Testing, Testing and More Testing

Let me just say that I love my job.  I’ve always been drawn to the small company/entrepreneurial type jobs.  The comradery, the freedom, the ability to do something and actually see it have an impact on the company are all huge parts of why I do this.  Plus, Beer Fridays.  The downside though is I don’t get to spend nearly enough time testing.  Testing ads, testing layouts, testing button changes, you get the idea.

When you work for a small company, there is a degree of squeaky wheel syndrome.  The issues that are squeaking the loudest get the most attention.  The ones that squeak the loudest aren’t necessarily the most important, but they do manage to jump to the top of the priority list and get the most attention.  Now that we’re finally rolling into the slow season (yes, pool does in fact have a distinct selling season), I’m getting back to testing.

The first test I’m running is on our Google Adwords campaign.  And no, this isn’t the first Adwords test I’ve ever run.  It’s just the first I’ve had time to run in a while.  Anyway, I’m going to look at five different ads.  Each has a somewhat different tone and hook.

I set my account to run these ads with equal distribution so in theory, each should get ample opportunity to prove itself.  These just started rolling this morning and given the niche nature of the billiards industry, it will take a few days to get a large enough sample size to make some judgments on results.

Gut feeling? The “Top 10″ ad is going to get the highest click through rate and the “Let PoolDawg Guide You” will get the highest conversion rate.  We shall see…