Gathering and analyzing data on consumer behavior and feedback is key to creating advertising and marketing content that resonates with target audiences. Once agency or in-house marketing teams have this needed information, they can craft ad copy, emails, blog posts and other content to draw prospects into their sales and marketing funnel, then A/B test the results and fine-tune their efforts.
As consumer behavior and sentiment shift, split tests can be run and materials modified to better speak to the needs and desires of prospective customers or clients. To better illustrate this dynamic, the members of Forbes Agency Council share some of the latest tweaks they’ve made to campaigns based on A/B testing and/or consumer insights. Check out their observations and results below.
Forbes Agency Council members discuss how to use A/B testing and consumer insights to tweak campaigns.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Change The Order Of Facebook Carousel Ads
We’ve A/B tested to gain insights on creative and our messaging. A most recent test returned statistically significant changes in performance based on the order of our Facebook carousel ads. The difference was attributed to the change in our order and not to chance. The tweak was made to the order of our creative assets, and something that seemed so small returned more than a 25% increase in click-through rates. – Russ Williams, Archer Malmo
2. Know What Clients Define As A ‘Qualified Lead’
Customer insights drive change when A/B testing. Understanding what clients want and what they react to visually and verbally is key. Drilling down on how the client defines a qualified lead is also key. Learning needs to come from both directions. We have learned to inspect both sides to, ultimately, get higher quality leads faster. – Fran Biderman-Gross, Advantages
3. Adjust Target Audiences For Programmatic Video
For a recent programmatic video campaign, a multinational quick-service restaurant client wanted to reach consumers interested in healthy lunch and dinner options, especially those high in protein. Based on consumer feedback, we adjusted by using our context-targeting technology to target women and those in the age range of 25 to 36, and both found smaller sandwich sizes and high protein appealing. We beat our goal with an 83% video completion rate. – Lon Otremba, Bidtellect
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4. Tweak Your Media Mix To Appeal To A Target Demographic
Use a mix of online and offline media to reach a senior demographic. Seniors range widely in their media consumption habits. And since the pandemic, seniors have become more tech-savvy, embracing connected TV and streaming audio over these channels’ traditional counterparts. Be sure to keep up with the ever-evolving behaviors of your target audience and mirror your media accordingly. – Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
5. A/B Test The First Image In A Campaign Email
We A/B tested several campaigns for a dress shop, testing the first image in the email as either a static image or an animated GIF that rotated through three different styles. We were attentive to keeping the file size small so that the email would still load quickly. Emails with the simple animation had an open rate that was four times higher and a conversion rate that was twice as high. We now create them for every email. – Douglas Karr, Highbridge
6. Test The User Experience On Landing Page Forms
Experimentation and testing of the user experience with landing page forms is usually the largest area of improvement we find when we onboard a new client. It’s astonishing how much money is being pumped into delivering poor user experiences. – Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync & EPL Digital
7. Split Test Multiple Calls To Action On E-Commerce Sites
Split testing is core to digital marketing success. For example, one of our clients used the call to action “Order now” to drive their e-commerce shop traffic. After A/B testing multiple CTAs, we learned “Purchase now” drove significantly more traffic. This CTA change alone increased transactions by nearly 200% compared to “Order now.” – Becca Apfelstadt, treetree
8. Check Conversion Rates For Special Landing Pages
We created a special landing page for a client that basically forced the visitor to send an email or make a call, which is a very common strategy. We were surprised to find that the ads that sent visitors to the homepage had a higher conversion rate. We scrapped the special landing page and inserted the homepage. You must interpret the data and make informed adjustments to campaigns. – T. Maxwell, eMaximize
9. Alter Messaging To Better Incentivize Action
The last tweak we made to a campaign was to alter messaging. Ultimately, our campaigns must speak to the buyer, which means addressing them with the right message to incentivize action. We focus extensively on these messaging changes to improve conversion rates. – Jonathan Franchell, Ironpaper
10. Test And Tweak Newsletter Content To Drive Interest
Crafting our agency newsletter has been filled with testing to determine the type of content our readers are looking for from a public relations agency and tweaking accordingly. We do this for our clients on a regular basis, but taking the time to do that for our own communications has led us to insights that have allowed us to tailor our communications to best drive interest and engagement. – David Harrison, EVINS
11. Compare The CPC Of Display Ads Against That Of Native Ads
We tested display ads using relevant display networks for our audience (lawyers) for the first time. The cost per click was incredibly high, and the conversions were low. Switching to native ads halfway through made a significant difference in the CPC. People prefer a soft sell. If you can’t give them something to solve a pain point within your ad, go back to the drawing board. – Alex Valencia, We Do Web
12. Test Conversion Messages For Precision And Clarity
When advertising, most users need to be told what to do, whether that be “hey, look at this,” “click here” or “sign up.” We had a client send us a very generic ad that didn’t have a clear conversion message. After showing them the 30-day ad metrics, they were open to us editing for a clearer purpose. Be precise in your advertising and be clear on why a user should care. – David Kley, Web Design and Company
13. Compare Client-Driven Creative Against Audience-Centric Executions
We tested two creative executions—one based on what the client wanted to say to their audience and one based on what research indicated the audience needed to hear—which resulted in competing messaging. Of course, the audience-centric creative drastically outperformed the client-driven creative. – Jeremy Jackson, SKY Marketing Consultants, LLC
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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
