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You should never run one ad. You should run at least two - and test which one is working better. This is called A/B split test. If one of the ads works better - you call it "Control" - and then try to beat it by creating an even better working ad campaign.
There are many components to test:
Once you have an ad which is working very well - you can tweak it little-by-little by changing one thing at a time and monitoring results. But when you are just starting - you can use a broader approach. Make several ads completely different.
Yet another interesting way to test is to use the Taguchi Method (Dr. Genichi Taguchi, 1940). There are many web sites and books (Robust Engineering - Genichi Taguchi, et al (1999). The idea is, that you make a list of several control factors that you think may influence the results of the ad campaing for particular audience/product (anything, including graphics, colors, use of humor, etc.). You then use a special methodology to prepare tests (test ads/mailings) to test influences of those factors separately and in combinations. Finaly you use mathematical analysis (P-Diagram, Ideal Function, Quadratic Loss Function, Signal-to-Noise Ratio, Orthogonal Arrays). Here are some articles on the subject:
"The approach condenses the experience of investigating billions of possible combinations for an ad, including copy words, graphics, visual impression sequence, and integration with a larger sales system, into a few dozen mailings or e-mailings," says Fantoni. "It is also a psychological approach that carefully considers what potential readers want to read. Copywriters and artists still have to write the words and draw the pictures that follow the procedures derived from the experiments, but once they become accustomed to actually knowing why what they do works, it becomes a way of life."
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