A/B testing and Marketing

In short, A/B testing is a marketing technique used to decipher which version of a specific marketing campaign, website or platform is most effective, user-friendly and popular.

Is A/B testing necessary?

Yes it is. A/B testing is a great way to find out which campaigns, part of a platform or website is the most effective in terms of conversion rate (generating leads/prospects and converting them into clients). To put this in an example, it is always better to trial and error as opposed to assuming which method works best. Exposing your prospects to two different versions of your website, will give you a much better idea of which version to use in order to achieve your end goal.

You are testing to see the effectiveness of features such as layout, color palettes, keywords and imaging. It goes without saying that minute changes, could have a massive impact on results. Split testing all those features will help you understand your target audience’s preferences when it come to your niche. What works for one age group in one specific niche wouldn’t necessarily work in another.

A/B testing and SEO

SEO can be improved meaningfully by changes implemented from results gathered from A/B tests. A great tweak for example, is the enhancement of a webpage’s loading time. Why would loading time effect SEO? Google, the world’s most valued and esteemed index, ranks webpages not only in order of traffic and topic enhance, but also loading time. To put this in an example, if you and a competitor have the exact same amount of SEO and topic relevance when it comes to your website’s content but you have a loading time of 2 seconds while he has a loading time of 1, then he will rank higher than you.

What features should you be A/B testing?

• Header and content: On appealing header is bound to entice your visitors or in the case of an email campaign an enticing subject is bound to increase your open rates. Understanding the type of content your audience prefers and adapting your strategy accordingly will definitely help improve your results.
• Calls to Action (CTA): A compelling call to action will make your prospects enable to resist registering their details. Alterations to the button colors of your CTAs can potentially make or break your campaign’s or webpage’s ability to generate qualifies, convertible leads.
• Customer reviews:
  • “61% of customers read online reviews before choosing to buy a product or service”
  • “100% of those aged 18-29 said they check reviews before completing an online purchase.”

So, it is without a doubt that social proof is a very strong influencer when it comes to driving consumerism. The above statistics clearly show us that more than 60% of prospects refer to social proof during their decision-making process and so there is no arguing that it is a crucial marketing feature.

 Conducting proper A/B testing

• Reduce common issues that prospects face when visiting your webpage.
• Increase your ROI (Return on Investment) simply by adapting your marketing strategy based on results you find without having to increase your investment.

What to avoid when A/B testing:

• Changing to many variables in one go: this will make it impossible for you to keep track of what is working and what isn’t making it very difficult for you to recreate the results.
• Running your split test for too long or too short of a period: this will make you run the risk of getting inconclusive and inaccurate result because your bounce rates, operates and conversion rates will be affected by other factors.

A/B testing has proven one of the most effective methods in terms of efficiency and accuracy in results. Have you ever heard the saying “Unless you ask the answer is always no?” In this case unless you test you will never know, so layout your objectives and start testing!