Marketers can iterate on advertising and other paid media by running experiments and then mining the data to identify the most effective path to your audience.
In this episode, we discuss…
- There are two types of paid media placements: Direct Response and Brand Awareness.
- Direct Response is ideal for experimentation because we are asking the prospect to take action, which produces measurable results.
- Brand Awareness does not typically have a call to action, which makes measuring its effectiveness difficult.
- This applies to both digital and traditional advertising.
How to set up experiments:
- Design experiments to identify the most cost-effective path to your audience. These can include:
- Placement Methods
- Direct vs. Programmatic
- Programmatic vs. Network
- Targeting Methods
- First-Party Data vs. Behavioral (Third-Party)
- Behavioral vs. Contextual
- Contextual vs. Look-Alike Audiences
- Look-Alike Audiences vs. Individual Site Whitelisting
- Resource: Designing An Effective Marketing Experiment
- Resource: The Role of Experiments In Iterative Marketing
How to decide what experiment type to use:
- A/B Testing
- When testing creative, A/B is a solid option. It allows for quick iteration and knowledge gathering.
- Resource: How Statistical Significance Makes Your Results More Reliable
- Resource: How to Ensure Your A/B Testing Gets Results
- Multivariate Testing
- The lack of control makes this type of experience less desirable.
Keys to a successful experiment:
- Never let time impact your experiments. Run an experiment for at least 2 weeks and a maximum more than 8 weeks. Keep in mind, the day of week, holidays, business cycles (month-end for example) can all impact media performance.
- Apply what you learned from direct response ads to your brand awareness advertising.
Document any insights learned from direct response experiments, and update relevant personas and customer journeys accordingly.
Iterate for future use:
- Make sure that any media consumption insights are documented in the persona for future use.
Marketers can iterate on advertising and other paid media by running experiments and then mining the data to identify the most effective path to your audience.
For more information on the charity in this episode, please visit Lighthouse Youth Center.
The Iterative Marketing Podcast, a production of Brilliant Metrics, ran from February 2016 to September 2017. Music by SeaStock Audio.
Learn more about Iterative Marketing and listen to other episodes on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.