Copy Testing Questions to Create Effective Ads

Copy testing can be broken down into four core elements, that are:

1. Pre-exposure 
2. Ad exposure
3. Post-exposure
4. Profiling Questions

These elements help determine which ad concepts are most effective and worth pursuing, allowing organizations to better prepare their ads before airing them to the broader market.

Pre-exposure 

Pre-exposure involves asking questions that help measure consumer impressions about the brand before they are exposed to the advertisement itself. Pre-exposure aims to establish a benchmark measure of consumer perceptions that you want to impact with the advertisements. Pre-esposure questions may ask about how interested the respondents are in certain brands, and/or their impressions of it.

Ad exposure

The next component of copy testing is ad exposure. This involves exposing respondents to the ad itself, whether that be a text, print ad, radio ad (sound clip), or television advertisement (video clip). 

These are a few different methods of ad display:

• • Clutter Display

Clutter display involves showing the ad in a realistic context. This means that the ad will be shown among other stimuli and advertisements. This method helps evaluate how the ad performs through the ‘clutter’ and helps determine whether the ad is effective at creating an impression in a realistic scenario. Clutter display is very useful when tracking the overall impact of an ad. However, it is not as effective in obtaining detailed feedback as respondents don’t pay close attention to a single ad. 

• • Isolation Display

Unlike clutter display, isolation display involves showing the ad without other stimuli and advertisements. The advantage of this method is that it allows a respondent to focus wholly on the ad in question and facilitates the collection of detailed feedback. However, the drawback of this method is that it doesn’t provide a representation of how the advertisement will perform in a realistic context among other stimuli. 

Post-exposure

The next step is to collect feedback. This is called post-exposure and it involves collecting feedback and capturing reactions to evaluate the ad’s impact on respondent perceptions. 

In this stage, respondents may be asked questions such as:

1. 1. Was the advertisement memorable?
   2. What was the ad’s main message?
   3. What did you like about the ad?
   4. What did you dislike about the ad?
   5. What was your overall impression of the advertisement?

Post-exposure questions may also include a repetition of the questions asked in the pre-exposure phase. This is to evaluate any changes in responses due to the advertisement’s impact on brand perception.  

Profiling Questions

The final element in copy testing involves understanding respondent buying behaviors based on their existing attitudes. Questions such as “which of the following brands do you shop from?”, and “how often do you shop?”, can be asked in order to understand shopping behavior, as well as respondents’ brand affinity. This element of copy testing also involves understanding the role of price in a respondent’s purchasing decisions.