HoldFast Guides

Audience Testing

Put two versions in front of real viewers and get an honest read on which one landed.

How audience testing works

Show two versions to two fresh groups of people, one version per viewer, and get back a plain-language read on which one landed.

Understanding your verdict: what 'no clear winner' means

What the report tells you, in the order it tells you, and why an inconclusive result is a finding you can use rather than a failed test.

Test video ad cuts with a consumer panel before client review

Two cuts, one client meeting, a split room. The five-step workflow that puts both cuts in front of a consumer panel and brings the report to the review link.

Who should watch this: choosing an audience

Pick who watches before you spend a credit: the general-population default that fills fastest, and when a narrower age or gender group is worth the higher cost.

Credits and packs

How audience testing is metered: one credit is one dollar, a test quotes by sample size and targeting, and sending it to your own viewers is free.

What does a test cost?

The shape of the number before you open the wizard: what drives the price of a test, what common sizes run, and why the quote you approve is the price you pay.

Audience testing isn't behaving

The three snags that stall an audience test: a launch that will not go, a fill that is crawling, a report with no winner, and the fix for each.

Choosing a test type

The first decision in the wizard, organized by the question you are actually asking rather than by the name of a template.

Preparing a fair test

A test can only answer the question you built it to answer. What to hold steady, what to vary, and how to choose a length you can defend.

Reading your report

What each section of the report is for, what every verdict word means, and which people the scores are counted over.

Brand lift: measuring recall against a baseline

A holdout that sees nothing gives you a baseline. Lift is the distance your creative puts between them, read for exactly what it is worth.

How long a test takes

What actually governs the clock: results land when the committed sample is reached, not on a deadline, and the test closes itself when it gets there.

Run a Hook Strength test

Two openings, two fresh groups, and one question that decides it: how much people wanted to keep watching.

Run an Attention and Hook test

The fuller read on your open: the same opening-interest score as a hook test, with pacing and skip-intent as diagnostics.

Run a Thumb-Stop test

The share of people who say they would stop for this in a moving feed, plus what actually registered in the glance.

Run a Message Clarity test

Which version gets your point across, rated by the people who met it cold, with their own one-sentence takeaways beside the score.

Run a Product Comprehension test

Which explanation makes people get it, checked against their own description of what the product does and who it is for.

Run a Call-to-Action Clarity test

Which version makes the next step unmistakable, checked against what viewers actually thought you were asking them to do.

Run an Emotional Response test on a brand film

Which brand-building version evokes the kinds of feeling associated with long-term growth, read as a share rather than an average.

Run an Emotional Response test on a response ad

For an ad that has to hit now: how strong the reaction was, and how quickly the brand registered while it happened.

Run an Enjoyment test

The plainest question you can ask a stranger about your work, with the two open answers that make the score usable.

Run a Shareability test

For content meant to travel: how likely people say they are to pass it on, and who they picture sending it to.

Run an Ad Recall test

Whether people remember whose ad it was, asked unprompted first and then from a short list of real brands.

Run a Brand Attribution test

Which version makes it clear whose piece this is, and how fast, with the branding element people actually noticed.

Run a Trust and Credibility test

Which version feels believable rather than staged, with the genuine-or-scripted question that usually explains the score.

Run a Purchase Intent test

Which version leaves people more inclined to buy, read strictly as a comparison between the two and never as a sales forecast.

Run a Consideration and Advocacy test

Which version moves people toward considering or recommending the brand, with their own reason for the score.

Run an Offer Resonance test

Which framing of the same offer lands better: the discount, the bundle, the value message, rated by people meeting it cold.

Run an Audience Fit test

Whether your target sees themselves in the work, scored as the share who say it felt made for someone like them.

Run an Ad-vs-Organic Feel test

Whether people read the work as content or as advertising, scored as the share who lean organic and told in their own words why.

Run a Spokesperson Fit test

Which on-camera talent holds people for the same script, and the one condition that makes the answer mean anything.

Run a Creative Comparison test

The fastest broad read in the library, and the recommended starting point when the argument is only which version is better.

Run a Competitive Positioning test

How your work ranks against the category people already carry in their heads, and which brand they name first when they think of it.

Ready to try it?

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