The Power of Testing! – All Things PPC Podcast Ep8
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The Power of Testing! – All Things PPC Podcast Ep8
Testing in Digital Marketing: The Secret Weapon to Campaign Success
The world of digital marketing can feel like a whirlwind. You’re constantly bombarded with new tactics, platforms, and trends. But amidst all the noise, one principle remains constant: testing is king.
Why? Because the beauty of digital marketing lies in its measurability. Unlike traditional marketing channels, you can precisely track the performance of your campaigns, down to the tiniest detail. This opens a treasure trove of opportunity for continuous improvement.
The All Things PPC Podcast: Testing Your Way to the Top
In our latest episode, Chris Stott and Dan Trotter, the co-founders of PPC Geeks, delve into the world of testing in digital marketing. They answer all your burning questions, including:
- What is testing in digital marketing?
- Why are tests important?
- How do you conduct effective tests?
- What elements of your campaigns should you test?
The Power of Testing: Unlocking Hidden Potential
Testing isn’t just about tweaking a few headlines or ad copy. It’s a systematic approach to identifying what works and what doesn’t in your digital marketing strategy. By running controlled experiments, you can gain valuable insights into:
- Audience preferences: What kind of messaging resonates best with your target audience?
- Campaign optimization: Are your landing pages converting visitors into leads or sales?
- Platform performance: Which platforms are delivering the best results for your budget?
- Creative effectiveness: What kind of visuals and calls to action grab attention and drive engagement?
Testing Done Right: A Recipe for Success
Not all tests are created equal. Here are some key ingredients for setting up effective tests:
- Clearly defined goals: What are you hoping to achieve with your test?
- Isolated variables: Focus to test one element at a time to isolate the true impact.
- Statistical significance: Ensure your sample size is large enough to draw reliable conclusions.
- Data-driven decisions: Let the data guide your optimization efforts, not guesswork.
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment!
The best part about tests in digital marketing? It’s a continuous process. As you learn and iterate, your campaigns become more effective over time. So, don’t be afraid to experiment! Embrace a culture of testing within your organization and watch your digital marketing efforts soar.
Ready to take your marketing to the next level?
- Tune in to the latest episode of the All Things PPC Podcast for a deep dive into test strategies.
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Let’s unlock the true potential of your digital marketing efforts together!
Timestamps
- 00:00 – Introduction: Dan and Chris introduce the episode and discuss the importance of advertising spend, with examples ranging from £1,000 a month to £1,000 an hour.
- 05:30 – Big Changes for Big Results: Dan mentions that while small tests are useful, bigger changes are sometimes needed to see significant results.
- 08:15 – Strategic Thinking: Chris talks about the importance of stepping back to consider overall strategy and business objectives rather than focusing solely on metrics.
- 12:45 – Testing Strategy: Discussions on what to test, why to test, and starting with small tests to gather preliminary data.
- 18:00 – Testing Limitations: Covering constraints like low budget or insufficient data that can limit the scope of testing.
- 22:10 – Collaborative Approach: The potential benefits of working with partners to share the workload and generate fresh ideas.
- 30:00 – Metrics to Focus On: Chris highlights the importance of conversions per impression over clicks, contrary to Google’s focus on clicks for revenue.
- 35:45 – Buyer Journey and Conversion Tracking: Discussion on understanding the full buyer journey and the importance of accurate conversion tracking.
- 45:00 – A/B Testing Basics: Explanation of A/B testing elements, including splitting traffic randomly and ensuring statistical significance.
- 50:30 – Digital Ad Strategy Changes: How Google’s AI now automates much of the ad testing, compiling different headlines and descriptions.
- 55:00 – Common Mistakes in Testing: Dan and Chris discuss common pitfalls in testing, such as testing too many elements simultaneously and testing bias.
Notable Quotes
- Dan on Big Changes: “Significant changes can be necessary for achieving major results.”
