Drive Down Lead Costs with 80-20 A/B Testing
The best way to A/B test your ads is to keep things super simple.
At any point in time, spend 20% of your marketing budget on A/B testing.
You might wonder, “What exactly is A/B testing, and why should I care?”
Well, it’s simply testing two versions of an ad to see which one performs better.
Think of it as a mini-experiment: you test one small change, learn from the results, and keep what works.
The goal?
To lower your lead costs, improve ad performance, and, ultimately, get better results for your business.
Now, how do we do this? Let’s break it down.
Main Campaign vs. A/B Test Campaign
First, you’ll want to split your ads into two campaigns:
- Main Campaign: This is your primary campaign where you allocate 80% of your budget to ads that are already working.It’s your safety net to ensure stable results while you experiment with new ideas.
- A/B Test Campaign: This is where you put 20% of your budget to work, testing new ideas. But, and here’s the trick, you should only change one thing at a time.
You might ask, “What does keeping other variables constant mean?”
Here’s an example: Say you want to test a new image or video (creative).
You’d keep everything else the same—targeting, ad copy, landing page, and headlines—so you can pinpoint what’s actually making the difference.
How Much Should You Spend on A/B Testing?
Now, let’s talk about budgets. Try to keep a minimum budget of Rs 500/day for A/B testing and let the ads run for at least 7 days.
Why 7 days?
Facebook’s algorithm needs time to gather data and optimize your ads during what’s called the learning phase.
“What is the learning phase?” you might ask.
Explaining the Learning Phase
When you first start running ads, Facebook needs time to learn how your ad performs and whom it works best for.
Facebook aims to generate around 50 conversions (or leads) per week to understand and optimize your ad’s performance.
Let’s say your average lead costs around Rs 50/lead (which is typical for free webinars in most coaching niches).
To hit 50 leads/week, you need to spend enough to get about 10 leads per day.
If you’re spending Rs 500/day, that means you’d generate 10 leads per day, which will hit the sweet spot of 50 leads per week.
That’s why 7 days is key—it gives Facebook enough data to properly learn and optimize, making your ads more effective.
What If My Budget Is Lower?
You might be thinking, “What if I can’t afford Rs 500/day for A/B testing?”
That’s totally fine.
If your budget is less than Rs 2,000/day, 20% of that comes down to Rs 400. This will still work for testing.
But if your budget is even smaller—say Rs 1,000/day—don’t worry about creating separate ad sets for testing.
Just include the new ads in your main ad set.
No need to get caught up in extra complexity when the budget is tight.
How Do You Know What to Test?
Let’s tackle another common question: “How do I know which element to test?”
Start with the basics—creatives (images or videos) tend to have the biggest impact on engagement.
Let’s say you’ve been running a campaign with a specific image or video.
You can test by swapping it out for something new.
But remember, only change one thing at a time.
Don’t touch the targeting, ad copy, or landing page while you’re testing a new creative.
Once you’ve got your new creative, let it run for 7 days.
After the test, compare the results. As coaches, we’re mainly optimizing for lead costs.
- If the lead cost is lower, push the ad to your main campaign.
- If the lead cost is higher, pause the ad and start testing a new creative or another element.
The Simplified Process:
Here’s what the process looks like:
- Run the Main Campaign: Allocate 80% of your budget here for steady results.
- A/B Test Campaign: Use 20% of your budget to test one new thing—like a creative.
- Let It Run: Run your test for at least 7 days to give Facebook enough time to learn and optimize.
- Check Results: Compare the performance. If it works, move it to your main campaign. If not, test again.