Running Big Experiments that Pay
Quit running small tests...
The art of running experiments is spoken about often, and marketers champion this concept. Every day, various teams run tests, but one thing worth calling out about these tests is that we’re fond of running small and careful tests that make little or no difference.
Small tests look like this;
Testing paid Ads Creatives’ colour
Landing page colour
Email subject lines
CTA Buttons
In many cases, the work environment does not give people the flexibility to run tests that makes an impact. They say, “Run tests but run safe tests.” But I argue that If you truly want to learn and make an impact, there is nothing like safe tests.
You run tests- learn- and repeat.
What do Big experiments that pay look like?
Turning off all Ad Spend
Turning off top-performing Ads
Investing in a new Acquisition Channel
Making bold claims
Luckily, I have a very strong experimentation background and worked with companies that embrace experimentation. (I also cannot work with companies that do not embrace experimentation)
When I joined SmallWorld, a remittance company in the UK, one of my goals was to make the most of our marketing budget, and the only way to do that was to run big experiments to validate the hypothesis we had. In this case, testing CTAs and colours would not cut it. We did pause campaigns, reduced the Ad budget, and many more. This was important in validating the hypothesis on what was important and what was not. We learnt, and we keep testing.
Such tests save you thousands of $$$ and give better insight into where to invest your marketing budget.
Run Big Tests that move the needle…>+20%
If you are new to experimentation, you can follow this simple model to develop a hypothesis, prioritise an experiment, and deploy the experiment.
I hope this helps someone. If you have a specific problem you’d like another take on; please send it!