The good digital marketers all know one big secret – they test, test, and test some more.
Testing is digital marketing’s largest advantage when it comes to the advertising space. Because the field is quantitatively driven and user controlled, it is possible, especially in transparent systems like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, to measure the results of every action an advertiser takes in practically real-time. An ad not working? Switch it out. A keyword driving a significant number of irrelevant search queries? Pause it. A campaign performing extremely well? Give it more budget.
While throughout the course of Digital4Startups, advertisers will constantly be presented with new opportunities to conduct tests, it is incredibly important for the newcomer to the space to be aware of all the opportunities available to them, and their advantages. Good digital marketing is NOT set it and forget it. Good digital marketing requires an appropriate amount of testing and optimization to see optimal results.
Is there such thing as over optimizing and testing too much? Always. There is such thing as too much of a good thing. But as long as the advertiser doesn’t act on any test until there is statistical significance and appropriately controls the factors in the test (so that they are sure what they are testing), the general advice is to test everything and act on the learnings.
