Spent the last few years running paid traffic, and the #1 mistake I see: people A/B test creative before they've locked audience segmentation and negative keywords. You end up 'testing' noise, not signal.

Here's the order that actually works:

1. Segment first. Break your audience into 3-4 distinct groups by intent, not demographics. "Women 25-34" tells you nothing. "Cart abandoners in the last 7 days" does.

2. Kill wasted spend. Build a negative keyword list before your first dollar goes to Google Search. Most accounts bleed 15-30% of budget on irrelevant queries in month one.

3. Then test copy. Once your audience and targeting are clean, THAT's when ad copy variation actually tells you something. Testing headlines against a messy audience is just noise wearing a lab coat.

4. Re-test monthly. Meta and Google shift algorithm weighting constantly — what worked in January is often dead by March. Build a habit of revisiting, not a one-and-done test.

Started AdForge AI to systemize this process with AI-generated prompt frameworks for each step. If you're running ads and tired of guessing, happy to swap notes in the comments.