The A/B Method of Testing by AdSense

Marketing is an ever growing field that comes out with new tips and tricks all the time. Here’s a new one for you. Let’s say you have two different ads and want to know which convert better for you, try the AB Split Method of testing. What you basically do is randomly display the two ads one at a time at the same spot. Lets say you have an ad A and another ad B. Here’s how you begin

1. Set out a testing period during which your site gets regular traffic. This shall take into account any fluctuations. Set this to a few weeks for relevancy.
2. Create a unique channel with each of the two ads. This will help you track the earnings from each ad.
3. Randomly display each ad 50% of the time. This may be a little tricky for non-programmers so I’ll explain in detail. If you want to use the simpler javascript you can split the display of these ads into half.

   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
var random_number =  Math.random();
if (random_number < .5){
//insert your first ad code here
} else {
//insert the second ad code here
}
// --></script>
<script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

   If you are using PHP or a server side script you can even do everything on the server side without letting a hint out about your experiment.

   $random_number = rand(1,10);
if($random_number <= 5)
{
echo 'paste your first ad code here';
}
else
{
echo 'paste your second ad code here';
}
?>

4. Regardless of which programming language you use, this method of testing allows you to find the better performing ads based on size, ad placement, colors etc.

Hope you find this useful.

Image Courtesy: nickwheeleroz