What is AB testing and how does it help me?

This is a 4-part comprehensive course on AB Testing, which includes.

 

1- Introduction to AB testing and how it may help your business

2- How to do AB Testing the right way in 2022

3- Tools that will assist you with AB Testing

4- See the magic as it happens: Live, free demo of our WordPress AB testing plugin

 

So, let’s begin.

 

To put things clearly, if you’re not already investing time, effort, and money in AB testing, you’re missing out on great opportunities to optimize and grow your business.

 

Imagine being able to read the minds of different visitors on your website. Which section of your website or landing page they like, which CTA receives most clicks, how much time do they spend on a particular section, and what not. Imagine having answers to all these questions coupled with actionable data. How cool would that be in terms of planning and strategizing your marketing efforts?

 

AB Testing lets you do exactly that.

 

AB Testing: Defined

 

AB Testing is also sometimes known as Split Testing. However, they are not the same. We will talk about split testing in a bit.

 

An A/B test is a simple process of comparing and then analyzing two versions of the same website, email, landing page, etc. and establishing which one’s a better version - performance-wise.

 

It’s like sending two army officers on the same mission and then promoting the one who achieved better results. These results can be termed “better” depending on your needs such as time, budget, conversion rate, etc.

 

You may consider it as a competition between your marketing choices. You provide a similar playing field to them and analyze the end result. The choice that yields better results can help with your marketing decisions.

 

AB Testing: The Process

 

To understand how the process works, take a look at the example below.

 

Suppose you’re working on an email copy and want to have the best result in terms of the effectiveness of your email campaign.

 

You’ll write and design two emails. Ideally, they should be just slightly different in content or design. You’ll also split your audience into two groups, A and B (the reason why it’s called AB/split testing). One email will be sent to group A, while the second email will be sent to group B.

 

Once you’ve sent the emails, you’ll then analyze the results. This analysis can be in terms of email open rate, click through rate, conversions, and what not.

 

Identify which email performed better and why? The answer to these questions will help you design more effective, future email campaigns.

 

Why Do We Need A/B Testing?

 

When it comes to digital marketing - websites, emails, and landing pages are just the first steps. Once you’re set up, you need to identify what marketing functions are performing better than the others. Also, you need to identify how small changes can make a big difference.

 

Small changes like testing if a different color for a CTA button, or a different picture on a web page can result in more conversions and impact your top line revenue. Imagine if you had 10,000 visitors a month and a simple CTA copy change lifted your conversion rate from 20% to 30% - that’s an extra $1000 in revenue brought in.

 

You’ll be surprised to know how these small changes can make a big impact.

A/B & Split Tests

Most people use the two terms interchangeably. However, A/B and Split Tests are slightly different.

 

We may say that they serve a similar purpose but they differ in approach.

 

Continuing with the example of our email campaign from above - A/B testing will have small differences in the two emails. For example, different pictures, or a different color/wording of a CTA button. Whereas, split tests will analyze entirely two different emails in terms of design, content, etc.

 

Most marketers prefer A/B tests because it provides actionable insights on the smallest of things.

 

Split tests are more useful when you’re creating a website, email campaign, landing page, etc from scratch. A/B testing is usually more helpful when your aim is to better your existing marketing assets while split tests can help you discern about which path to go down first.

 

Champion, Challenger, And Variations

 

The data that you’ll collect after the tests, comes from the champion, challenger, and variations.

 

Champion is your marketing asset that has performed well in the past. This could be a page on your website, a social media marketing ad, an email, or anything else.

 

Challenger is your marketing asset that is slightly different from the champion. You’ll test the challenger against the champion and analyze the results.

 

After the test, you’ll have a clearer picture. If the challenger didn’t perform well, you’ll create more variations and test it against the champion again.

 

A/B testing is not a one-time thing. You may have to compare several variations to reach a substantial conclusion.

 

A/B Testing Elements

There can be many (almost uncountable) elements in your marketing asset that can be tested.

 

However, changing one word or a line in an email won’t be as impactful as changing the part of the design or a picture.

 

And considering that you want a maximum return on a minimum input, we advise you to focus on only the key testing elements (especially in the beginning). Here are nine, super-important elements that can have the maximum variation during A/B testing.

 

1- CTAs

 

Your Call To Action is probably the most important element of your marketing campaign. CTA is what matters the most. No matter how compelling your copy is, if the visitors are not being lured into taking the action you want them to, everything is useless

 

Changing even a single word in CTA can have a major impact on the result. You can also experiment with a different background color, button color, font style, etc. However, during a single test, don’t change more than one element. This will help you focus on a single element and achieve accurate results.

