How/what are folks using to test the effectiveness of digital creative messaging as well as imagery that we pair with the message in the advertising space? Question is for a conversion based campaign as well as an awareness/consideration based campaign. Looking for guidance on KPI's or potential vendors.

When we’re testing larger brand awareness campaigns, we utilize a more holistic approach and might use various vendors. We have used research companies, focus groups, surveys, and digital platforms and tools such as hotjar. 

For creative testing for performance /conversion spend, we often use the platform itself e.g. Facebook or Click Dimensions to A/B test to help us evaluate against key KPI’s in realtime. 

We’re using CreativeX to pre-test our assets against platform best practices. i.e.  YouTube and Meta proven criteria to increase awareness and brand recall. 

Then we use methodologies such as dynamic creative optimization (based on various performance KPIs such as CTR or post click engagement) to optimize creative message (or creative elements) to performance.  Many vendors in this space such as Innovid.

In my experience there’s a few tools to see how effective messaging and imagery are. I would put A+B testing at the top of my list, however, eye tracking or hot zone tracking can be useful too if you are looking at larger more complex digital assets.

Our digital campaigns generally have 3-4 image/message versions and we can track CTRs. Same campaign, overall theme for messages, and campaign objective with 3-4 versions to test.

Two thoughts for you: 
1) Webeo, a software provider that personalizes the website 
2) CensusWide, a research firm that can test creative before you put it in market (campaign messages/creative, user testing, etc)