My first rule for advertising is simple: Advertising must be an investment, not an expense.
There are many marketers who consider advertising as an expense and not an investment, because their prior efforts in advertising were a failure, and it did not produce the desired results. Consequently, their advertising is naturally a waste of money.
The truth is that your marketing efforts should and must include advertising, more specifically, paid advertising. The reason for that is simple: With paid advertising, when it’s strategically thought out and done right, you can reach your targeted audience fast with powerful results.
If you want to become an excellent candidate for success, there are ways you can test your ads before spending more dollars on larger campaigns.
The first step is to create two or more versions of your ad that is ready for testing. The first component for testing should be about the benefits.
Write down 5 main benefits of your product. Then create 5 ads focusing on each one of those benefits. Once you have the ads ready, use the following to run small tests.
Note: Make sure that each ad carries its own unique tracking ID. You can use third party tracking software like imediamarketingtools.com where this can be easily accomplished.
1. Do small email marketing campaigns – You can use your own marketing list to do this or invest in small inexpensive newsletter or safelist advertising.
2. Use social media platforms to test – There are many social media platforms where you are allowed to post an ad or promotional materials. Post it as a blog post or on a discussion if the platform allows it.
3. Use banner advertising – Use inexpensive banner advertising network to test your benefit focused banner ads.
4. Use text advertising – Contextual advertising platforms, such as, Facebook advertising, or adclickmedia photo text ads are great to test ads.
5. Classified ads – Use high traffic, and targeted classified ad platforms to post your ads.
The channels mentioned above will produce immediate and fast response so you can receive real data within 24 to 48 hours.
Select those that produce the highest returns and save it in a document file on your computer.
Remember, every ad structure and design can be tested for improved results. The headlines, opening, benefits, design, etc.
The fastest and most effective component to test is the benefits. Find out which benefit will pull the most results for your efforts.
And finally, if you do not perform some other type of testing, at least make sure that you do a split test on the main benefits for your product or offer. This will give you the clearest understanding of what works and what doesn’t so you can continuously achieve superior market research data.
Abe Cherian
