Why you should split test when advertising your app

Split testing, also called A/B testing, is a process where you compare two types of a landing page or advert to see which one performs better. One version should be the original and the other should be a variation.

By carrying out ongoing split testing for your ad campaigns, you can help improve conversions and potentially increase sales for your app.

Before you start split testing, you’ll need to decide on what conversion you want to measure. This could be installs of your app, or an increase in the number of clicks on your advert, for example.

What to change in an advert split test

For accurate results, it’s best to only change one variable at a time. You could run two adverts side by side where the only difference is the heading. Once you’ve generated traffic to those ads and run them for a set period of time, you can evaluate which one received the most clicks to your app’s landing page.

As you’ll have only changed one visual element, you’ll be able to confidently tell which headline encouraged more clicks - that advert will be the higher performing one. You can then continue to use that headline while testing out other elements.

Another test might be to change the body copy of your advert. You could also change the layout of the text or incorporate bullet points. You could change the background image or colour too.

Even changing the colour of your call to action button can make a big difference to conversion rates. Take Google, for instance. They once tested 41 shades of blue for different coloured links in adverts. The result led to an extra £200m per year in ad revenue.

A banner exchange platform that can help you split test your ads

A platform like ConnectPlus allows you to advertise your app entirely free of charge, in return for promoting partnering developers’ apps within your own app.

One of the best features of this banner exchange platform is that it offers an easy way for you to carry out split testing. Once you’ve decided what you want to tweak on your ad, you can run two campaigns side by side.

With real-time ad tracking and monitoring in your ConnectPlus dashboard, you can effortlessly see how many views and clicks your ads are receiving and which one is performing the best. Video how to launch and monitor your campaigns can be found here. 

Summary

No matter what system you use to run your ads, split testing should form a crucial part of your evaluation process. By monitoring which elements of your ads are performing well, and which are not, you can make the necessary improvements to boost your ad campaign results.