A pre-lander is more than just a page between your ad and the offer – it’s a critical filter that determines whether a user moves further down the funnel. If it fails to build interest, trust, and motivation, don’t expect any conversions.

What to actually test

Beginners often waste traffic on meaningless tests like button colors or single words. These don’t improve performance. Instead, test different content approaches that influence user decisions:

• News story format: A pseudo-media style, effective for cold traffic.
• First-person story: Builds trust and engagement.
• Expert article: Leverages authority figures (doctors, analysts).
• Quizzes & polls: Interactive content that creates a sense of personalization.

These formats trigger different psychological responses (emotions, social proof, authority), leading to real metric improvements. Changing minor elements while keeping the same core approach is pointless.

How to run split tests correctly

For reliable data, follow these principles:

• Quantity: Test only 2-5 pre-landers per offer. Testing 8-10 at once dilutes your traffic and produces weak statistics.
• Traffic volume:
  • Standard verticals (nutra, gambling, e-commerce): 500-1,000 unique clicks per lander.
  • Complex verticals (requires verification/card details): 1,000-1,500+ clicks.
• Statistical significance: Don’t cut a test after 50-100 clicks; that’s just noise. With a 1% target conversion rate (CR), you need about 300 clicks to be 90% sure you’ll see at least one conversion. If you get zero conversions after 300+ clicks, the funnel likely isn’t working.
• Fair conditions: All pre-landers must be tested on the same source, offer, geo, and platform. Use a tracker (like Keitaro) for proper traffic distribution and analytics.

The importance of trusted ad accounts

Testing on a new (“raw”) ad account means you’re testing the platform’s stability, not your funnel. Such accounts can get banned, deliver unstable traffic, and skew your data. A warmed-up or agency account provides stable traffic delivery, ban protection, and the ability to scale, ensuring your test results are accurate. This is not an area to cut corners.

Scaling: Less motion, more results

Once a test identifies a winner, stop testing and start scaling. Pour maximum traffic into the winning pre-lander, adapt it to other offers, and test it on new geos or sources. Excessive testing at this stage is just procrastination disguised as optimization. If something works, scale it while it’s hot.