Top Methods for Testing Your Digital Marketing Campaigns

The majority of marketing your business will do in 2024 will be digital which means it should be data-driven. This means that guesswork simply doesn’t cut it. 

Are you aiming to maximise your return on investment (ROI) and truly connect with your target audience?

If so, you must constantly test and refine your digital marketing campaigns. But with so many elements at play, where should you start?

In this post, we’ll dive into the top methods for testing your digital marketing campaigns, helping you optimise your strategy for better results.

1. A/B Testing

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is one of the most basic methods of digital marketing testing. It allows you to compare two different versions of a campaign element, such as a landing page headline, call-to-action button, or ad copy, to see which one resonates better with your audience.

Here’s how it works:

• Define your hypothesis: What change to an element do you think will improve performance? Also define which metric you want to affect.
• Create variations: Develop a different version of the chosen element.
  Split your audience: Divide your target audience into equal groups and show each group the original and the variation.
• Analyse the results: Track key metrics like click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates to see which variation performs better.
  By analysing the results and looking for significant statistical improvements, you can identify the winning variation and implement it across your campaign.

2. Multivariate Testing

While A/B testing is great for comparing two variations, multivariate testing takes it a step further. This method allows you to test multiple elements simultaneously, revealing which combinations perform best.

Google and Facebook Ads do this automatically with their multiple asset ad formats. You give the platform multiple headlines, descriptions, images and videos and the ads will automatically find the best combination that gives you the result you set for it.

You can apply multivariate testing to elements on landing pages too. Given the complexity of this type of testing it is best to use software to both execute the testing and analyse the results. 

3. Heatmaps and Session Recordings

Heatmaps and session recordings are powerful tools that provide visual insights into user behaviour. Heatmaps visually represent where users click or scroll on your webpages, while session recordings capture their entire journey.

This data can reveal:

• Click patterns: Identify which areas of your website or landing page attract the most attention. This can help you place the right elements in the best location on the page.
• Scrolling behaviour: Understand how far users scroll down the page and if they engage with all your content. This can reveal whether they’re missing a key call-to-action or information that they should be seeing.
• User flow: See how users navigate your website and identify any drop-off points. This helps expose the bottlenecks in your sales funnel whether you’re chasing more leads or sales.

By analysing this data, you can optimise your website layout, content placement, and user journey for better engagement and more conversions which help your topline revenue.

4. User Testing

Sometimes, the best way to understand how your campaigns perform is to see them through the eyes of your target audience. User testing involves recruiting real users to interact with your marketing materials and provide feedback.

Here are some user testing methods:

• Usability testing: Observe users navigating your landing page or website to identify any pain points or areas of confusion. You can really identify what people think your landing page messaging is and whether they understand what you want them to do.
• Card sorting: Ask users to categorise information based on their own logic, revealing how users perceive your content hierarchy. There are a number of ways to do this both virtually or physically. The goal is to either test whether your assumptions are right about how to structure your website’s content OR get users to sort your content in a way that makes sense to them and observe the trends in the way users sort your website content.
• Eye-tracking: Track where users’ eyes focus on your website or landing page to understand what grabs their attention. Similar in concept to heat mapping but much more accurate. Unfortunately, this method is usually cost prohibitive for most small to medium businesses due to the investment in tools to accurately track the eye movement of participants.

By incorporating user feedback, you can refine your campaigns for a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.

Test and Test Again

Testing isn’t a “one and done” thing. Given the data-driven nature of digital marketing, incorporating these techniques into your strategy, will help continuously improve your campaigns, maximise your ROI, and ultimately better achieve your marketing goals.

Remember, the key to successful testing lies in setting clear goals, tracking the right metrics, and using statistically meaningful data to inform your decisions. 

If you’d like help analysing your existing digital marketing or setting up testing to analyse its performance we’d love to speak with you.