Some time ago, I
posted on Taguchi method for testing ad effectiveness. Taguchi method can take a project with thousands and quickly reduce it to a couple dozen simple experiments that can be run simultaneously and will determine the cheapest way to achieve a goal. Now check out a free Taguchi-based online tool called
AdComparator that allows you to compare many ad elements against campaign response rates online. Don't know how reliable the results of this particular tool are, but at least it demonstrates the method's benefits.