https://embed.notionlytics.com/wt/ZXlKd1lXZGxTV1FpT2lJeU4yTmtOV1k1WVRjNFptSTBPR05tWW1ZMU5qSXdaalV5WVdZNE1UWmlNeUlzSW5kdmNtdHpjR0ZqWlZSeVlXTnJaWEpKWkNJNklqbHpjVk52YW1nMU4zbDZXV1p3UjJ4QlZVSm1JbjA9

<aside> ✍️ This article by ‣, Sr. Growth Marketer at Part and Sum, specifically discusses our preferred strategy for testing creative ads on Facebook. We’ll continue to flesh out this strategy for relevance on other platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. Scroll to the end for a 4-step checklist to setting up your own creative ads.

</aside>

What’s a creative testing campaign, and why should I do it?

Creative testing campaigns allow you, as a media buyer, to maintain a scalable approach to trafficking and assessing the performance of various creative assets as they are produced for prospective customers.

Facebook has increasingly recommend using their Consolidated Account Structure with fewer ads in each ad set. This makes it more difficult to test the performance of new creative ads without disrupting your active campaigns. Testing new creative ads separately and against one another proves their efficiency before incorporating them into higher spending campaigns. Media buyers who don’t test assets beforehand could potentially result in new ads being unfairly tested in the auction against long-standing winners.

By running creative tests separately from your main campaigns, you also might see better performance on your test campaign compared to some of your main account’s campaigns.

Before I begin testing, what do I need to know?

Have an answer for these four questions before setting up your test Facebook ad campaign.

1. Who is your audience?

   We recommend testing new creative ads on broad audiences (audiences with no targeting). Broad audiences work best for creative testing because it forces the account operator to limit variables that may skew performance, such as like audience targeting. If broad audience testing doesn’t work for your brand, interests or lookalikes will do.

   The audience receiving your test should also be separate from your always on prospecting campaigns. At higher spending accounts, consider excluding always on prospecting audiences.

2. What is your objective for these ads?

   Creative testing campaigns should optimize for the same event as your main campaigns’ goals. For example, if your objective is to increase product purchases, then optimize for purchases. If your objective is to increase traffic to your site, then optimize for traffic.

3. What is your creative testing budget?

   This should be a percentage of total channel spend. Somewhere in the range of 10-15% seems to be the sweet spot. This can scale up to +20% depending on performance.

4. How long will the test run?

   As a rule of thumb, test your creative ads for at least seven days.

   Depending on your budget, some tests should run longer than others. For example, a brand spending $20 per day in testing needs a much longer runtime than a brand spending $2,000 per day in testing to reach statistical significance.

<aside> 💡 Post iOS 14.5, there is a 24-72 hour reporting delay on in platform conversions. If you are relying on in platform reporting to measure results of a creative test, you need to account for this in gauging the time span of your test.

</aside>

I have x products and y creative angles. How should I allocate spending and structure my tests?

First off, the Facebook algorithm is smart. As a media buyer, you should be comfortable at some level with Facebook re-allocating spend towards your winning creative ads. The algorithm considers hundreds of data points that aren’t visible to us in our reporting. If Facebook is dedicating more spend to a certain creative ad variant, it is likely justified.

Let’s use two examples to help decide how much control you, the media buyer, want to have over your spending as you structure your test.

Example A: 1 product, 1 creative angle

You run growth for a baby bottle brand. You’re a small company with a single product, so right now your product and brand does not have uniquely different use cases or audiences.

For your holiday campaign launch, creative gives you 10 assets with the same value proposition, but you don’t know which ones will work the best.