A/B Testing is an experimental website marketing strategy. It involves creating two versions of a web page or an element on the page. Both versions are active, with some visitors getting to see the first and others the latter.
A/B Testing Strategy helps a business to understand which version creates the best impact. This helps them fine-tune their website, so it meets user requirements better. It is a digital marketing strategy that helps businesses make decisions based on data.
We look at all you want to know about A/B testing and its use for your website.
The Basics of A/B Testing
A/B testing is a powerful website marketing strategy that will help you decide what can attract visitors better. Let us assume you have two designs on a web page that you find attractive. You are not sure which one to use. Let’s call the first design ‘A.’ It can be the control or the original variable in testing.
The second design is ‘B’, which is a variant or a modified version of A. This is where A/B testing can help you. Now, you need to decide whether to use A or B on your website. The objective is to find the best strategy that would help you get traffic.
In A/B testing, you use both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ designs. The website is configured in such a way that some visitors will see A, and some will see B. Through your website, you will collect data from user visits. The metrics of user data will tell you which design got more clicks or which design saw better engagement, etc. After some time, compare the data, and you will know which the winner is.
By doing this test, you get to decide which strategy is best for you. Instead of guesswork, you have a data-based approach to deciding on a strategy. Using A/B testing, you will be able to decide which strategy gets you the result.
Why do A/B testing?
The various benefits that A/B testing offers explain why you should implement these strategies.
Take a look at these benefits:
1) Ensures better quality content
The content you have on your website would decide the traffic you get. If you offer content that is attractive, useful, and well-presented, you will get more visitors. To know if your content is good, you can do A/B testing to get reactions from visitors about your content.
2) Helps enhance user experience
UX or user experience is critical to the success of a website. If you offer users a great experience, then they will keep visiting your website and become leads that can be converted to customers. A/B testing helps you decide what elements to use on a page to enhance the user experience. From content to images and videos to forms, you can test all elements to decide which helps you engage better with users.
3) Helps in reducing bounce rate
When a user visits your website but leaves quickly, it is a sign they are not happy with what they saw. Making them stay on the website for a longer time is critical since it increases the chance of getting new customers. With A/B testing, you will know what helps in keeping visitors on your website, thus reducing bounce rates.
4) Increase conversion rates
The purpose of a website is to convert the visitor into a lead or a customer. What the user sees on your website will help in the conversion. When you do A/B testing, you can create your website in such a way that more users sign up or make a purchase. This leads to higher conversion rates and better business prospects.
5) Plan incremental changes to the website
Most people believe they need to change their entire website or entire pages to get better results. This is not so! A few elements like text or images or CTA (call to action) can be changed to achieve the desired results. With A/B testing, you can now decide what minor changes can be made. This is a risk-free way to make changes to your website.
6) Makes analysis easy and quick
Analysis tells you whether strategy A is a winner or B. A/B testing makes use of statistical analysis to help you clearly understand what the numbers are saying. The metrics from your website will help you make the analysis easily and quickly.
7) You can test just about anything
One of the biggest benefits of A/B testing is that you can test anything you want. Whether it is text, the color of the CTA button, the length of a form, or the size of a video, you can test them all. A/B testing makes it possible to test any or all of the following:
- The content, including the headlines and the body, and even the formatting can be tested.
- The layout and design of a page.
- Navigation elements on a page.
- Forms used.
- Call to action.
Implementing A/B Testing
When you employ A/B testing, you can create different strategies for using website marketing for businesses. Each strategy can have different elements for your website. Test them, get the metrics, do the analysis, and decide which strategy works best. This is a logical and systematic way of using website marketing for businesses to get the best results.
Let’s see how to go ahead and implement A/B testing. First, decide which elements of your website you want to test. You must note that A/B testing is for websites that have decent traffic. It doesn’t make sense to implement A/B testing on a website with no traffic or very less traffic. The following explains how to implement A/B testing on your website:
- You can either do the test yourself or take the help of a web marketing company for it. If you work with an agency, they will run the test and present you the results with analysis.
- If you decide to run the test yourself, you need to use tools for it. Some of the tools you can use are Omniconvert, VWO, or Optimizely. Google Content Experiments is another tool that can be used.
- You can view the data after testing out your strategies and, based on conversion rates, decide which is the best.
AUTHOR BIO:
Maggie Simmons writes insanely helpful marketing insights. She works as a Marketing Manager at Max Effect Marketing, a leading digital agency located in Denver, Colorado.
