You can't unshow someone an ad.
Testing in-market costs more than media. Every impression is a brand impression, including the forgettable ones. By the time the platform picks a winning variant, your buyers have already seen the ones that lost.
And most of what they see sounds the same.
AI-powered/ all-in-one/ save hours/ stay compliant/ free 2026 report/ join our webinar/ employee experience/ trusted by 10,000 teams/ yours
Your audience has seen this ad before. Just not from you.
Claims that repeat across HR vendor ads on LinkedIn.
Your ad competes with every brand trying to reach HR.
A payroll ad shares the feed with HRIS, benefits, recruiting, wellness and learning platforms, all paying for the same HR leader's attention. Your category competitors are a small slice of what your buyer scrolls past.
That's who OUTSHOUT tests you against. We choose the ads in your study by who they target, not what they sell, so your draft sits in the feed your buyers actually see.
payroll
benefits
recruiting
HRIS
wellness
yours
Before you buy their attention, find out who's already competing for it.
A real feed. Verified buyers. No live budget.
1
Send your drafts
2 to 4 ads, finished or rough. Single image, video, carousel, thought leader or text only.
2
We build the feed
Your ads go in among organic HR posts and real ads from brands targeting the same buyers.
3
HR leaders scroll
20 HR directors, heads of people and VPs, verified by work email. They scroll the way they normally do. Nobody tells them which ad is yours.
4
You get the readout
A scorecard for every ad, what participants said in their own words, and what to change before launch.
Find out what they remember, and who they think it was from.
Every ad is scored on the same questions.
- NoticedDid they stop on it, or scroll past?
- RememberedCould they name your brand afterwards, with no prompting?
- Credited to youWith the logo hidden, did they know it was yours?
- Mistaken for someone elseDid they give your ad to a competitor?
- UnderstoodIn their own words, what did they think you were offering?
- What to changeSpecific fixes from someone who has managed paid media budgets for a decade.
Pre-flight scorecard
sample data, fictional brandA fictional payroll brand, 3 ads, 20 verified HR leaders.
Ad 1: catch payroll errors Run this
Ad 2: AI review on every run
Ad 3: the payroll report
Competitor average
Twenty people show you big gaps clearly. They won't settle small ones, and the readout says so.
A/B testing tells you which ad wins. Not whether either is worth running.
Keep your A/B tests. They answer a different question.
| Method | The question it answers | When you get the answer |
|---|---|---|
| A/B testing | Which of our ads gets better results? | After launch, with live budget |
| Brand lift study | Did the campaign move awareness? | During or after a campaign, at scale |
| Creative testing panel | Which ad do people prefer when they're asked to look at it? | Before launch |
| Ad library | What are other brands running? | Any time, with no audience reaction |
| OUTSHOUT | Does anyone notice or remember your ad among everything else in their feed? | Before launch |
Use them together. OUTSHOUT is the one that runs before your audience sees anything.
Test the claim, the creative, or the finished ad.
Before design
Message test
Which claim do HR leaders remember, believe and see as yours? Find out if someone else already owns it.
Before production
Creative test
One message, a few treatments. See which gets noticed before you build the campaign.
Before launch
In-feed test
Finished ads, a realistic feed, real competing ads. The last check before budget goes live.
Works with
Single imageVideoCarouselThought leaderText onlyBuilt for
HR tech marketers
Launching a campaign, a rebrand or a new category message.
Agencies
Want a pre-launch check to show clients. White-label reports available.
Founders
With one launch budget and no room to learn the expensive way.
Built by someone who's paid for the lesson.
OUTSHOUT was founded by Shelby Ibbotson. She's spent a decade running paid media for B2B SaaS and DTC brands, at agencies and on her own, across North America, the UK and APAC, with more than $10M in ad spend behind her.
"I watched smart teams launch ads that looked like everyone else's, then spend weeks of budget learning nobody noticed. The test should happen before the audience sees anything. So I built it."Shelby Ibbotson, founder
The fine print.
Does OUTSHOUT predict how my ads will perform?
No. We measure whether real buyers notice, remember and correctly attribute your ads in a realistic feed. We don't forecast CTR, CPL or conversions.
Is this software?
No. OUTSHOUT is a research service. We build each study, recruit and verify participants, and walk you through the results. You don't upload ads and wait for a dashboard.
Who are the participants?
HR directors, heads of people, VPs of HR and CHROs, recruited through a B2B research panel and verified by work email. Each one is paid for their time. Studies can be limited by company size, region and seniority.
Is 20 people enough?
For a clear direction, yes. Twenty people won't give you statistical significance on small differences, and the report says so plainly. Big gaps, like one ad being remembered four times as often as another, show up clearly at this size. Larger studies are available when you need more confidence.
How realistic is the feed?
It looks and behaves like the one they use every day: posts from other HR people, comments, real ads from other brands, video that autoplays. Participants aren't told which ad is being tested.
Do my ads stay private?
Yes. Your drafts are only shown to study participants. They're never published or shared with other clients.
Which audiences do you test?
HR and people leaders today. Finance, IT and operations buyers are next. If you sell to someone else, tell us who.
How long does it take?
About two weeks from receiving your ads to the readout.
Run the test before your audience does.
Tell us what you're launching and who it's for. We'll come back within one business day with a study plan and a quote.