How to run a split ad test for different ad positions

With Advanced Ads Pro, you can run split ad tests based on the position of the ad. This feature can serve various purposes:

• testing ads in position A against position B
• rotation of different or the same ad to fight ad blindness

Position tests are running through the placements interface, which you can find under Advanced Ads > Placements.

Creating a split test

Go to Advanced Ads > Placements in your site’s dashboard.

Select a Test weight for the placements you want to test against each other (see below). There is no limit on the number of placements included in a test.

Select the weight for the placement in the split ad test.

Click on Save New Test.

The test is now active and should show up in the Placement tests section above all placements.

After creating a placement test, you can set an expiry date and define an email address which will receive a short notice. The expiry date does not remove the test. This option is checked once per day so that the email might be sent with some delay.

Placement tests overview

Test weight

Test weights work like ad rotation weights. E.g., If you set a weight of 2 for Placement A and 4 for Placement B, Placement B will show up twice as often as Placement A.

Placements show up randomly, i.e., the same placement can show up multiple times in a row before switching to another placement.

Evaluating ad tests

Unless you are using this feature to fight banner blindness with random ad positions, you might want to compare the positions with each other.

To do that, you should show different ads for each placement.

If you run an ad network like AdSense, create different AdSense ad units for the test. You can then use the reports in AdSense to see which ad performed best.

If you are testing in-house ads, custom code, or image ads, you can use the Tracking add-on to track impressions and clicks.

What else you need to know

This tutorial will guide you through planning, running, and evaluating A/B tests and split tests in WordPress using Advanced Ads.

Starting in 2009, Thomas’ own word game website grew to 40 MM page impressions per month. He then built Advanced Ads to help his colleagues to place ads and test different ad positions and networks tests without any coding skills. Thomas now enjoys improving the product for our more than 150,000 users worldwide.