On the persistent mischaracterization of Google and Facebook A/B tests: How to conduct and report online platform studies.
Users of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok might think they’re simply interacting with friends, family and followers, and seeing ads as they go. But according to research from the UBC Sauder School of Business, they’re part of constant marketing experiments that are often impossible, even for the companies behind them, to fully comprehend. The findings are published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing.
For the study, the researchers examined all known published, peer-reviewed studies of the use of A/B testing by Facebook and Google—that is, when different consumers are shown different ads to determine which are most effective—and uncovered significant flaws.
UBC Sauder Associate Professors and study co-authors Dr. Yann Cornil and Dr. David Hardisty say that at any given moment, billions of social media users are being tested to see what they click on, and most importantly for marketers, what they buy. From that, one would think advertisers could tell which messages are effective and which aren’t—but it turns out it isn’t nearly that simple.
