Some time early 2005, I first read about how to split test ads via adwords from webmasterworld. Back then there were lot of big guys who were into sharing everything because they too were learning from each other. Nowadays, most big guys keep to themselves and rest of us just replay the same story over and over again. Everything is hush hush these days.

Lets talk about SPLIT TESTING ADS and Creating LANDING PAGES!

These are frequent vocabulary words that are mentioned numerous times. Allow me to share an example of my experience and how you should look carefully at the data you will see from split testing ads and landing pages. This will only help you convert more leads/sales.

Introduction:

I ran into Coolsavings.com around 1998, while working for a small tech company back home in Alaska. Coolsavings used to look really shitty as far as websites go but they’ve come long way. And now, they’re recognized as one of the best places to get free stuff and grocery coupons. There are other competitors like Qualityhealthy.com and Startsampling.com (recently on CNN).

I’ll admit, Coolsavings GOT me one time back then! Yeah, way back when I was a newbie surfing the internet, not knowing whats up. I believe I was doing some research for my work browsing the internet. I signed up for free stuff with Coolsavings. They got my info and it was one hell of a problem to get my email address out of their system. I don’t remember if I ever did since I don’t use that email address anymore.

CoolSavings Program offers:

Coolsavings has an affiliate program right from their website http://affiliates.coolsavings.com they pay $1.50 per lead.

Thing is, this Coolsavings offer only pays $1.00 from Commission Junction but Azoogle pays $1.40 commission. CJ used to pay $1.20. At the end of August, I get an email from CJ with new terms that Coolsavings is changing their payout to $1.00 per lead. Okay great… fine! cheapos! I’ll just promote it from Azoogle $1.40 payout. No worries there right? It makes sense to promote the same offer with higher payout.

Yes, it DOES make a difference between $1.40 vs. $1.20 vs. $1.00 Trust me, if you are pushing an offer, you want to keep a very close eye on your profit margin. I promote it using Azoogle link, I sent them just about same amount of impressions. This is not SEARCH promotion, it is WEB banner promotion. Lets make that clear so we know this is from placing Coolsavings banner on one of my websites not just using keywords (ppc) to attract traffic to your page.

Results:

Azoogle $1.40 link only converted 47 times total of $65.80 (all time)

CJ’s $1.00 link converted 101 times total of $101 (this is only for month of September).

That is 101 different emails submitted from a banner link.

Banner ad color stand out from my background

Cool animated banner!

Image with text ads next to it. = Highest Control rate + Best conversion for me.

Heard this before huh? Image next to Adsense ads…

I’ve tested these banners ads back and forth. There are only 5 creative ads to use from Azoogle while plenty of ads from CJ account.

Coolsavings creative from Azoogle, 5 available, only one 468×60 size.

Coolsavings creative from CJ account

I understand Coolsavings.com are using these banners to find which ones performs better. Maybe they are only allowing Azoogle affiliates to use certain banners, while CJ affiliates access to all?

Or, they are little behind on updating their affiliate companies with new creative banners? I figure since their company foundation was formed from email leads that they would want to be on top of getting many leads as possible?

Anyways.. lets move on to landing pages.

Landing pages are the same! But I’ve noticed from my Firefox browser had slight “bug” viewing it.

Can you tell the difference between these two landing pages? (Opens in New Window)

Azoogle: http://x.azjmp.com/0jpwb?sub=test

CJ: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2272483-10296453?sid=test

Do you need to see them again? Can you tell? Open them in Firefox browser and internet explore. Most will say they all look the same. All 4 landing pages show “white fill in boxed area” while some using Firefox browser have this as landing page.

If you look closely, look at the area where people submit their information.

First of all, these people who sign up for stuff like this are usually low-tech readers and do not understand the placement is to make money per lead. Afterall, I fell for it once long ago. Secondly, white fill in box area STANDS out where it is easy to locate and eye catching for people to submit their information!

I know we are only talking about small earnings; $65 from Azoogle vs. 1 month earning $101 from CJ and difference between only 47 leads vs 101 leads on a same Coolsavings offer.

Landing page color difference could only be from my firefox browser? I’ve tested with internet explorer and had several people test the links. Look closely at the fill in are when the site loads up, there seems to be a slight flicker in the area… not sure why this happens but it does freeze that area; showing yellow color for some viewers.

Conclusion:

I picked this offer as an example so even new affiliates can relate better dealing with smaller campaigns. Try starting your campaigns small. After you understood and learned from your stats then and only then move on to bigger campaigns. This will eliminate you from losing ppc money on unnecessary clicks.

When you are promoting a program or two with Web BANNERS or PPC (Search), it is wise to test out different ad types: change your title, text, url, as well as different landing pages. Also, check to see if there is a competitor who has similar offer to what you are promoting and promote them as well. Because competition’s offer could be paying at higher payout rate and their landing page converts better. You never know until you test!

Funny thing is, I’ve sent an email to CJ asking my Coolsavings affiliate manager to up my $1.00 to least match Azoogle’s payout $1.40. I haven’t heard from them yet.

Even more curious than that is, over the summer, Larry Morgan from QInteractive (owns Coolsavings.com) sought me out and sent me an email. He called and sent emails for over a month, but I ignored him. I know I feel bad now ignorning him. Now I’m paying the consequences, losing a valuable contact inside coolsavings.com company. Anyways, I ignored him because the programs he wanted me to promote on my website weren’t going to convert well so I declined (in my mind that is) instead of sending a no thanks emails. So I screwed myself on that…
I hope you get something out of this and apply split testing ads/landing pages to your campaigns. Good luck!

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