This is a test; Only a test

Testing Your Way to Success

One of the beautiful things about Google AdWords is it allows us to test up to three ads against each other at the same time. And the system automatically shows the ads an equal number of times. That means if you do a keyword search on a term you are bidding on, then hit the refresh button on your browser three times you will see each of your ads.

Why is this important?

What I've found is that what I think is most interesting or unique or clever in an ad I write is rarely what the market says is best! Essentially it takes the guess work, and my ego, out of the process.

If you continually write ad variations, you will be in a constant state of improvement. You don't have to be a copywriting genius to write effective ads; you just have to test!

How to do it.

This is very important, simple as it will seem after I explain the process.

In any scientific experiment you must have a control. In this case, your control is always the ad that has performed best to date. You NEVER want to get rid of that ad!

2 Ads or 3?

You have the option of creating 1 or 2 additional ads to compete with your control. If you have a good control and you just want boost CTRs, only test one ad against it. That means your best ad will show 50% of the time, versus only 33% if you have two test ads running against it.

What to test?

Your ad has 3 parts. 1. Your title 2. Your description and 3. Your URL

You only want to change one component at a time. If you want to test a different title, do not change any other element in your ad! Why? Because if you change additional elements, you won't know if it was the new title that made the difference - or changes to the description!

For example, here are two ads I ran recently. See if you can guess which produced the best CTR . . .

Got High Cholesterol?
Natural, Effective, and Guaranteed.
Act Now - Instant Download - $29.97
60DaysToLowerCholesterol.com

Lower Your Cholesterol
Natural, Effective, and Guaranteed.
Act Now - Instant Download - $29.97
60DaysToLowerCholesterol.com

I wanted to see if people were more motivated to move toward what they wanted (Lower Your Cholesterol), or away from what they didn't want (Got High Cholesterol?). You will notice everything else about these ads is identical.

And the Results . . .

"Lower Your Cholesterol" beat "Got High Cholesterol?" by nearly 2 to 1 - that's a 1.3% CTR versus a 0.7% CTR. Which also meant a lower cost per click.

So, we'd think that based on these results we should avoid the phrase "High Cholesterol". Right?

Nope.

The next test, put "Lower Your Cholesterol" versus "High Cholesterol Solution".

And the results of that test . . .
Lower Your Cholesterol - 1.3%
High Cholesterol Solution - 2.1%

One can really only speculate about why people click the ads they click. And over time, you will develop an instinctual hunch that leads you in a certain direction. But the only way to know for sure is to ask. And with Google Adwords, the asking essentially boils down to offering people the chance to click on, or to vote for, the ad they find most compelling AND RELEVANT to their needs.

I hope you find this insightful and profitable.

Best wishes, John

My little test - You can ignore
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