Hey guys. I'm a little torn on what to do. On one hand, the beginners guide says to test the Ads first to weed out the ones with bad CTR's in order to lower CPC. On the other hand, I've read a lot that CTR isn't directly correlated to conversions, and that sometimes bad CTR ads will somehow match well with their associated landing page and offer and be the winning combo. I'll be using POFpro, but this is also my first POF campaign so it may be a bit overwhelming to test all at once. I was wondering if you guys had any opinions on whether I should test just the ads, find good CTR's, then move on to landers and then to different offers? Or should I use the highly integrated POFpro features and rotate 10 Ads with 5 landing pages and 3 offers with different demographics and then go from there. Or is the answer to test both...lol
Your anxiety is understandable.
The best way to do things is not always the 'right' way or the most cost-effective one, and it can be hard to choose between so many options!
One thing is worth remembering: the offer is key.
It is what generates $$ for you. Even the best funnel in the world is worthless if the offer simply doesn't convert and bring you revenue.
So, should you split-test offers? YES YES YES. As well as the same one on different networks.
Landing pages are something that, IMO, you should always use on PoF (at least for dating).
Having more than one gives you an important, crucial variable to get data for.
So - let's review -- 2 or more offers, 2 or more landers.
I would start with this setup before considering the ad-level testing. You can test 100 ads, with 5 different ad copies, 12 different targeting segments, etc. -- but this all means little if your offer sucks a big one or your lander flops. Hence why you should have more than one.
Now, with 2 offers and 2 landers, we start getting into a plethora of combos.
Your call here, but I would focus on 1 ad copy and test a bunch of images, and hit 2-3 campaign targeting brackets at the same time (i.e. split campaigns) and get data on conversions rather than ad CTR.
I.e. how much spent on campaign A and how much revenue brought in for the corresponding LP/offer combos.
The ad CTR can be improved -- and should be improved, but in my opinion, the lander/offer flow is going to have a bigger impact in most scenarios - so is the one you want to optimise first!
That's my $0.02!
Completely agreed.
The only thing I'd add is that it's a good idea to use hurdles - as in the guide - to eliminate no-hoper ads fast. CTR is NOT an important metric, unless it's so low that it makes it very hard or impossible to make profits!