We all love to take a little time away from the grind during the slow season (which for many of us is right now), but smart PPC marketers are also using the time to get in the prime position when the tide is higher.
In retail, that will fire up in October (probably earlier than ever this year).
In B2B, that means prepping for the end-of-year push that comes from needing to hit quotas and engaging brands about to be flush with new yearly budgets.
No matter your vertical or the particular timing, there are five tests I like to run during the slower season to help clients get learnings to leverage when the tide is high. Those are:
1. Channel diversification tests
When choosing a new channel to test, the first things to consider are:
How effectively it can help you reach valuable users.
Where the right people spend their time.
Depending on your company’s size and goals, you can weigh the pros and cons of niche platforms with great targeting and intent (for SaaS, maybe that’s relevant subreddits or a platform like Capterra) vs. bigger platforms with more reach and less precise targeting (YouTube or connected TV).
Once you choose your channel(s) to test, you must find some budget. Ideally, your brand or client has a test budget to play with, but if not, consider shifting the budget from the same stage of the purchase journey.
For instance, if you’re looking to build awareness and you’d like to test Reddit, assess how spend on platforms like GDN is performing to see if you can pull from there without impacting your revenue too dramatically.
Timing-wise, I believe there are no bad times to run tests. Still, remember that your goal should be to learn.
If demand is relatively low, you’re not running aggressive promotions and direct response is relatively soft, it’s a particularly good time to test up in the funnel.
When you’re weighing timing, use the tests to get information you can leverage in your peak season.
Dig deeper: Un-silo your PPC campaigns: 4 tactics for more cohesive marketing
2. Landing page and CRO tests
The soft season is also a good time to tweak your existing landing pages or launch new ones to see how they perform.
The ultimate goals are to improve user experience and conversion rates – some of our clients have seen a 15%+ boost from these efforts.
Build your list of landing pages to address based on a combination of impact (engagement volume) and opportunity (low CVR).
You can assess this by looking at your data (spend, traffic and CVR) within your ad platforms or do some cross-channel assessments in GA4.
First, test the higher-impact variables:
Copy above the fold.
A layout that delivers impact at a glance.
Adding different types of social proof.
Form fields and copy.
Different CTAs.
To get the clearest insights when tweaking or revamping a page, duplicate it and run A/B tests between the new and old versions. This approach also prevents performance from dropping if you’re testing riskier changes.
Dig deeper: A/B testing mistakes PPC marketers make and how to fix them
3. Seasonal creative and offer tests
There’s only so much advanced testing of seasonal creative you can do (Christmas themes might not work in July, for example), but you can test how different specials, promotions and CTAs resonate with your users.
It’s also a good idea to look for different opportunities to run seasonal PPC promotions:
For retail, the usual examples would be Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and other relevant secondary holidays.
For B2B, the end of the quarter and the need to hit quota can leave room for limited-time promotions to test with your users.
Many industries can have their own seasonal spikes, too.
Consider the academic calendar if you’re in the education space or the enrollment period if you’re in health and schedule some tests outside of high tide to get learnings to leverage.