Create an A/B test to compare Classic and Accelerate ad sets

Last updated: 1 week ago

When creating a Classic brand awareness, website visits, engagement, video views, lead generation, or website conversions ad set, you'll have an opportunity to create an A/B test to compare performance to LinkedIn's AI-powered Accelerate ad set. A/B Testing supports both Classic and Accelerate ad sets, which means you can test a Classic ad set against an AI-powered Accelerate ad set to determine ad set impact.

To maximize result reliability, an A/B test and a Brand Lift test can't run simultaneously in the same account.

Important to know

• Due to new European law, A/B Testing will temporarily restrict targeting members in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland. Please note that for any test targeting these regions between October 8, 2023, and February 5, 2024, we retroactively re-processed the test results and filtered out actions from members in the EEA and Switzerland who have chosen not to connect their Marketing Solutions services to their core LinkedIn experience. Learn more.
• A/B Testing for Accelerate is currently available for ad sets that meet our A/B test requirements.
• From late August 2024, the messaging objective is no longer available in Campaign Manager. See the Messaging objective is no longer available article for more information.

Prerequisite

Important to know

If your Classic ad set doesn’t meet the requirements, you can’t test against an Accelerate ad set.

To create an A/B test to compare Classic and Accelerate ad sets:

  1. In the Classic ad set you’ve created, go to the Review & Launch page.

    1. New ad set - If you're creating a new ad set, you'll go to the Review & Launch page after selecting your ad set settings. 
    2. Existing ad set - You can edit an existing Classic ad set to meet the requirements and test against an Accelerate ad set.  

  2. Click Finish ad set setup.

  3. In the Consider A/B Testing this ad set dialog, click Create A/B test.

    1. The Consider A/B Testing this ad set dialog won’t display if your Classic ad set doesn’t meet the requirements.
    2. You can decide not to create an A/B test by clicking Launch Classic ad set only.

  4. In the A/B Test page, complete the following steps to create the Accelerate ad set you’ll test against.

    1. Enter a descriptive test name in the A/B test name field.
    2. From the Test metric dropdown menu, select your preferred test metric. The objective, budget, schedule, and ad format will remain the same in your Classic and Accelerate ad sets.
    3. From the Test budget dropdown menu, select either lifetime budget or daily budget.
    4. Confirm or change the required budget in the budget text box.
    5. In the Ad sets in this A/B test section, review the names and budget of the two ad sets that you want to run in the A/B test.
    6. In the Schedule section, enter the Start date and End date for the A/B test. When the A/B test ends, both ad sets pause. An A/B test needs to run for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 90 days. 

  5. Click Next to complete and move to the Accelerate ad set creation flow.

  6. Enter your Product name and Product URL in the fields provided and click the Draft ad set button.

  7. Review the ad set draft and make changes as needed.

  8. Click the Launch ad set button in the lower-right corner of the page after you've completed your review.

Results

  • A confirmation dialog confirms the ads in your Accelerate and Classic ad sets will serve as soon as they’re approved. The A/B test begins once your ads are approved.
  • Click View A/B Test to view your test on the Test page of Campaign Manager.

Related tasks

Learn more

Learn how to create different types of A/B tests