March 17, 2025
What is A/B Testing in PPC?
A/B testing (split testing) is a crucial part of PPC optimisation. It is the process of comparing two variations against each other to see what performs best. This can range from ad copy, to landing pages, creative assets and much more. This process aids in data driven decision making. It takes part of the guesswork out of PPC.
Key Elements You Can A/B Test in PPC Ads
a) Headlines & Ad Copy
Engaging with your audience is key, hooking them in with your ad copy can increase CTR and prevent leakage to your competitors. Testing what works best for your audience is a starting point for optimising your campaigns. Adjusting to trends or the pain points of your viewers ensures your campaigns don’t stagnate or plateau. AB testing can include the slightest change from a full stop to an exclamation point, or a complete change of ad copy or tone of voice.
b) Display URLs & Call-to-Action (CTA)
Display URLs give your audience an idea of what they can expect on your landing page. Making sure this is accurate to the theme of the ad you are creating is key to boosting CTR. AB testing this can allow you to see whether a longer tail version is better than a short and sweet one. The right CTA can be a primary part of ensuring your ads convert. Whether you are pushing your audience to learn more or shop now, making sure you are fitting the right pain point for your audience is a stepping stone to increasing conversions.
c) Landing Pages
Finding the right landing page is fundamental to boosting conversions and ROI. Testing different landing page designs and messaging can be used to boost engagement with the page, time on page and pushing them further down the conversion funnel.
A slow load speed, form placement, and content can all affect conversion rates on your website; testing and improving these aspects can have a big impact on your campaigns and your return on ad spend.
d) Ad Extensions
Extensions are used to boost CTR, increase engagement and provide further information to your audience. Testing variations in sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, etc is a great way to see what interests your viewers and what information can be replaced and tested with other options. Keeping ads as relevant as possible is crucial to boosting performance and conversions.
e) Audience Targeting & Bidding Strategies
Another option is testing different audience segments for better engagement. The audience you might think of as wanting your services/products, might actually be different to those searching for you. Testing allows you to find targeting avenues that you hadn’t thought of before and ensuring these are fully utilised.
Bid strategies can also be tested to understand what works best for your campaigns. For instance you can experiment with utilising manual vs automated bidding.
How to Set Up a Successful A/B Test in PPC
When AB testing, choose one element to test at a time. This ensures that external factors are reduced when comparing the results, giving you a clearer picture of what option is best to proceed with. Defining a clear hypothesis (e.g., “Does a stronger CTA improve CTR?”) can help to ask further questions, get answers and determine future experiments.
Testing with equal budgets makes sure that the results aren’t swayed by costs. Variants should have a 50/50 split during the run time. Also ensure that the test runs long enough to see a clear winner and loser, statistically significant data is needed rather than guesswork.
Common A/B Testing Mistakes to Avoid
Thinking of trying an AB test on your account? Make sure not to test too many variables at once. Allow enough time to see meaningful results within your variants. AB testing isn’t a race, it can take time so make sure you are patient. If you have past data, make sure to leverage this to inform your experiments and the hypothesis that you have made.
Conclusion
AB testing is a crucial building block for long term PPC success. Continual optimisation and campaign improvement is vital for keeping up with the times and not allowing your campaigns to stagnate. Need help optimising your PPC ads? Contact us today!
