How do you split test landing pages on google adwords?

Hi Micheal,

That is not split testing, that is serial testing, and is far less accurate, takes much longer test runs to get actionable data. I wouldn't recommend it.


Hi ncloud,

Google does indeed have a rather limited split testing tool built-in that is called Content Experiments, however that tool is being deprecated in the near future. Instead you are encouraged to use the new Google Optimize tool which is part of the Google Analytics suite of tools:
https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/

The way many folks perform Landing page optimization today is by using a dedicated Landing Page platform. All the top Landing Page Platforms have custom landing page builders, built-in split testing tools, that allow for quick iterations of landing page building and testing. Among the best, the favorite at my agency is Instapage, with their best-in-breed page builder tool, and native integrations with many other tools and platforms.

Instapage is a favorite among ad agencies because of it robust and super easy to use page design tool and the ability to duplicate, iterate, automate, and manage many projects for many clients using large numbers of custom landing pages, i.e. a unique landing page for every unique ad.

HTH,

Don Burk

Hi ncloud,

This it the better forum for Google AdWords. While we have plenty of new people learning, we have a bunch of veterans here with years of professional experience in this field. Go to the pros for solid tips and advice.

Google Optimize is the new and improved replacement for Content Experiments, it works with most any platform, is very robust, and yes it is FREE to use. GO allows you to not only split test landing pages, you can split test shopping cart catalogs, including category pages, product pages, checkout pages, signup forms, and more.


Hi ncloud,

Thrive Architect does not include a split testing feature. Instead they sell it as a separate addon $67 per website as an addon, or $127 per website bundled.

Thrive Optimize requires the Thrive Architect plugin and only works on Thrive themes in Wordpress. So it is a good option if you only have Wordpress sites and no more than a few. If you have a lot of websites, or need to go outside of the Wordpress platform it might not be a practical option.

HTH,

Don Burk

Hi ncloud,

The "objective" for your experiment generally refers to your page objective. This tool is designed to work in conjunction with Google Analytics, so typical setup options will include whatever goals you have defined within the goals section of your Google Analytics view. If you do not have any goals setup you should definitely go ahead and do that before defining your Optimize experiment.

You will select one of you predefined goals in Analytics as an objective, and enter a description of your experiment and the hypothesis you are testing. Since you have created a completely separate page, with it's own URL, it sounds as if you are performing a radical redesign test, so you might want to describe what different elements or ideas are being tested in your hypothesis.

Here's a tutorial you can watch that might help you through the process:



HTH,

Don Burk

Hi ncloud,

I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to change the background of your page in Google Optimize, you can change or insert any HTML element as far as I can tell. They even provide a CSS editor and Javascript insertion features to make it very easy.

Check out this Quick Tips Video for some of the advanced features:


As you can see it was definitely included in that video, and it is also covered in other videos (you may be watching videos from the wrong sources).

Here's another quick tip video where they indeed mention that your goals from your Analytics account are automatically included in your Optimize Primary objective selections.


Here's a video series to help you get started with Google Optimize produced by the team that built the tool:


You can setup practically any kind of behavior as a goal in Google analytics. You can, and typically should, have multiple goals. In addition to your primary business objective it is generally a good idea to setup goals to track micro conversions (each step a user takes towards the macro conversion).

Google analytics allows you to track virtually any type of behavior on your pages. Page views are just one of the many trackable events. You can track button clicks, link clicks, hover events, page scroll depth, time on page, form fields, form submissions, session page views, session duration, and many more things.

I have found the best way to setup event tracking is by using Google Tag Manager to trigger event variables used for tracking.

I recommend that you study these videos to gain a more complete understanding and use as a reference for setting up your tracking and measuring plan: