Creative testing

Definition

Creative testing compares two or more ad creatives under similar conditions to find which one does better on a chosen metric before more budget goes behind it. A test is only useful when one variable changes and the success measure is written down before the test starts.

How to use it

A useful test changes one thing at a time, such as the first three seconds of a video, the headline or the offer. If the image, the copy and the audience all change, a winning result cannot be traced to any one of them. Set the metric first, for example cost per purchase or hook rate, and set the stop rule, such as a minimum number of purchases or a fixed number of days.

Give each variant a budget that can produce a readable result. A test that spends a small amount for a day gives a number that is mostly noise. Record every test in a log with the hypothesis, the variants, the dates, the budget and the decision, so the team learns from results that were not winners too.