5 A/B Testing Tips for Facebook Ads Marketing

By now most marketers have understood the true power and potential of split testing or A/B testing.

Failure isn’t a failure if you learn from it. And that’s exactly what you can achieve by A/B testing. This is all the more important in the world of Facebook marketing.

Experienced social media marketers and digital experts know this: Facebook marketing is an extremely profitable channel. However, it can fail just as spectacularly if you don’t pay attention.

The biggest problem with Facebook marketing, however, isn’t just not paying attention. It’s the identification of what’s working and what isn’t.

And how do you do that?

By A/B testing.

In marketing — especially in Facebook marketing — you cannot be certain of any marketing hypothesis unless you test it. All your guesses and estimates amount to nothing unless you split test your ideas.

In this blog post, we share 5 A/B testing tips for Facebook ads marketing, so you can minimize your cost and maximize ROI.

1. Multiple Ad Sets and Adverts

While the exact the number of ad sets and adverts depends on your specific campaign and Facebook marketing budget, it’s always a good idea to start with multiple ad sets and adverts.

Most online marketing experts like creating at least 3 different audiences in 3 ad sets, and at least 3 ads per ad set. That’s 3×3 = 9.

However, note that each ad set (different audience) will cost you more money. You can A/B test adverts without any additional cost.

2. Testing Images

A/B testing images can often have the biggest impact on your Facebook ads. The problem with testing images, however, is that it’s mostly trial and error.

You may like an image very much, and it may not work. It’s not uncommon when it comes to Facebook marketing. The images that perform the best are not always the brightest and most vibrant. The key is to identify images that would resonate with your audience the most — in the context of the action you want them to take.

Based on different studies and surveys, the following types of images work best more often than not:

• Images with very less text or no text at all.
• Images that are bright and eye-catching.
• Images with happy, smiling people.
• Images with beautiful, smiling women.

3. Testing Colours

Colours are another thing that you can play around and test in your Facebook ads. There have been many researches and studies around colours, and some are very weird. But they work, so you should try such techniques.

For instance, one of such techniques is to have a coloured border around your Facebook ad. Researches suggest that this small hack can increase conversions by as much as 100%.

As you may know, blue is the most popular colour in the world. It is one of the main reasons why so many people start with blue colour in their Facebook ads. It’s not a bad option, but remember not to overdo it. Also, you have to be extra careful with the colour blue when you are running ads on Facebook. Because it is very easy to blend into Facebook’s colour scheme, making your ad blended and unattractive.

Studies show that a lot of people hate yellow, but it may help you stand out. Red is a great option to pop out; it is, however, a slightly aggressive and dominant colour. If you are promoting environmental-friendly, health-related, or organic products, green is an excellent choice.

There are so many colours after all. And you can only find the perfect colour scheme for your Facebook ads by testing.

4. Testing Headlines

When it comes to Facebook marketing, the ad image usually grabs the attention. But it is the headline that convinces Facebook users to take the action you want them to take.

Spend a lot of time crafting several versions of your headline and test all those headlines against each other to find which one is resonating the most with your target audience.

Outbrain did a very comprehensive study on analysing headlines. Here are a couple of results from that study to help you with A/B testing:

• Headlines with positive superlatives (which we mostly use in Facebook ads) perform 29% worse.
• On the other hand, headlines with negative superlatives perform 30% better.

Test different angles and see if negativity is a dominant factor that will help you get a better ROI with your Facebook ads.

5. Testing Landing Pages

When it comes to Facebook ads, very few marketers go the distance and landing pages. However, they are equally important.

Once you have nailed down your perfect target audience, ad image, colour scheme, and headline text, it is time to start testing different landing pages. After all, landing pages are an extremely important part of your sales funnel.

If you want to increase conversions at a lower cost, you will have to test landing pages.

While you can always test different elements on your landing page (here is the anatomy of a perfect landing page) it is also a great idea to use a tool like CrazyEgg.

A heatmap tool like CrazyEgg can help you understand where your website visitors are focusing the most. Secondly, don’t forget to set up Google Analytics to learn more about your page’s exit rate, bounce rate, the path your visitors take for the sales funnel.