The A/B Testing is a wonderful way for businesses to effectively test their online marketing strategies and get the best out of their existing traffic. With A/B Testing, you take the guesswork out of website optimization and validate that any prospective change to your website is improving its conversion before you move on to change your site code.
Testing and measuring the effectiveness of the online promotional and marketing strategies can make a big difference in your marketing efforts. At the end of the day, it's all about hitting the sweet spot, and maximizing return by persisting with the changes that convert best.
For those who are new to A/B testing, we have listed a few basic concepts you have to consider in order to ensure better results from your campaigns.
1. Don't assume anything before conducting an A/B testing
Before conducting any A/B Testing, don't hold onto any assumptions about your audience. Just because a certain marketing strategy works for Company C does not mean it will work for you. Take an example of the call to action button (CTA). One may expect the conversion to increase when larger buttons are used (after all that is what the experts say). The gurus in marketing may claim yellow buttons convert better, but what if the results are otherwise. Your audience might prove otherwise and you should always customize your strategies according to your target audience. Hence the need to avoid any assumptions when performing the test.
It is important to test your strategies with a hypothesis but never presume. In most instances, the results will be the opposite of what you expect.
2. Perform a qualitative analysis to understand what your audience needs
Most businesses perform a quantitative analysis to understand what their business need. Asking direct questions is a great way to know what your customers need. However, in most cases, the quantitative analysis might not be the best option when it comes to conducting an A/B Testing. Some businesses still perform poorly with a good quantitative analysis.
A qualitative analysis will enable you to know the problem people visiting your website are facing. In a study conducted by Groove, clients were directly called and asked their expectation from Groove. The sales page was then framed in a manner that resonated with the customers demand. The secret is usually allowing customers give a direct feedback of their experience. With this information, it will be easier for businesses to perform a better A/B Test.
3. Ensure that your test results are statistically significant
In simple words, statistical significance means being sure the results you get are reliable. There should be a low probability of obtaining extreme results when the null hypothesis is true. On the other hand, statistical confidence is the likelihood of obtaining the same results. On the A/B Test, the statistical significance is preferred since it the AB testing chances. The following factors must be put into consideration:
Sample sizes
It will be difficult to produce results when the sample size is very small. For any beginners, a sample size of 10-100 people is considered too low and might likely give a false result.
Take into consideration the role of a chance
Conversions can change for various reasons. It is not obvious that conversions will change because of the changes you made. Some conversions can be attributed to the mood of the person visiting your website at that specific period. Small increases in conversions might be observed with increased sample sizes but this does not necessarily mean a lot for some websites.
Which tools to use
While there are A/B testing solutions like Adobe Target and Accenture Digital Optimization charging upwards of $10,000 per month, it doesn't necessarily mean aspiring entrepreneurs can't get their hands on a decent A/B testing tool for an affordable price. Unbounce, Convert and ABTasty are a few popular solutions among small scale businesses and they all charge below $50 for an entry account. Optimizely is another popular solution and they have a heavily stripped free account option for beginners. And ofcourse there's Marketizator - offering the only fully free A/B testing account covering upto 10,000 tested views every month.
Conclusion
The A/B Testing is meant to give you an idea of the changes you need to perform to improve your conversions. Necessary changes must be made after every A/B Test for improved conversions. Remember your ultimate goal is to achieve an optimized conversion rate for your business that gets you the best out of your target audience and existing clients.