What Metrics Should You Consider?
As you test different aspects of your ads, you need to decide what metrics will define the success of your test. For example, if you’re testing landing pages you’ll need to look at what exactly you want the user to do when they reach the landing page; if this is a conversion such as a purchase, this is the metric for success. However, if you’re testing creative formats, such as carousel ads vs video ads, you might want to consider the click through rate, as this shows how engaged users have been with the ad. Consider the action the user will take and decide which metric is best suited to this. Use the guide below to give you an idea of metrics for different types of tests:
| Test | Metric |
| Creative | Engagement – CTR, clicks |
| Landing pages | Conversions |
| Bidding strategy | Conversions |
| Targeting | CPC, CPM |
| Keywords | Conversions |
| Messaging | Engagement – CTR, clicks |
| Ad placements | Engagement – CTR, clicks |
So overall, A/B testing can be used to continually improve a given experience or goals like conversion rate over time.
For example, a technology company may want to improve their sales lead quality and volume from campaign landing pages. In order to achieve that goal, the team would need to make A/B testing changes to the headline, visual imagery, fields on a lead generation form, call to action and overall layout of the page to see an improvement in campaign performance.
Remember, it’s important to test one change at a time as this helps pinpoint which changes had an effect on your metric being tested, and which ones did not. Over time, you can combine the effect of multiple successful changes from experiments to demonstrate the measurable improvement of a new experience over the old one.
Funnel optimisation and A/B testing is all about trial and error! Test, test, and test some more to see a positive difference in your results. And remember – even if all your experiments aren’t successful or don’t help you achieve your objective – it’s the learnings that you’re after. Making a note of what didn’t work is equally as important as making a note of your wins!
