A/B testing for Highly Effective Facebook Ads

One of our recent assignments was to take the lead on a Facebook advertising campaign for a client who wanted to drive brand awareness, boost website traffic, and increase email sign-ups.

Using A/B testing, we did just that. Take a look at the month’s reports through Hubspot that prove it:

Website visits jumped 58%.

Lead generation (email contacts collected) went up by 162%.

So what’s A/B testing?

A/B testing is the testing of different versions of a piece of content to see which one is most effective with the target audience.

With this Facebook advertising campaign, a clear winner was the version that got the highest engagement levels and the most website clicks, as these were our objectives for the campaign.

To find our winner, we created 4 different versions of the same ad, but with slight variations. It looked like this:

Version 1: Standard copy/standard image

Version 2: Standard copy/different image

Version 3: Different copy/standard image

Version 4: Different copy/different image

Testing different combinations of copy and images allowed us to see which one was most effective with the target audience and helps up learn how to create better ads in the future (based on those findings.)

Variations

The different image and different copy we used offered something distinctive in comparison to the standard versions.

For the test copy, we took a different angle and spoke to a different motivator than we did in the standard version.

The test image was more zoomed in and had warmer tones than the standard image.

Findings

Through our testing, we found that one version in particular was far outperforming the others (Version 4) at the end of one week.  It had 3x the amount of engagement and website clicks than all other versions.

Elimination

Because our testing pointed to a solid winner, we then turned off all three other versions and let the rest of the ad budget run through on just the ad that was most effective.

This ensures that the best possible version of the ad is the one that gets to use up the remaining ad dollars.

Results

Thanks to this successful campaign, the client was able to see a dramatic increase in website traffic and in their list of email subscribers just in the first 10 days of the campaign.

With these new email addresses collected, they can continue the conversation in email communications and move their new contacts down the sales funnel.

Therefore, these people who initially discovered them through a Facebook ad and filled out a form can become sales (and even repeat customers!)

Want help with your next Facebook ad campaign, too? Let's talk.

Five Things a Social Media Manager Does Every Day

At Lumen, we do a lot more than offer social media consulting and management.

But today, I wanted to give some insight into a few of the day-to-day tasks we do involving social media management.

1. Managing engagements.

Social media is all about being social, so actively participating in conversations is essential to a healthy online presence.

2. Staying up on the news.

Being aware of what’s happening in the ever-changing world of social media ensures our clients are taking advantage of new features, improved user experiences, and more.

3. Content planning.

Whether it’s creating custom graphics or finding timely, relevant tie-ins, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that happens in regard to social media content creation.

4. Researching.

A good Social Media Manager is always on the hunt for new partnerships, target demographics, and creative ways to communicate. That means lots and lots of digging and researching.

5. Analyzing.

We look at analytics on a regular basis to find out what works and what doesn’t, and create reports based on that information.

The daily work contributes to the best part of being a social media manager: The successes. Maybe it’s an ad campaign that’s boosted website clicks and therefore sales. Maybe it’s feedback from a follower that shares how much they enjoy following the accounts we manage. Whatever the success is, that’s what we thrive on. And we’re always working toward the next success for our clients.

Are you looking for some social media assistance? Get in touch…we’d love to help!