Last updated on Jul 11, 2024

What are the pros and cons of ad testing vs A/B testing for different types of campaigns and goals?

If you work in advertising operations, you know how important it is to optimize your campaigns for maximum performance and return on investment. But how do you know which ads are working best and why? There are two common methods of testing ads: ad testing and A/B testing. In this article, we will explain what they are, how they differ, and what are the pros and cons of each for different types of campaigns and goals.

1 Ad testing

Ad testing is a method of measuring the effectiveness of an ad or a set of ads by exposing them to a sample of the target audience and collecting feedback. Ad testing can be done before, during, or after a campaign, depending on the objectives and the resources available. Ad testing can help you evaluate various aspects of your ads, such as the message, the design, the format, the placement, and the call to action. Ad testing can also help you identify the best segments, channels, and times to run your ads.

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Julien Florkin

AI Consultant | Business Consultant | Management Consultant | Entrepreneur | Business Engineer (MBA) | Philanthropist & Global Educator | Empowering 1000+ readers daily | Let's Connect and Grow Together 🌱|
💡 "Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding." — Burt Rutan 📊 Ad testing involves gauging the effectiveness of ads by gathering feedback from a sample audience. It evaluates aspects like message, design, and call to action. This method helps identify the best segments and channels to run ads, enhancing overall campaign success.
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Prasanna Deivendran

Performance Marketing Expert
Ad testing is like checking if your ads are working well. We show these ads to a group of people who are like the ones we want to sell to and ask them what they think. We can do this before we start the ad campaign, while it's running, or after it's finished, depending on what we want to find out and how much we can spend.
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Johnny Gallagher

Open to work
The pros are that it can offer insights into behaviour and interaction, enables you to try different versions to see how effective your campaigns are/how well you are optimising your campaign The cons are that it takes more time, extra copy/larger target is needed
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2 A/B testing

A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of an ad or a landing page by randomly splitting the traffic between them and measuring the outcomes. A/B testing can be done during a campaign, as long as there is enough volume and time to reach statistical significance. A/B testing can help you optimize your ads for specific metrics, such as click-through rate, conversion rate, or revenue. A/B testing can also help you test hypotheses and validate assumptions about your audience's preferences and behavior.

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Julien Florkin

AI Consultant | Business Consultant | Management Consultant | Entrepreneur | Business Engineer (MBA) | Philanthropist & Global Educator | Empowering 1000+ readers daily | Let's Connect and Grow Together 🌱|
💡 "The only way to win at content marketing is for the reader to say, 'This was written specifically for me.'" — Jamie Turner 🔍 A/B testing compares two ad versions by splitting traffic and measuring outcomes. It's ideal for optimizing specific metrics like click-through or conversion rates. This method helps validate assumptions about your audience's preferences, refining ad performance effectively.
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3 Pros and cons of ad testing

Ad testing has several advantages over A/B testing, such as providing contextual insights into why your ads succeed or fail, testing multiple variables and combinations at once, and avoiding costly mistakes. However, ad testing can also be more expensive and time-consuming than A/B testing, as it might require external vendors or platforms. Additionally, ad testing can be less reliable and representative due to self-reported data and a smaller sample size. Furthermore, ad testing can be more subjective and prone to bias depending on how you design, conduct, and interpret the feedback.

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Susan Coelius Keplinger

CEO at Force of Nature | Performance Marketing at Scale
Pros: Offers comprehensive insights, allows for testing multiple variables, and can lead to highly optimized campaigns. Cons: Can be complex and time-consuming, requires a larger sample size to be effective, and may lead to inconclusive results if too many variables are tested at once.
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Julien Florkin

AI Consultant | Business Consultant | Management Consultant | Entrepreneur | Business Engineer (MBA) | Philanthropist & Global Educator | Empowering 1000+ readers daily | Let's Connect and Grow Together 🌱|
💡 "Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so." — Galileo Galilei ⚖️ Ad testing offers contextual insights and allows testing multiple variables at once, but it can be costlier and time-consuming. While providing deeper understanding, it relies on smaller sample sizes and self-reported data, which can introduce bias and subjectivity.
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4 Pros and cons of A/B testing

A/B testing has some advantages over ad testing, such as providing more quantitative and objective data on how ads perform and what drives the results, as well as helping to fine-tune ads for specific goals and optimize them for the best return on investment. Additionally, A/B testing can help you learn from your experiments and apply the learnings to future campaigns. However, there are some drawbacks to A/B testing, such as being more limited and restrictive than ad testing, requiring technical setup, statistical analysis, and quality control, and increasing the risk of exposing your audience to different versions of your ads which may affect their perception and behavior.

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5 How to choose the best method

The optimal method for testing your ads depends on a variety of factors, such as the type of campaign, goal, ad, and audience. For instance, if you are running a brand awareness campaign with creative and complex ads targeting a large and diverse audience, you may choose to use ad testing and A/B testing. On the other hand, if you are running a short-term direct response campaign with simple ads targeting a loyal audience, you may opt for A/B testing alone. Ultimately, it is essential to align your testing method with your campaign objectives, ad characteristics, and audience needs in order to deliver the most effective ads.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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What are the pros and cons of ad testing vs A/B testing for different types of campaigns and goals?

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1 Ad testing

2 A/B testing

3 Pros and cons of ad testing

4 Pros and cons of A/B testing

5 How to choose the best method

6 Here’s what else to consider

Advertising Operations

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