How can we help you?
How can we help you?
In this article, we'll show you how to:
Creative testing is a built-in Platform feature that gives you the confidence and control you need to make smarter decisions about your creatives. It allows you to easily compare the performance of one creative to another, giving you valuable real-world data you can use to improve your campaign strategy.
You can use the A/B testing tool to choose from a number of criteria by which to test your creatives. For example, you can compare them by conversions & impressions, clicks & impressions, Return On Investment (ROI), and many more. Once you've chosen your settings, you'll be able to use the A/B Testing filter in the main Creatives grid to check the status of your creatives at any time. You can filter for Winner, Loser, or a Draw. You can also use the View Builder to bring the A/B Test column into the grid and see the per-creative results at-a-glance.
Note that to get the best results from creative testing, we recommend that you have your ads set to Do Not Optimize: Rotate ads indefinitely in your group-level settings. To learn more about ad rotation settings, check out our article Ad Rotation Options with Google.
When determining Winners and Losers within an ad group, the Platform will check the selected criteria (e.g. Conversions / Impressions) for each creative, then compare the result against the average for the other creatives in the group. If there is a statistical difference between a creative and the group average, that creative will be marked as a Winner or Loser. If there's no statistical difference, it'll be marked as a Draw.
Note: A draw can also mean that there's not yet enough data for the Platform to declare a winner; for example, if the thresholds or confidence level haven't been met.
When setting up your creative testing, you'll notice the Confidence Level section of the settings page.
It works like this: When comparing a creative against the average of all other creatives in the group, the Platform will use your chosen Confidence Level to determine if there is a significant difference or not. The Platform uses an algorithm known as the Student's T-test to calculate the statistical confidence level between two values (for example, the conversion rate of two creatives). If you're not sure about this setting, we recommend leaving it at the default value of 90%.
Before we dive into the details of setting up your Creative Test, let's take a look at a few best practices.
Note: Any differences between ads will cause Marin to see these ads as distinct for testing purposes. This includes capitalization in headlines.
Join a member of the Marin Software team as we explain how to use the Platform's creative testing tool to make better decisions about your campaigns and the creatives you're using in them.
Click the play button to get started. (Length: 3:22).
There are two parts to using creative testing with the Platform: A/B testing setup and analyzing the results. We'll go through each of these below.
The first thing to do in order to use creative testing with your campaigns is to set up the testing criteria. To do that, just follow these simple steps:
Once your creative test has been running for your chosen period of time, it's time to check the results. You can do this from the main Creatives grid in a couple of different ways. We'll explain each of these below.
You can also use the View Builder to see the results of your creative testing live in the grid. Just follow these steps:
Sometimes the best way to learn is to simply try something out for yourself, which is why we created the interactive section below. It's a totally non-live environment which gives you the chance to try out creative testing without having to make any changes to your data. Your progress won't be recorded and everything is off the books, so feel free to take your time.
Get started by clicking below.
This Training article gives you everything you need to know to begin using creative testing with the Platform, but there's still more to learn. Below we've linked a few related articles that may provide added insight as well as some troubleshooting help too.
Click a link to read the article now.