When it comes to advertising on Meta, your creative assets are a crucial part of your campaign. Even if everything else is set up perfectly, poor creative assets can cause what would otherwise be a well-performing campaign to be a failure. So, how do you know what assets will work best? Well, you don’t. That’s where testing comes in.
The Importance of Testing
There is no single solution for what your creative assets should consist of. What works for one product or brand, may be an utter failure for another. You may have an idea of what your audience will like, but there really is no guarantee until you try. This is why testing is so important. Through trial and error you can discover exactly which creative assets your audience responds to. With proper testing, you will end up with the best performing ads, which will lead to a noticeable increase in conversions.
Our Testing Methodology
To the untrained eye, testing may seem like it’s just trying as many different ideas as possible and seeing what sticks. This is not the case. Testing should be done deliberately and with great care. In order to ensure we stick to this scientific attitude, we have created our own methodology for testing creative assets. This methodology will help keep you on track and consists of three phases.
Phase One: Exploration
The exploration phase is where you can take some risks. We call this the exploration phase because we are exploring what message resonates with the audience and what will capture their attention. At this point, we are not focused on generating conversions. Instead, we are looking for assets that generate high CTRs, and low CPCs and CPMs. This helps us to understand what captures attention and triggers the user to find out more. Spend should be set extremely low in this phase to avoid burning through your budget unnecessarily. Eventually, once we feel that we have gained enough insight, this phase comes to an end.
Phase Two: Conversion-Based Testing
In this phase, we really want to see how well the new assets perform. We take the winners from phase one, meaning the creatives that produced the desired metrics mentioned above, and launch them in our already existing campaign. This allows them to compete against old assets to see how they stack up.
Phase Three: Optimization
When we reach this point, our goal is to scale. We turn off non-performing ads, meaning ads that have low conversion metrics, and we scale the best performing ads. This ensures that we are only spending our budget on ads that are generating revenue.
Phase three never really ends. We should always be working to optimize our Meta ads to ensure that they are still generating conversions, allowing us to stay competitive in the marketplace. If you notice performance is slipping, it is time to go back to phase one and start testing yet again!
Examples of What to Test
We keep talking about testing different things in your ads, but what exactly do we mean by that? Well, when it comes to creative assets there are two main things you can change: visuals and messaging.
Testing Different Values
When it comes to the visual aspect of your Meta ads, there are a number of different options to choose from. First, you’ll have to decide on what format of image you want to use. The choices include:
- GIFs
- Still Image
- Carousels
- Video
You will then have to choose the actual content of the image. You could go with lifestyle, showing people using/wearing your product in everyday life. These are great for storytelling, and they help shoppers see themselves using your product. On the other hand, you could go with a simple product image, which just shows your product up close. This can be great for showing the details of your product, and what makes it different from competitors.
So, of all of these options, which ones are best? Unfortunately, there’s no-one-size-fits-all answer for that. Which visual creatives work is going to be different for every brand, and even for every individual product within the same brand. You’ll have to test to find out what works for yours.
Testing Different Messaging
There are many different angles from which you can approach your messaging. It can be informative, humorous, professional, casual, or any combination of these. You’ll be surprised just how much of a difference a change in copy can make when it comes to the performance of your ad.
Just like with images, there is no one answer for the type of messaging that works best. Try out different tones and content in your copy to learn what type of messaging works best for your brand and products.
A/B Testing for Meta Ads
When testing different iterations of a Meta ad, you’ll likely have a lot of ideas. Maybe you have an idea for some new copy, as well as a new image you want to try out. You might be tempted to make both changes and test the new ad. This is a mistake. Instead try A/B testing. This is making a version of the ad with one change (e.g. changing the copy), and then seeing how it performs compared to the unaltered version. This allows you to know exactly what changed the ad’s performance. Let’s say you didn’t use A/B testing, and instead made multiple changes to the ad, such as a different image and different copy. The ad then performs better. Great, right? No, because you will have no idea which change was responsible for the better performance, meaning you really haven’t gained any insight into what works with your audience. This is why we always recommend using A/B testing, and only changing one thing at a time.
Need Help Testing Creative Assets for Meta?
The testing process can be a lot to take on by yourself. If you feel like you could use some support in this arena, Rise Marketing Group would be happy to help. We’re specialists in designing and testing creative assets to find the most effective ads for your brand. Click here to go to our ecommerce services page and fill out the contact form. We’ll get in touch as soon as possible to see how we can help!
