As a small business owner, there are different reasons you might want to run an ad campaign. You may want to boost brand awareness, get more website traffic, generate leads, or increase conversions. In any case, you ultimately want your audience to click on your ad.
To measure how well your ad is driving clicks and engagement, you can look at the click-through rate (CTR). To optimize your CTR, you need to run campaigns that are relevant to your audience. And that’s where creative testing comes in.
Creative testing refers to tweaking the creative elements (i.e. images and text) of an ad to try out different combinations that will connect the most strongly with your audience. It gives you the opportunity to make your ads to be the most effective they can be. You’ll learn what’s connecting and what isn’t. Different kinds of ads have different creative elements, but, in general, there are four main creative elements to test:
- Image
- Headline
- Body Copy
- Call to Action (CTA)
So why spend your precious time making these small changes to your ads? It’s one of the easiest ways to positively impact your CTR.
Why does the CTR matter?
CTR is one of the most impactful key performance indicators (KPIs), and tracking it can help you improve your campaign ROI.
In essence, CTR measures how effective your ads are. You can calculate CTR by dividing the number of times your ad has been clicked on by the number of impressions your ad generated (that is, how many times your ad has been seen).
But what is a “good” CTR? There unfortunately isn’t a right answer that will work for everyone and every campaign. To determine a target click through rate for your business, you can look to benchmarks that align with your industry and ad type. For example, a benchmark for home & garden is .52%-.70%; professional services businesses can aim for .50%-.62%; and real estate companies’ benchmark ranges from .52%-.99%. Try googling your industry’s CTR benchmark for the advertising platform you’re using. Once you’ve chosen a goal, you can begin optimizing your campaigns.
There are a variety of factors that boost CTRs, but one of the most important is the ad’s creative — the actual content of the ad.
Why creative testing is so effective
By the time you’re ready to run an ad, you’ve likely already figured out who your target audience is. Building ad creative that converts should speak directly to information about your target audience, including:
- What are their interests?
- Where do they live?
- What problem can you solve for them?
If the creative doesn’t reflect those key considerations, you won’t be able to speak to them effectively, and your CTR will suffer. Common reasons ad creatives miss the mark are:
- Your ad may not clearly convey what you do or sell. If your target audience is looking for a specific product, but it’s not obvious that you provide it, they won’t click on your ad.
- Your audience may not see their pain points or interests reflected in your ad. Even if your product is clearly displayed, there are usually a variety of reasons a customer would purchase it, and if that reason isn’t present in your ad, a potential customer might scroll right by or could move on after a glance.
- Your ad’s CTA may not be clear. While every other creative element of your ad might speak directly to your audience, if they are unsure what will happen when they click your ad — they’ll sign up for a demo, they’ll get a coupon, etc. — they are less likely to complete that action. Some people may not realize they are meant to click the ad at all.
Today, it not only helps to provide your audience with personalized content, it’s become all but required. Did you know that up to 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if their buying experience is personalized? When you take the time to personalize your ad’s creative, you’re building a connection with your audience and showcasing the relevancy of your business to their needs. At the end of the day, creative testing is all about honing relevancy.
Pro Tip: When you test creative, only tweak one element at a time so you can determine the full impact of each variable on your CTR.
Testing Images
An ad’s image is the first impression your audience has, so it needs to be scroll-stopping. Always make sure to adhere to the specs of your advertising platform, so the quality and dimensions are optimized.
When it comes to the image itself, less text is better — on Nextdoor, CTRs can be up to 10% higher when less than ¼ of the image contains text. Depending on the size and placement of your ad, your audience may not be able to read the text at all, so it’s best not to waste valuable visual space.
Consider the authenticity of your image: stock images can feel cold and generic, while original photography or imagery can capture the energy and emotion that reflect your business. Nextdoor internal data from 2022 shows that real imagery can boost CTR by 13%. Displaying an image of your product in the real world can also speak volumes, giving your audience information about your business even before they read anything.
Try using images that depict your target audience, the interior of your business, or someone using your product.
Testing Headlines
A strong headline should summarize what you want your audience to know. Because digital spaces are so saturated with content, it can be difficult to break through the noise; many people won’t read past the headline.
To grab your audience’s attention, try boldly highlighting the most exciting part of your headline. Keep in mind that while you want the headline to stand out, you don’t want it to be too sensational that it doesn’t have substance and isn’t clear. You’ll have a limited amount of characters to use, so make sure you choose the most important or engaging message you can.
You could speak to the quality of your offering, how your product or service is solving a common pain point your audience is experiencing, or how much money your audience could save with your coupon or sale.
Testing Body Copy
Once you have the attention of your audience, you can use the body copy to share additional color to the headline’s message. The copy should continue the momentum from the headline, just adding more specifics about the offer or promotion.
This section will also have a character limit, so while you do have room to explain your message in more detail, it’s important to get straight to the point. You could have as few as 125 characters on a platform like Facebook or up to 800 on a platform like Nextdoor.
Your text may also be cut off after the first sentence —the audience will be prompted to expand the post to see the full copy — so put the most important information up front to boost CTR.
The body copy gives you space to mention details like an award your business has won, unique perks your product offers, or if you’re having a sale, which items are discounted.
Pro Tip: Some advertising platforms like Nextdoor Ads Manager allow you to personalize your description and headline with dynamic elements like neighborhood or city names that automatically populate a neighbor’s location. CTRs increase by 15% when the creative is personalized with a location!
Testing CTAs
The CTA is the make-or-break section of your ad, where people decide if they’ll click or not. If your image sparked interest, your headline was relevant, and your body copy was engaging, your audience will end up at the CTA.
Most advertising platforms give you a drop-down list of CTAs to choose from, to make it easier to choose the right one. If you don’t have that option, ensure that you are suggesting a clear action for your audience to take. What’s the next step you want them to take? It’s also important that your CTA matches your copy — if you’re promoting a new item in stock, it wouldn’t make sense to use “Get quote” for the CTA.
An apt CTA for a sale promotion could be either “shop now,” “buy now,” or “get coupon.” If your ad is meant to drive awareness, “learn more” would be an effective option to choose to boost CTR.
Testing takes time
It’s important to remember that optimizing CTRs is a long-term process, so have fun! Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and think about what they would want to see, not what you want to show them.
As you continue to test, note the effect (if any), and keep trying until you’ve reached your CTR goal that you defined before creating the ad. You can approach it however you like — just make sure to make data-driven decisions to have the biggest impact.
Explore how Nextdoor Ads Manager can help you reach your target audience, with the ability to test and optimize on an easy-to-use platform.
