A marketer explains why most teams don't test enough and what they're missing. He argues that 80% of small-budget test results hold up when you scale spend, but you have to accept the 20% that won't. Testing isn't just about numbers; it's about understanding whether your strategy will actually work.
I was having a conversation with a client today, and I noticed that there was a big mindset shift that needed to happen around testing. I think one, people aren't testing enough. People aren't looking at what placements are working, what headlines are working, what audiences are working, and they're not testing enough of it. But the second big thing is just the actual mindset shift around testing, and that's what do you get out of testing? Well, you get more than data. You get understanding and reassurance that things are gonna work or things aren't gonna work. Based on your advertising and your marketing strategy. And I think one thing that took me a while to understand is that even if it works on small data, like say you spend $10 and you get great results out of that 10 bucks, well, what's gonna allow you to actually spend more money is understanding that there's gonna be the 80/20 rule there, that 80% of the time what you tested on small data will work on big data, 20% of the time it doesn't. If you get comfortable in that uncomfortability, you're gonna be able to have great success in your marketing.
