Introduction to Creative Testing campaigns#

Creative Testing campaigns are an advertising campaign used to experiment with creative packs. Unlike other user acquisition campaigns, the creative packs in a test campaign run on an equal-opportunity basis. This means that, rather than focusing on attaining installs, test campaigns instead focus on delivering impressions to all creative packs at the same rate.

This equal exploration enables you to design an experiment based on the metrics that are important to you. Because the campaign delivers the creative packs equally, you can accurately compare how the packs perform according to a variety of metrics, such as clicks, conversion rate, and installs.

When you're developing a user acquisition strategy for your app, testing your creatives enables you to make informed decisions regarding which creative packs to use and in which markets. To learn more about creatives and creative packs, refer to the Creative packs documentation.

When to test creative packs#

Creative testing is available at any point in your user acquisition process. As soon as you have prepared creatives for a user acquisition campaign, you can begin testing those creatives in a Creative Testing campaign.

After establishing a user acquisition campaign, you can improve its performance by using data supplied by test campaigns. Creative testing can give insight into which creative packs will more likely result in better start-to-install conversion when used in a Unity User Acquisition campaign.

While you can run a test campaign at any time, the data yielded from a test campaign is most exact when you include one creative pack that has already accrued campaign data.

Creative testing considerations#

Creative Testing campaigns are similar to other user acquisition campaign types, but they have some unique characteristics to consider before beginning a test campaign.

Reduced exploration time#

All creatives used in a user acquisition campaign undergo a period of exploration. During this period, Unity User Acquisition explores the creative pack’s success with different audiences. Creative Testing campaigns deliver creative packs at an equal rate, which significantly decreases the time needed for exploration. Adding a control pack to your test campaign will further decrease the exploration time, so your creative packs will be ready for regular user acquisition campaigns sooner.

tCPI bids#

Although Android campaigns typically use cost per install (CPI) billing, a Creative Testing campaign isn’t dedicated to attaining installs. Instead, creative testing focuses on ensuring that each creative pack delivers impressions equally. Because test campaigns are impression-driven, they require cost per mille (CPM) billing, which is an impression-driven billing type. Unity uses a unique approach to CPM billing, called targeted cost per install (tCPI) bids.

To learn more about billing types, refer to the CPI versus tCPI bidding for install campaigns documentation.

Market-specific results#

Because creative testing is available for both Android and iOS markets, you can test the performance of your creatives with both audiences. However, the results of your campaign will be specific to the campaign's respective market.

For example, if your ad is successful in an Android Creative Testing campaign, the results are specific to the Android market. To identify whether the ad also performs well in the iOS market, you need to test the ad in an iOS Creative Testing campaign.

Creative testing reports#

Creative Testing is now an option in Report Builder when selecting your Campaign Goal type. This reporting function enables you to explore and compare the results of your Creative Testing campaigns. To learn more about Report Builder, refer to the Reporting documentation.

In addition to the full reports available in Report Builder, you also have access to a simplified overview of how your creative packs are performing. This overview shows a summary table of your creative packs’ status and conversion rate. It also contains other testing metrics, such as starts, clicks, installs, and spend.

To access this overview, go to the Creative packs section of any Creative Testing campaign.

Next steps: Configure your Creative Testing campaign.