An analysis of digital marketing strategies and performance comparison of social media advertisement creatives

Serious developments in today's communication technologies have facilitated people's access to devices such as tablets and smartphones, making digital platforms more important in terms of marketing. In particular, the fact that social media platforms have been adopted and used intensively by users has enabled the use of these channels as marketing tools and opened new doors for businesses in terms of marketing. Thanks to social media channels, the opportunity to reach many people in a very short time at an affordable cost and the opportunity to establish instant, two-way communication with users has been a driving force for businesses to prefer these platforms as marketing tools. The performance and unit cost of an advertisement set created on social media platforms can differ significantly with a small change in the same advertisement set. In other words, small details such as colour, typeface, call-to-action, etc., which may seem insignificant when creating the advertisement image/content, can significantly affect the cost and performance of the advertisement. In this thesis, by applying A/B tests, it was examined which of the variables such as colour, typeface, discount call and call to action preferred in advertisement creatives performs better; as a result of the data obtained, it was observed that these details, which are not taken into consideration while advertising, significantly affect marketing performance and advertising cost. With this study, it is aimed to shed light on all company managers, especially marketing, sales and advertising departments; to contribute to minimising advertising budgets and maximising marketing performance by creating data-oriented, strategic and conscious advertising creatives. As a result of detailed researches, the strategies used in messages, visuals and content in social media advertisements were analysed and their performances were evaluated. were compared. In this context, the 5 tests detailed below were tested using the A/B test method, which is also referred to as split/divided. Within the scope of "Test 1: Call to Action/Button Test", the "Shop Now" button was used as the A variant, while the "Get More Information" button was used in the B variant. As a result of the test, it was concluded that the image with the "Shop Now" button performed better, received more clicks and had a lower unit cost. Within the scope of "Test 2: Product Photo and Product Video Test", "Advertisement with Product Photo" was used as variant A, and 360-degree video of the same product was used in variant B. As a result of the test, it was concluded that the creative with the product photo performed better, received more clicks and had a lower unit cost. Within the scope of "Test 3: Discount Call Test", an image with a discount call was used as the A variant, and a creative without a discount call was used in the B variant. As a result of the test, it was concluded that the creative without a discount call performed better, received more clicks and had a lower unit cost. Within the scope of "Test 4: Product Background Colour Test", white/light colour background was used in variant A, while black/dark colour background was used in variant B. As a result of the test, no significant difference was observed between the two variants. Within the scope of "Test 5: Writing Font/Character Test", plain writing font was used as variant A and handwriting font was used in variant B. As a result of the test, it was concluded that the creative using a plain font performed better, received more clicks and had a lower unit cost. Keywords: Digital Marketing Strategies, Digital Media, A/B Tests, Social Media Management, Advertising, Social Media Advertising Management, Performance Evaluation