Put Your Web Pages to the A/B Test

Building your website seemed like the hardest part. You’ve bought your domain, chosen a host, designed your pages. You’ve done all these steps, but where is everybody? Why aren’t they converting to clicks and sales? In this article, you will learn what A/B testing is, how to do A/B testing and how to implement it for advertising in order to get the results you desire for your webpage. Don’t stress — test!

What is A/B Testing?

Before you learn how to do A/B testing, it’s important to understand what it is and how it’s used across multiple platforms and mediums. A/B testing, split testing or bucket testing is a way to test two variables against one another. When using A/B testing for advertising, you can have a control page and a variation. The control page stays the same while the variation has the change that you are testing. A/B testing can show you which elements perform better than others. You can make as many variants as you want in order to test multiple elements at once, but it’s best to keep it simple by limiting it to two options. Seeing the difference between two options will make it easier for you to draw clear correlations from your data. Once you collect this data, you can use it to improve your webpage, campaign, headline, newsletter or whatever you’re creating.

Why Do You Need A/B Testing?

Knowledge

Knowing how to do A/B testing is very helpful when it comes to learning the likes and dislikes of your target audience. It can reveal how consumers navigate your page, how much time they spend on it and what elements draw their attention the most. Another reason is that most decisions are driven by data and those decisions yield better results. This was proven by a Harvard Business Review study which came to the conclusion that companies that rely on data can expect a better financial performance. It’s always better to have a map than to go into a situation blind. Knowing how to implement A/B testing can guide you to the answers you’re looking for.

Optimizing Content

A/B testing allows you to improve your performance without recreating the wheel. When optimizing your campaign or webpage, there may only be one or two problems. A/B testing allows you to make small adjustments that have a big impact. Why start over when you can adjust? There’s a long list of elements you can change while A/B testing. A headline, choice of vocabulary, length of content, buttons and links can alter how a visitor interacts with your page. An issue as simple as your font size can make a huge difference in your conversion rate. Editing a single element instead of recreating a new webpage is cost effective and saves time.

Better Results

Making a few key changes can lead to a huge win for anything you test. Results of A/B testing can include higher placement when it comes to search engine results, more interaction with your page, a smoother experience for your customers and higher conversion rates. There is no downside to having more information. Even if you discover that what you’re doing is not effective, you have a clear idea of what doesn’t work. Once you learn how to do A/B testing, You can then use this as your first step to creating something that produces the outcome you desire.

It’s Proven to Work

When a case study was performed on an e-commerce brand, Grene saw a 2x increase in overall purchase quantity. What did they do to achieve this amazing result in such a short amount of time? While analyzing their mini cart page, Grene’s team discovered users were having difficulties finding the sum total of each item and didn’t realize they were on the cart page, creating friction within the user experience. A simple layout change made their product more approachable to their customers and Grene saw this reflected in their conversion rate which increased from 1.83% to 1.96% and they saw two times the amount of individual items purchased. Agencies, like Appleton Creative, go through extensive A/B testing when creating and optimizing websites for clients. Experts in this field have the process down to a science and can produce great results for any industry. Now that you’ve seen the results, you probably want to know how to implement A/B testing.

How to do A/B Testing

Now that we’ve answered “what is A/B testing” it’s time to show you how to implement ab testing for advertising. First, determine the variables you want to test, identify a goal and split the sample group in half. Once you’ve done that you can begin the experiment through an A/B testing tool. After the A/B test has been implemented, you sit back and wait for the results. If you have difficulty working the software or trouble interpreting the results, there are agencies that are experts in that know how to do A/B testing and can run the test for you.

Ready to put your hypothesis to the test? Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service Orlando digital marketing agency. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to deliver custom content, persuasive online ads and expertly crafted campaigns. By implementing valuable and shareable digital content strategies, Appleton can create the perfect social and digital marketing experience for your brand and audience. Your Internet advertising goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.