Advertising on Facebook can be one of the most effective ways to get new leads and grow relationships. But, unless you go in with a plan, you’ll expend a lot of time, energy, and money perfecting your approach. Luckily, Facebook allows you to split test, which means you can test different variables in your marketing campaigns to determine which approaches work best and use that information to inform your future campaigns.
Here are five different split tests you can run on Facebook, along with the potential benefits of each one.
1. Experiment with ad copy
Are you working to improve the copy in your Facebook marketing campaigns? By running the same ad and changing only the language, you’ll get a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. (It’s important when testing that you change only one variable at a time; if you adjust multiple variables at once, there’ll be no telling which one made the difference in your ad.)
While this approach isn’t practical for every ad you’re going to run, it can be useful when you’re first getting into the Facebook ad game. Start with a relatively small ad spend ($5 or $10 a day is sufficient) with the difference in ad copy being the only variable. If there’s a significant difference in engagement, you can replicate the copy changes in future ads. Some of the text you might vary includes the lead copy, link headline, or call to action button.
2. Lead with different visuals
One area where swapping out photos or videos could work in your favor is in branding ads. If you’re sharing a behind-the-scenes photo or video of your business, you could use split testing to find out how audiences react to a serious, inspirational message as opposed to something a little more light-hearted.
As you learn more about what kind of photos your ideal client base responds to, you can continue to refine your approach and optimize your ad images.
3. Use different landing pages
Whether your goal is to drive purchases of a product or encourage sign-ups for an event, like an open house or seminar, you need to ensure you have a rock-solid landing page.
Since you’ll probably be pouring a lot of money into advertising your product or event, it’s a good idea to figure out early on how effective your landing page is. To do this, you can create two (or more) versions and test them against one another.
Leave all other creative, targeting, and placement options the same across both ads. Then, run the ad and see which version of the page gets you the most conversions. Once you see which one is most effective, you can increase your spending on just that version.
4. Market to different target audiences
Are you wondering how your ads might perform if you make a minor shift in certain demographic information?
For example, you might be a real estate agent looking to connect with first-time homebuyers in a certain neighborhood. How would you fare if you raised your age limit slightly, or if you stopped targeting only a specific zip code and expanded your search to an entire town?
By using split testing, you can view the results of your marketing efforts side-by-side, eliminating the need to create extra ads.
5. Test reach vs. impression
Facebook allows you to specify whether to optimize your ads so that they appear in the feeds of the greatest number of users (“reach”) or multiple times for the same person (“impressions”).
There are potential benefits to both approaches. Old-school marketers swear by the “rule of 7,” which suggests that prospects need to encounter your message seven times before they’ll buy and, therefore, favors a push for impressions.
However, suppose you’re a service-based sales professional, like a real estate agent, insurance broker, or financial advisor. The better strategy may be to maximize reach, making it the overall objective of the ad. Why? Because you can cast a wider net to capture more leads that you can then nurture. Ultimately, with enough effort on your part, these potential clients will hear your message far more than the requisite seven times.
But, once again, you won’t know which strategy works best for you until you test. Use Facebook to test both reach and impression and discover which returns a better ROI.
The takeaway
There you have it: five split testing techniques you can start using today to determine which approaches work best for your business. But if this all feels a bit overwhelming, why not let us help?
We can design, run, and track the performance of your Facebook ads for you. Book an appointment with one of our Facebook ads marketing specialists and let us simplify your social media marketing so you can get back to what you do best—running your business.