We are very excited about Google’s latest offering, the Website Optimizer for AdWords advertisers. To us, this is another step forward in getting advertisers themselves educated about ways to optimize their search marketing campaigns without the need for “black box” tools they can’t learn from, or outsourcing everything to a third-party.

The Website Optimizer lets advertisers set up their own multivariate tests on their landing pages. Multivariate testing is the means by which a marketer can test different combinations of elements on their Web site pages to see which combination produces the desired results (depending on their site’s goals, such as more sales, more leads, etc.) For example, you can see which headline + graphic + body copy combination is most successful. Typically, setting up multivariate tests is somewhat complicated because you have to actually design an experiment for the pages you’re testing (e.g. define the elements you’re tracking, set up your baseline metrics for comparison, etc), then track all the different elements’ combinations, compare their before/after performance with the control page, analyze all this data to see what is the best performer… and so on. It can get intense, especially if you don’t have a handy in-house statistician!

Google’s tool allows you to set all these elements up with the help of a typically minimalist Google-esque wizard interface which walks you through every step. In viewing the demo, it looks pretty easy. There is a lot to read and learn, and the marketer will have to implement their own code and deal with multiple versions of graphics, copy, etc., but we like to think marketers are not stupid and given tools like this, they’ll learn and understand what to do fairly easily. (Sidenote, I love that Google is never patronizing in wizard copy (even the AdWords starter wizard); they talk to you like a helpful coworker who wants you to “get it” and be able to do stuff on your own.)

You may be familiar with Offermatica or Optimost, two companies that offer multivariate testing on a commercial scale to large ecommerce retailers. Is Google firing a shot across their respective bows? Maybe… Offermatica & Optimost target large companies, Google’s offering a tool clearly targeted to smaller folks who can’t necessarily hire the big O guns. But, if Offermatica & Optimost were planning a smaller and cheaper offering to this same target, obviously the competition is going to heat up!

edited: I just read on MediaPost that Google is testing this in conjunction with EpikOne as well as Optimost themselves ” which will provide additional professional support and consulting.” So I guess they’re partnering, not competing…

Posted in: Google