A/B split testing involves doing a test on two different versions on the same marketing campaign to see which one performs better. Two tests are set up; controlled test (Test A) and variant test (Test B). The variant test contains the change to one of the elements in the marketing campaign while the controlled test remains unchanged.
This type of testing is done to improve the goals of your marketing campaign by analyzing the results that such a change might have against a controlled test (benchmark).
Once you have the results of your test, you can then incorporate the better performing one into your marketing campaign to achieve a far better outcome in reaching your goals.
For instance, your goals might be to optimize your marketing campaign to achieve the following:
- Increase Email Opt-ins to Grow Your Email List
- Increase Email Open Rates for Greater Customer Response
- Increase Advertising Click-Through Rates
- Increase Conversions and ROI (Return on Investment)
Or, your goal might be to decrease website bounce rates (people quickly leaving your website) in order to increase customer satisfaction and retention.
A/B split testing allows you to optimize your marketing campaign to its fullest extent possible and make it more effective and responsive by replacing (or eliminating) the last “weakest link” that is under performing.
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A/B Split Testing – Elements
There are many elements that you can change in your marketing campaign to see what kind of impact it would possibly have. For example, you could make changes to any one of the following:
- Headlines
- Landing Pages
- Banner Ads
- Text Ads
- Emails
- Subject Lines
- Content
- Call-to-Action
- Opt-in Forms
- Logo Design
- Adding – Images or Videos
- Adding – Customer’s Testimonials or Social Sharing Icons
- Color Schemes, and Font Sizes and Styles
- Design and Color of Clickable Buttons
- And, Other Elements
Let’s say you will be doing email marketing, you could test what the affect would be on new email sign-ups when changing the design or color scheme of your email opt-in form. Did the change have a positive or negative effect on the new email sign-ups, or were the results just about the same between the two tests – controlled test (Test A) and the variant test (Test B)?
Basic A/B Split Testing Set-up
A basic A/B split testing set-up may be conducted with using the following scenario:
- Test A (The Controlled Test)
- Test B (Contains the Change)
Because Test A is the controlled test (unchanged element) and Test B contains the change, you can see the impact that such a change would have on your marketing campaign once the test is completed. This will give you the chance to evaluate the results of the test and assess whether or not it’s improving or worsening the goals of your marketing campaign.
Let’s do a hypothetical example for conducting an A/B split test to see the affects on the click-through rate when changing the wording on your call-to-action clickable button embedded on your landing page.
- Test A (current wording): Click Here to Buy
- Test B (proposed wording): Buy Now – 40% Discount
We will assume for purposes of our hypothetical example that the click-through rate increased by 20% from using the proposed wording of Test B over the current wording of Test A. So, the prudent thing to do would be to change the wording on the call-to-action clickable button to that of Test B – the clear winner!
You can use a links rotator to split an equal amount of traffic (visitors) where they will be sent to two different versions of the same marketing campaign when doing your A/B split test (50% to Test A and 50% to Test B).
After you have done your testing and optimized your marketing campaign to make it convert more profitably, you can then start to scale it up (sending more quality traffic to it) to increase your conversions and your return on investment (ROI).
Affiliate Partner
Tip: By offering greater assurances or providing more attractive incentives for your promotional offers, they can greatly improve your marketing campaign goals such as using the following proven tactics:
- Providing a Free Trial Offer (or Free Gift)
- Having a 100% Money Back Guarantee
- Offering Discounts (Buy now and save 40%)
- Creating Urgency (While limited quantities last)
Finally
A/B split testing can greatly help you to optimize your marketing campaigns to make them more effective and responsive which can significantly improve your goals and be way ahead of the competition! That’s why professional Internet marketers and businesses of all kinds do A/B split testing extensively… to increase the bottom line!