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How Do You Identify the Best Ad Copy?
Testing ad copy is the best way to continually iterate and optimize your PPC campaigns. But how do you know which ad copy is truly the most effective?
Should you be looking at clicks? Conversions? Making a total guess?
The answer’s a mix of the above (minus the last one, of course).
Below we explain the best formula to use when reporting on your ad copy testing, so you know what’s working—and what’s not.
The Best Formula for Ad Copy Testing
The best formula for finding the best ad copy is: CTR * Conversion Rate * 1000
Yes, that’s really it. It’s common to make the mistake of looking only at click-through rate, or only at the conversion rate. But in reality, you need to be looking at both of them. Here’s why.
If your success metric is only CTR, it’s too easy to increase click-through rates with crazy ad copies. This will bring in a ton of clicks, but you’ll end up overpromising and underdelivering. As a result, this tactic won’t necessarily increase conversions in the long run.
A good example would be advertising your high-end watch as “Luxury Watches for a Fraction of the Cost” but then shocking customers with the sticker price on the landing page.
If you switch to looking solely at Conversion Rate, though, you’ll still miss out on opportunities to otherwise improve ad performance. You might whittle down your ad copy to be the most accurate as possible, thereby disqualifying people who may have ended up converting once they were persuaded by your stellar landing page.
For example, if you changed your ad copy to “The Best Watch for Those Who Can Spend $400 Today,” you might lose out on some people who get initially scared off by the price.
For the best results, we recommend looking at a combination of the two. At Your Marketing People, we use the CTR * Conversion Rate * 1000 formula to determine the winning ad copy. (We throw in the 1000 to make the reports easier to look at.)
Here’s an example of this formula in action:
If we looked only at CTR, we would have chosen Ad B as the winner. But that would have been the wrong choice. Even though Ad A has a slightly lower CTR, it more than makes up for it with a higher conversion rate and a lower cost-per-conversion. Ad A performs significantly better overall when you factor in conversion rate. With Ad A, we can spend more to drive more conversions and more revenue.
4 Best Practices to Follow When Testing Ad Copy
To make sure this formula works its magic, follow these best practices when testing your ad copy:
- Label everything clearly and use the same naming conventions. We don’t actually call things Ad A and Ad B. Instead we identify them by descriptive names that make sense to our team at a glance. This makes analyzing the reporting a much quicker process.
- Make note of your testing period start and end dates. If you’re testing a new ad against a control, make sure to only compare the results for the control ad during the same date range.
- Make sure your ads reach statistical significance. To accurately determine a winner, you want to test for the right amount of time (usually no more than 30 days). Test for too long and seasonality can begin to bleed in and affect the results.
- Share the results with others for stronger results across your marketing organization. One of the main differences between Ad A and Ad B was that we added a clear “Contact Us Today!” call-to-action. We could share that information with other teams, like those that manage video or blog content, to ensure people are actively testing strong CTAs with their copy.
Finding Your Best Ad Copy with a Winning Formula
This formula seems easy at first glance, but as your ad sets grow to the dozens (or hundreds), it can quickly become difficult to manage. Let our proven methodology help you out. Our paid search team loves getting in the weeds and making sense of everything for you in our easy-to-understand reports. Learn more about our data-driven paid search services and get your free marketing assessment today.