- Chris on Strategic Thinking: “It’s crucial to step back and consider the overall strategy and business objectives rather than solely focusing on the metrics.”
- Dan on Testing Strategy: “Start with small tests to understand what to test and why, and then move on to bigger tests for larger data sets.”
- Chris on Metrics: “Conversions per impression are far more critical than just focusing on clicks, which Google prioritizes for their revenue.”
- Dan on Digital Marketing Advantage: “Digital marketing provides data for precise testing and tracking, helping marketers know which efforts are effective.”
- Chris on Buyer Journey: “Understanding the complete buyer journey and motivations is key to measuring and optimizing marketing effectiveness.”
- Dan on A/B Testing: “Proper A/B testing involves running two (or more) variants simultaneously and requires significant data and duration to avoid false positives.”
Do small tests, they’re hugely valuable. But also if you want big results, then sometimes you do just have to make big changes.
Hello. I am here today with Dan, who is the co founder here at PPC Geeks. How are you doing?
Hi, Chris. I’m very well, thank you. Very well. How are you?
I’m good, thank you. So today I thought Dan would be the perfect person to talk about testing because Dan definitely has a great background in testing. Over two decades now. We’re revealing our ages there a bit.
Yeah.
So testing is one of the key tenants of digital marketing and doing it properly. So we just thought that would be a great way to explore both at a high level conceptually what testing means and why it’s so important, and maybe some of the ideas of the kind of things people should be testing and what they should look out for. So to that end, what does testing mean to you in a digital ads context? What’s it all about?
We’ll just quickly show. Jump in there if you will. So, yeah, the whole reason to have a test is because you’re trying to, you’re trying to, you’re trying to do something. So just first of all, know what you tested and why you test in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because otherwise. Oh, well, we’ll just. Yeah, we’ll change the color of the button to blue. But why. So, yes, it makes you, you definitely know what you’re testing and why. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree with that.
And then another thing is that because, I mean, you can be spending. Some people will be spending £1,000amonth on ads, some people will be spending £1,000 an hour on ads and more. What would you say about needing to have to. If you want to get a big result, you have to make big changes, don’t you? What would you say about that?
Yeah, we kind of flies a little bit in the face of what we just previously said. So I don’t want to contradict it too badly. But first of all, obviously, don’t test too many things. Make sure you know what you’re testing and why and do small tests. They’re hugely valuable. But also, if you want big results, then sometimes you do just have to make big changes. Okay, you know, every now and then try and rewrite the book. You know, if you were doing it all today from scratch, what would it look like? And if that’s different from what you currently got and you honestly believe that this new test could work for once you’ve done your research and you know, you know, your customers, et cetera, then, then, yeah, test it, trial it, see if it works. Because if you want big results, sometimes you just need to put your big boy pants on and do some big tests.
Yeah, it’s a good point. It might seem paradoxical, but that’s why you’ve got to, you’ve got to take a step back from just doing the clicking about in Google Ads or meta or whatever and actually say, what’s the strategy here? What’s the business objectives? What are we trying to achieve? And that’s that’s the key differentiator between just, you know, an in house team or a lower level agency just clicking about and trying to improve vanity metrics versus strategically looking at the whole piece. I guess I think the final thing to say is that just because we’ve got this always be testing mentality, which is true, and we’re always doing that, it doesn’t mean that you should Everything is to be tested all the time. You should be always testing something. But at some points things just aren’t testable. The budget’s too low. The key there’s too many different products and the keywords are too, there’s too many variants. They’re not getting enough impressions. So really that’s about focusing in on the right things and testing the right things within the resources and budgets you have. Or, you know, working with a partner who can integrate with you and take some of that burden off you and suggest some ideas and always having that fresh approach. What we’ve wanted to cover today is to have the principles of testing and why we do it. We could easily do an episode on every single one of these elements and more, but I think that’s a great overview. So thanks for your time today and your expertise and we’ll see you on another podcast soon.
Thank you very much. Take care.