D on’t Fight the Test
If you don’t have time to test your message, you can’t afford to advertise. A/B testing isn’t an optional part of the process. It is the process. Successful ads do not spring fully formed from the minds of advertisers. Positive results flow from systems. Meticulous, deliberate systems.
Instincts. Confidence. Nostalgia. These are great for defining a starting place. Those are fantastic advantages to bring to the brainstorming whiteboard, but don’t launch a campaign off the strength of anyone’s instinct. A person’s gut feeling about an audience will fail 98% of the time. Ad testing is how we get to the 2% that converts.
This is not an attempt to slow down the process and bleed you for money. We are all in the business of searching for ads that work. If an ad doesn’t work, you’ll stop paying me to run it. That’s not good for me.
Whoever manages your social media advertising takes a piece of your advertising spend. Ad tests are done with small dollar buys. No one’s retiring off 5% of a $40 A/B test. No one profits until we find an ad that delivers. That’s why the relationship between products and advertising works. Our financial interests are aligned.
Instincts will lead to inspiration. Process brings you profits. Listen to your instincts but short circuit the process.
Nick Cotton is a project manager based out of Los Angeles, California. He’s got a background in the entertainment industry, and uses his talent at online messaging to extol the virtues of content marketing, interactive fiction and sentences measuring 280 characters or less.
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