What Is A/B Testing and Why Does it Matter?
A/B testing is a marketing strategy that pits two different versions of a website, advert, email, popup, or landing page, against each other to see which is most effective. A/B testing is essentially an experiment where two or more page variants are shown to users at random and statistical analysis is used to determine which variation performs better for a given conversion goal.
Split tests provide critical insights on where and how to invest your marketing budget and give you the courage to take potentially risky moves. As a result, you can ensure that every change produces positive results.
Why should my business implement testing?
Split testing allows individuals, teams and companies to prove or disprove hypotheses, learn why some aspects of their experiences impact user behaviour and make careful changes to their user experiences.
While collecting data on the results, you can figure out exactly which marketing strategies work best for your company and your product. An opinion about the best experience for a given goal can be proven wrong through a split test.
When done consistently, testing can improve your results substantially. If you know what works and what doesn’t (and have evidence to back it up), it’s easier to make decisions and craft more effective marketing strategies in the long run.
More than just answering a one-off question or settling a disagreement, A/B tests can be used to continually improve a given experience or improve a single goal like conversion rate over time.
Things that you can test:
- changes to a user experience
- the impact of new features
- product onboarding
- user engagement
- and more
The Main Benefits Of A/B Testing
- Improved Content Engagement
- Improved user engagement
- Reduced Bounce Rates
- Increased Conversion Rates
- Higher conversion values
- Ease of analysis
- Quick results
- Everything is testable
- Reduced risks
- Reduced cart abandonment
- Increased sales
How To Conduct Efficient A/B Testing
- Pick one variable to test.
- Divide your audience equally and randomly.
- Test simultaneously.
- Give tests time to run.
- Measure your results.
- Take action based on results.
Pay attention to your results and use what you learn.
Not much is free in the marketing and advertising world, but we’ve found that A/B testing is one of the most cost-effective solutions. The insights and knowledge you can gain about your audience’s preferences are invaluable, and you can use them across all levels of the content you produce.
When To Use Split Tests
Short answer: Always!. The more realistic answer is whenever you can.
With the chaos of managing a business and dealing with many moving parts, it may be unrealistic to commit to A/B testing on everything you put out. While conducting continual A/B testing is ideal, it’s essential to set goals and be intentional about your testing.
The content you be A/B testing:
- Emails
- Webpages
- Facebook ads
- Social media posts
- Blog titles
- Calls to action
Essentially, you can split test everything that your target audience sees from your business.
Success A/B Testing Examples
- Discovery A/B tested the components of their video player to engage with their TV show ‘superfan.’ The result? A 6% increase in video engagement.
- Secret Escapes tested variations of their mobile signup pages, doubling conversion rates and increasing lifetime value.
- Lakeside Cultus Lake – See how we tested different variations of content for this client.
A/B Testing Conclusion
A/B testing is your lead generation strategy’s best friend.
