Experimentation in marketing can boost ad performance — and certainly the bottom line. Yet when it comes down to advertising, not many businesses have started experimenting.

Understandably, we recognize that in times of uncertainty, brands and advertisers may be conservative about how they spend their ad dollars. On the other hand, some businesses simply might not know where to start when it comes to experimenting to improve marketing strategies.

This is where Paving the path to proven success: Your playbook on experimentation, our new regional playbook, comes in.

Here’s what’s important: Brands that have turned to a test-and-learn approach are seeing benefits in both the short and long term.

A recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) study found that e-commerce companies that consistently conduct marketing experiments instead of taking a “one and done” approach produce 30% higher ad performance in the same year and a 45% increase in performance the year after that.

At Google, we reserve 20-30% of every campaign budget for testing, putting theories and ideas to the test before scaling them, helping us stay ahead of the curve.

Moreover, recent Search trends reveal that people want brands to adapt to their expectations faster than ever. With evolving consumer demands, brands need new strategies to tackle new challenges and undertake new opportunities.

“There’s no marketing strategy that you can use forever because you are always exposed to new challenges. If you do not evolve or adapt yourself, you will be left behind by your competitors.”

Our new regional playbook, Paving the path to proven success: Your playbook on experimentation, is a valuable guide on how to start experimentation with your own brand.

Let this playbook inspire you to shift from a “fear of failure” mindset to embracing the potential of “test, learn, iterate.” More importantly, let it show you the fundamental principles of experimenting and the tools you need to run them:

1. Understand the marketing value of experimentation and the importance of adaptability with data-driven decision-making.
2. Learn how to craft a hypothesis — an important first step in every experiment — and identify measurable, relevant metrics that will help you evaluate this.
3. Get a clear overview of which experimentation methodologies, study types, and solutions best suit your experiment and discover how brands have used them to find success.
4. Looking to experiment at scale? Learn how to foster collaboration and efficiency and to cultivate an experimental mindset at a team or organizational level.