The State of Digital Ad Testing & Validation in 2025

Quantifying ad spend inefficiency in the creative-to-validation cycle. Research study of marketing leaders managing $380M+ in annual ad spend.

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You’re Wasting 30% of Your Ad Budget. Here’s Why.

If you’re a marketing leader managing campaigns, you already know the feeling: launching ads, waiting weeks for data, and watching budget burn while you wonder if your message is even resonating.

We surveyed marketing leaders managing over $380M in combined annual ad spend to quantify what you’re experiencing every day. The numbers are worse than you think, and the solution is closer than you realize.

0%
of Ad Budget Wasted

Marketing leaders admit to flushing 29.6% of their monthly ad budgets down the drain, and they know it’s happening in real-time.

0%
Want Faster Validation

Desperately wish for faster ways to know if their ads will work before spending a dime.

0
Weeks to Confidence

Average time from “What if we try this?” to “We know this works”, including 6.7 days pre-launch and 11.2 days post-launch.

1/3
Disagree Automation Works

Platform automation tools like Google PMax and Meta Advantage+ aren’t replacing the need for proper testing.

The Validation Timeline Problem

The research shows that marketing teams spend an average of 6.7 days in pre-launch activities (developing creative, setting up targeting, building landing pages) followed by 11.2 days of post-launch budget spending before achieving confidence in campaign performance. This 3.6-week cycle means significant budget allocation occurs before validation.

90.7% of marketing leaders report wanting faster validation methods. Despite having access to more data than ever, teams are making decisions based on limited information because traditional validation processes take too long and are cost-prohibitive.

The core issue identified in the research is workflow timing: validation typically occurs after teams have already invested weeks of development time and thousands of dollars in ad spend, rather than before these investments are made.

Research finding: When teams run conclusive A/B tests, they observe an average 34% performance lift. The performance difference between underperforming and winning ads typically ranges from 30-50%. The data indicates that testing effectiveness is highest when conducted before significant budget allocation, not after.

Research Methodology

This study’s findings are based on an anonymous survey of marketing leaders and practitioners managing $380M+ in combined annual ad spend, conducted in November 2025. Participants were sourced from verified research panels and screened to ensure they are active decision-makers in marketing and advertising activities within their organizations.

Company Types

  • 51.9% B2C companies
  • 42.6% B2B companies
  • 13% D2C/e-commerce companies

Geographic Distribution

  • United Kingdom
  • North America
  • European Union
  • Other regions