A/B testing has a wide range of benefits, but like any marketing strategy, you need to integrate it properly to your site to be effective. In this article, we’ll be looking at the different advantages A/B testing provides and how to best implement these techniques to cater to your business.
So What is A/B testing?
A/B testing is commonly referred to as split testing, and it’s a form of experimentation that gives you insight into how your target audience responds to variations of a visual element. This could be utilized on landing pages, blog posts, and even ad platforms to determine what your target audience seems to prefer.
Essentially, two versions of the same thing that have slight variances are presented to the visitor. Depending on which version pushes your business metric in the direction you want, you’re able to fully implement it and improve micro-metrics such as click-through rates or the time a visitor spends on site.
Why should I care about A/B testing?
A/B testing is an essential part of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and businesses miss out on a lot of potential revenue when they neglect the qualitative and quantitative data. Visitors navigating to your site most likely have a goal in mind, whether they’re trying to learn more about what you offer or simply browse, so ensuring that they have a good user experience can positively impact your conversion rates.
What are some things I can A/B test?
All content you put out could potentially be A/B tested, but elements that could persuade the behavior of your target audience and influence your conversion rate should definitely be optimized.
Here are some elements that you might consider running tests on:
1. Copy
When you’re coming up with original content, captivating your readers with the title of your post or the headline of your page is key to getting them to stay on your site. We recommend A/B testing different fonts, word choice, and even writing style to see what gets the most clicks and time on-site. The textual content of your site should also be helpful for the visitor. Whether it’s details about the product they’re interested in or an informative blog post, it should be formatted nicely with proper tonality customized for your target audience.
2. Design
Approach your website as if you were a visitor looking for more information. Does your product page answer all the questions they might have? Be clear and concise with your product descriptions and find creative ways to give them all the necessary information to make an informed purchasing decision. Use A/B testing to experiment with wording, images, videos, or even discount offers.
3. Navigation
Run A/B tests on how your website navigates. Does it contribute to a positive user experience or does it leave them confused? Your home page is where their experience starts so be sure that visitors are able to find what they’re looking for by matching their expectations. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel and it’s better that your navigation is predictable. Potential customers who are satisfied with their time on your site are more likely to return and even convert.
4. Reviews
Having reviews or recommendations helps the reputation of your brand and validates what you say about your own products or services. Including both good and bad reviews also adds to the credibility of your score. A/B test could include figuring out how many and what kind of reviews you should add as well as the best placement.
5. Call-to-Action (CTA) and Forms
Optimizing your CTA is so important to improving your CRO. With A/B testing, you’re able to see what wording and what design works best with your audience by monitoring which version visitors are more likely to act on. Forms are similar in the sense that you should test several formats to see what works best for your audience. Short forms may seem less intimidating for some people while others may prefer the detail and engagement longer forms provide.
If your ultimate goal is to make sales, keep all these things in mind to optimize your website’s conversion rate.
When looking to make front-end changes to your design, A/B testing is an excellent way to see what works best. However, most business owners struggle when it comes to picking which variable to test first.
Understanding the importance of both quantitative data and qualitative data is key to knowing what A/B tests would be the most beneficial to test first. There’s no need to test every element on your website. Do your research to find sore spots in your sales funnel, formulate your hypothesis, and test changes where you know changes are needed. All versions that you test should be running for the same amount of time and ideally would run long enough to include a full week of traffic.
If you’re thinking, “Well, this all sounds great but it seems like it’s a lot of work to manage and monitor on my own”, we’d be happy to help you get started with a free audit of your website!