I’m going to show you how to make more efficient use of your Marketing budget, and it rhymes with Message Testing. Oh wait, I did that wrong.
LOL I spoiled it, we’re talking about Message Testing, it’s importance, the data to support WHY it works, and HOW you can properly test your ads.
1️⃣. But Wait, What Is Message Testing?
Okay it’s Q3, the company has set some high goals for pipeline generation for the Sales team and it’s on you and your Marketing team to help them hit those goals.
But there’s a catch, your budget is about as thin as a slice of New York pizza. 🍕🍕🍕
The massive paid campaign your team was ideating is suddenly limited and now you’re scrambling. On top of that, you have 6 different ad concepts, different copy, different creative, and you don’t know which ones to ship. Each dollar spent is incredibly valuable, you can’t risk running ads that don’t influence your target customer, because THAT WOULD BE WASTED AD SPEND.
So you turn to message testing.
Which involves evaluating your ad messaging (before launching them) by presenting them to a sample group that accurately reflects your target audience. And the crown jewel will be the feedback on your ads you get from running these tests.
Simple as that.
2️⃣. Where Can I Run Message Testing?
There are TONS of different tools you can use to get preliminary data from your target audience about which ads were highest performing.
You can test ad messaging on your target audience BEFORE you run campaigns, and you can get results in under 6 hours.
Go to any of these brand’s sites, play around with their products and there’s NO excuse not to be testing your ads before shipping them.
3️⃣. What Types of Message Testing Can I Run?
Single ad group testing: This type of message testing is exactly as it sounds. You show one isolated group a single ad idea, and get feedback. You show a second isolated group your second ad idea, and get feedback. You show a third isolated group your third ad idea…You get the point.
Show isolated groups ONE SINGLE ad and gather their feedback. This is typically the test with the best response rate.
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Multi ad group testing: This style of message testing is where you show those isolated groups a sequence of ALL of your ad ideas, and then gather feedback. You switch the order of Q’s and presentation of ads, but each group gets to see ALL of the ads.
This is the ad testing style that will be most efficient for you as the Marketer, but they’re typically way lower response rate.
In the specific scenario I mentioned earlier in the email, I’d run with a multi ad group testing in a heartbeat, and the feedback is PRICELESS.
4️⃣. Why Message Test?
We’re tight on budget? Remember? Message testing through multiple paid ads with a small budget is a game-changer for honing your audience engagement strategy and messaging strategy for your audience.
It’s not just about crafting compelling content. It’s about ensuring that your messaging resonates at every touchpoint. By running a series of cost-effective ads, you can quickly identify which messages hit home with your audience.
Once you find the right messaging, the benefits trickle down across all your marketing efforts—improving your landing pages, email campaigns, and overall brand consistency. This approach ensures you’re driving higher conversion rates and maintaining relevance in every interaction.
5️⃣. The Best Ads Do This:
The best ads lean into your brand’s unique value props.
The best ads are clear and eloquent. No fancy wording. 💅
The best ads move consumers to a second step. Tell the viewer what action to take.
The best ads innovate upon the wheel. If an existing ad creative is crushing, don’t ditch it, ride your winners.
The best ads are rooted in research. Don’t let ignorance cloud impact, there’s no assuming you know what your customer wants, get in the field and LEARN WHAT THEY WANT.
The best ads now leverage generative AI. Idea generation, simplifying research, and overcoming writer’s block, AI is helping top performing Marketers with it all when it comes to creating content (ads especially). And there’s tons of resources out there help you leverage AI, my fav tho is this one from HubSpot.
The best ads are TESTED before going live.
