, so it’s important to test new ad creative so you have fresh winners before your current winners phase out
Even beyond that, you have to test to find the winning ads. You can test brand new big ideas, such as emphasizing different value propositions, calling out a specific audience in the creative (ex: Mom Hack #4), or just using a fresh visual look. You can also test smaller, more iterative changes, like video thumbnails or hooks and image headlines or color schemes.
For a full list of things to test for both big ideas and small iterations, check out: What To Test on Your Social Media Ads: Big Ideas vs. Small Iterations.
Test Ad Copy
While ad creative may be the biggest growth lever, high-quality copy can still be the difference between run-of-the-mill performance and massive wins. With ad copy tests, we make various:
- Headlines
- Description copy
- CTAs
However, we recommend only testing one at a time to see which one drives the biggest impact. For example, pair videos with description copy that’s only 1-2 lines long, testing multiple variations of the copy. Make sure to keep the headlines and CTAs the same on each variation to fully target the description copy.
Here are 25+ ways to write ad copy and why they work.
Test Landing Pages
Getting clicks on your ads is only half the battle. You need conversions. That’s where testing your landing pages comes in.
Landing pages have to sell fast since users will decide in seconds whether the product can solve their problems. Testing landing pages will allow you to find the best order, visual content, and written content to get the best conversion rates.
Make sure your landing pages speak directly to the customer, give specifics, address their problems and needs, and have actionable CTAs and scannable headlines.
Test Audiences
Audience testing is particularly strategic. The end goal is to have a plethora of audiences that have been tried and tested so you can find new copy and creative wins more quickly. In the same way that your audience will react differently to different creative, audience brainstorming is also ongoing and not always very straight-forward.
You’ll need to think critically about your persona’s problems and goals and the lifestyle, interests, choices, technologies, etc. that would lead to or are associated with these problems and goals.
Your findings from audience testing can then inform your copy and creative and vice versa. In some cases, your best audience’s common interests or qualities may not actually relate to your product at all. For example, maybe you sell cleaning products, and your best converting audience is Virgos. Be sure to think and test outside of the box!
Test More, Win More
By testing these 5 core elements, you’ll be poised for fast and strategic growth! But make sure you’re testing the right way. Now that you know what to test, download the Outlier Method to learn how.
No time to do all this testing yourself? That’s what we’re here for. Find out how you can start hitting your goals faster with our high-volume ad testing strategy. ↓
