MKT310- W3 Post and response

Lauren Vondette

The NPR podcast “Planet Money” describes A/B testing is figuring out whether option A works better, or option B. By work better, that could mean driving more clicks to a website, increasing the number of listeners on a podcast, or proving that kid’s shoes sell better when they are placed in the front of the store. A/B testing is used in everything whether we realize it or not. From our textbook “Integrated Marketing Communications”, advertising objectives can be either direct or indirect, meaning they can have a communication goal or a sales goal. A communication goal has anything to do with consumers awareness, knowledge, liking, preference for conviction of a particular brand or product. On the other hand, sales objectives obviously coincide with the advertisements ability to generate sales. A/B testing can help marketers understand if they’re meeting these goals by analyzing raw data. For instance, if a company is trying to increase sales of their new t-shirt line. They would run an A/B test in store, possibly placing the sign for their shirts in the front of store or outside the store, then use t-shirt sales to decide which is better. 

 

            After a brief google search, I found that a common way to test the effectiveness of an advertisement is using marketing analytic companies. I quickly discovered that there are many different companies that focus on providing certain types of data. For instance, Heap Analytics is a tool that helps marketers track any action on their website that they wish. They can use Heap to filter through certain information to give them a look into exactly what metrics they want. Another example is KissMetrics, is a behavioral analytics tool that tracks what users do while on a website. Marketers could use this tool to show if the banner at the top of the page showcasing their new line of swimwear, is getting the interactions that they wished. There are many more tools just like this one that give marketers insights into the attractiveness of their ads. 

 

“NPR Podcast”  https://www.npr.org/transcripts/459412925?storyId=459412925?storyId=459412925

 “Advertising, Promotion, and other aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications” By: Andrews & Shimp

 Data Analytics Blog http://blog.oribi.io/marketing-analytics-tools/

Megan Sandven

A/B testing is a technique used to compare two versions of a webpage, app, etc. against each other to determine which one performs better. A/B tests re used everywhere from major websites, stores and classrooms to try to figure out if people like version A or version B better. By experimenting with this testing, marketers can understand which version or method was more successful by comparing results. Like the example from the podcast, Dan ran tests on Obama’s website by changing wording, pictures, size of the sign up button and when he evaluated the A/B tests and altered the website, the sign-up rate was up more than 40%. These results clearly showed that his changes worked and the advertising objective was met. 

There are many other ways to test the effectiveness of advertising. One way is by doing a pre-test and a post-test. The pre-test assesses advertising messages before it is sent to specific media while the post-test evaluates the impact of the advertising message after it is published in any of the media. Another way is experimental testing which involves examining the advertising effect by conducting tests by manipulating an independent variable and measuring the effect of the manipulation on the dependent variables like sales, profits, consumer satisfaction, etc. Advertising research can be tested multiple ways but the main goal is to discover which ads will be most effective. The research is done through detailed research before a campaign as well as analyzing the success of the campaign.

https://www.decisionanalyst.com/whitepapers/adtracking/