Shoutout to the free A/B test tool that ruined my campaign last month

I ran a Facebook ad for a client in Houston and used a free split testing app that claimed to handle everything automatically. Turns out it was swapping my headlines and images randomly, not actually testing them one at a time. After 3 days and $400 in spend, I had zero data that made sense and had to kill the whole campaign. My fault for not double checking the setup, but still. Has anyone else had a cheap tool mess up their testing? What do you use instead that actually works right?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellaa6918d ago

Oh man that exact same thing happened to me with some free tool called SplitTestPro or whatever last year. I set up a simple A/B test for my own landscaping business in Phoenix and it started mixing up the ad copy and images like a slot machine. Three days in I had 17 different combinations showing and no way to tell which one actually performed better. I was so pissed because I wasted $250 and a whole week of prime summer season traffic. Now I just run tests manually through Facebook's built in split test feature even if it takes a little longer to set up. At least I know exactly what's being tested and I don't have some cheap algorithm guessing for me.

reeseperez18d ago

Hold on though... is it really that serious? I mean yeah it's annoying when tools mess up but $250 over a week for a landscaping business in Phoenix during summer doesn't sound like the end of the world. People act like one bad A/B test is gonna ruin their whole year or something. Facebook's built in split test is fine but I've had it mess up too sometimes... it's not like it's some perfect system. Maybe just keep better notes on paper next time and save yourself the headache instead of blaming the software.

stella_lane18d ago

But is $250 really that much to lose on a test when the wrong move could cost you thousands in lost customers all summer? Sometimes you gotta pay a little to learn what doesn't work, and that's not a waste, that's just business.