How Facebook Multivariate Testing Will Change Your Ad Game

Remember those word problems from elementary school where you had to figure out if Sarah has four shirts and three pairs of pants how many outfits can she make? Well, I’ve got some news for you. They were setting you up for social advertising success the whole freakin’ time! That’s right friends—your fifth-grade math class is coming in handy for Facebook multivariate testing.

So, what is that exactly? Basically, Facebook multivariate testing means you change up multiple variables in a piece of content or advertisement in order to test a hypothesis about that content. You’re trying to figure out which combination of elements is the highest-performing out of all possible combinations—which of Sarah’s outfits looks the best. Change up the picture and the headline at the same time, create multiple versions of the ad, and run ‘em all at once. It’s the same concept as A/B testing, you’re just switching up more than one factor at a time.

How exactly do you get in the game here? We’re so glad you asked:

 

1. Find Out What Imagery Works Best

Let’s start with your photos. Think outside of just changing the photo; change up the style of it as well! Test the different types against each other simultaneously to start learning what your audience responds to. You can try:

• Lifestyle imagery
• Cartoons, animation or illustration
• People in action with your product
• Solo product shot

 

2. Find Out What Tone Works Best

Are you still trying to find your brand’s voice? Facebook multivariate testing can act as an opportunity to test things out and learn what works with your target audience or audiences. Do they want funny or serious? Hard sell or helpful and informative? Information overload or short and sweet?

Maybe different styles work for different audiences (sit tight, we’ll get into those in a second). Test it all and find out!

 

3. What Makes Your Customers Click?

Factors that impact the success rate of the CTAs on your website can include placement, color, wording, and style. You’re more limited with what your Facebook ads can look like, but there are still some factors you can play with! We’ve covered switching up your headlines and changing your photos, but also play around with a using photo carousel or video. Tap into all of your creative resources to see what gets customer’s attention and drives them to your site.

4. Change Your Targeting

Another variable to make sure you’re testing: who you’re serving all these ads to in the first place. This time, instead of changing elements of the ad itself, try running two of the exact same ads but change the targeting for each one. 

For instance, ad A might be targeted at Facebook users based on location, and ad B might be targeted at users based on interests. Or maybe you want to target two different interests altogether to uncover what customer interests best complement your brand.

 

5. Change Your Audience

Hopefully, you have your audiences separated into distinct segments depending on where they’re at in their relationship with your company (if not, start with our audiences listed here).

This is an important step in the process because it tells you who likes what based on where they are in your acquisition funnel. Use the multivariate testing process to test ads on website visitors, abandoned cart shoppers, and your best customers.

 

6. Find Your Customers

Now that you’ve nailed down the variables for your ads, it’s time to get them in front of your customers. Other factors you can apply your Facebook multivariate testing to are:

• Time(s) your customers are online and active: Morning? Evening? Right after lunch? On a Friday around 3pm when they’re just counting down to happy hour?
• What platforms they’re using: Are they on mobile or desktop? Do they use tablets? Understanding how your customers consume your content and advertising can help target specific devices, and also guide you during your creative process.

Facebook multivariate ad testing is one of the best ways you can get to know your social audience and what they respond to. You might be surprised with what you learn, and you’ll come out in fighting shape with your strongest social ads yet.