To work efficiently on Facebook with your Budget to work and reach exactly the right target group, you need to constantly update your ads and campaigns. analyze, question and optimize. A/B testing can be a method to find the better of two options very quickly and always provide your target audience with the best content.
Find out exactly how this works on Facebook and what best practices you should follow here.
A/B testing on Facebook - comparing two strategies
On Facebook, your campaigns are usually divided into Ad Sets and then into individual Ads. This form of arrangement makes it easier for you to make adjustments at the ad level in both smaller and larger campaigns. At the same time, all important information finds itself in its appropriate grouping and you can make global and individual adjustments.
It goes without saying that you can't work with just any budget, but need the RoI as a decisive measurement value for your campaigns. Particularly after long test phases or in long-running campaigns, a certain degree of stuckness can become apparent. Here it is often better to compare ads directly with other ads and see the better performance based on a single metric.
A/B Testing is the right remedy here, because here you have the opportunity, test individual variables - and you should actually leave it at single variables so as not to dilute the results.
For example, you could work with the hypothesis that a Custom Audience gives you better ad performance than an interest-based target group. An A/B test provides you with comparable results very easily here.
Especially with Facebook's wealth of data, it may be tempting to put multiple values in competition with each other at once. However, your A/B tests will work better if you Work with a clear hypothesis and have clear comparative values as well as clear values that you want to optimize (e.g. reach, RoI or CTR).
Create A/B tests - this is how easy you create comparisons
At Facebook Ads Manager the most important A/B tests are already set up for your convenience. This not only makes your work easier in analysis, but also in setup.
First of all, you need to choose campaigns or ad sets in Ads Manager and set the appropriate checkmark. In the toolbar you will find the "A/B Test" field, select it and decide on the appropriate variable.
In addition to the pre-selected variables from Facebook, you can also create a individual A/B testing simply work with the "Custom" menu item for this purpose. The tools that Facebook uses behind the scenes are the same in all cases.
To retrieve your results, use the "Experiments" section. You can also set up new A/B tests under "Experiments" if you want to further optimize existing results, for example.
These best practices apply to A/B testing on Facebook
There can be only one
Do you really only work with one variable. A/B testing is a method to create a direct comparison and this only works properly if you can force a single comparison. Working with multiple variables lacks final clarity.
The hypothesis
As in experiments in physics or chemistry, you should also work with a clear hypothesis work. "Should the ad be optimized for clicks or landing page views in order to reduce cost per ad?" or "Does the ad get more clicks with a custom audience than with an interest-based one?".
Optimize the target group
Just as you should not work with multiple variables, you should not find a new audience for the A/B test. And make sure that the audience of the A/B test is not in the same Period is used by several campaigns of your company.
The more segregated your audience is, the clearer the test results will be.
The time factor
In Ads Manager, you can set the time period of your test, which is between 1 and 30 days. As a rule, you should work with tests between 7-30 days - the longer the typical period between ad and conversion, the longer your A/B test should run.
The money factor
Facebook uses parts of your ad budget to run the A/B test on the platform. Of course, this is billed just like a regular ad placement, but the more budget you allocate, the more users you can reach.
If you are unsure how much budget to use, you can also work with Facebook's suggestion. The platform will automatically create an ideal budget for you.
Do not calculate the budget too tightly in order to prevent your test group from being too small. If you under-deliver, you will lack comparative values and have to add budget, which will also unintentionally extend the time period.
The comparability of the ads sets
To adequately design an A/B test, Factor A and Factor B must be far enough apart to determine a clear test winner.
Comparing the target groups of women 20-22 and women 22-24 is not as clear as comparing existing customers and an audience that might store with you according to their interests.
Simple comparability creates simple optimization
A/B tests are available in the Marketing a proven means and provide in the Online marketing rapid comparison values. Whether for the newsletter or the landing page, A/B testing gives you clear results.
The fact that the function can also be switched and compared so easily on Facebook makes ad placement and optimization that little bit more convenient.
You can find even more information about Facebook Ads and online marketing in our newsletter or our free whitepaper. After all, your online marketing is only as good as your optimization.