 

2- Visuals

 

Visuals include videos and pictures.

 

Modern marketers heavily rely on visuals. According to a study, 70% of companies are already using visuals in their marketing strategy.

 

When it comes to A/B testing, you can try stock images vs your own photo or a nice video testimonial vs a written one. Another slice of this is visuals focused on objects vs. visuals involving people or faces.

 

3- Headlines

 

The headline is the first thing your audience will read. If it’s not catchy, they’re unlikely to go through the rest of the content. Creating an attention-grabbing headline is an art, which will take some time to master.

 

Another aspect that is closely related to headlines is copywriting skills. Besides changing your main headline, you may also want to try altering the existing paragraphs with the right set of words. We call it the power words.

 

Do you know the word ‘YOU’ is one of the most powerful and persuasive words in English?

 

Such words should ideally be used in the headlines, CTAs, subject lines, and opening sentences.

 

The other variation you may try with copywriting is the paragraph and sentence length. Smaller, paragraphs, and sentences written in a casual style tend to catch the reader’s attention more.

 

4- Content Depth

 

There are mostly two types of visitors. Ones who like skimming through everything and want high-level but basic information. The others would prefer detailed information, explanation, and know-how on every possible angle.

 

What type is your audience is for you to find out. It’s also possible that half of your audience likes details while the other half are all skimmers. No matter the type of audience, A/B testing can be a great technique to find the balance between your audience.

 

PRO TIP: Long-form content is good SEO-wise and tends to attract more traffic in general.

 

5- Subject Lines

 

Subject lines are similar to headlines when it comes to the importance they have in emails.

 

The subject line is the first thing that the receiver will see without even opening the email. And if you are unable to grab his attention with it, chances are it will end up in the trash. 69% recipient spams emails solely because of the subject line.

 

Of course, you can’t put everything in the subject line since the space is limited. It has to be short sweet and effective

 

Why? Because the subject line majorly influences the open rate.

 

Since subject lines are so important and delicate - A/B testing is a great tool to create persuasive ones.

 

6- Product Descriptions

 

Unlike blog posts, product descriptions need to be short and sweet.

 

In the e-commerce world, short yet complete product descriptions are known to be the most effective ones. You can understand these descriptions as a highlight or the talking point of a product. Usually, it’s not possible to create descriptions that completely describes a product. So, you have to create product descriptions that best describe a product while keeping it short and attractive.

 

However, if you have a complicated product, say, a robotic part, then you may even go for longer descriptions. When deciding the size, unlike subject lines of your emails, there’s no one size fits all approach to follow with product descriptions.

 

When it comes to the style of descriptions, choosing between a paragraph or bullet points is also crucial.

 

7- Media Mentions

 

No matter the type, when your business gets mentioned in the media, you may want to boast about it a bit. You can do it through social media posts, emails, newsletters, etc.

 

A/B testing can help you decide whether to use the logo of the media publication or its name.

 

8- Social Proof

 

More than half of customers check social media for reviews and other proofs of authenticity when buying a product. And just like media mentions, you would want to proudly display a good social media existence as well.

 

You can use social proof on a landing page, product page, testimonial page, etc.

 

There are several ways to do that, for example, star rating vs testimonials or quotes vs videos.

 

9- Landing Pages

 

Landing pages are probably the most commonly used marketing assets that get analyzed with A/B testing.

 

On your landing page, before running the test, you can identify the places where visitors are clicking the most. This is called heat mapping. Once you have those areas identified, you can then try placing the most important message at those spots - for example, a CTA.

 

The Easiest Way To Run AB Tests On A WordPress Website

If your website uses WordPress, running an AB test or Split test is easier than ever.

 

WordPress powers around 35% of all websites in the world and makes complex things seamlessly easy through plugins.

 

Running AB tests on different pages on your website is now just a few clicks away. You just have to install the right plugin and the rest is automated. An effective WordPress plugin will also make your analysis easy by giving detailed insights and reports.

 

Conclusion

 

A/B testing is one of the easiest ways to improve conversions through various marketing efforts. It can help you with creating winning landing pages, the most effective email campaigns, and the most tuned marketing strategy.

 

It’s also important to keep in mind that the complete benefits of AB testing can only be enjoyed if you do things right. Through this course, our aim is to explain everything you need to know about AB tests so that you can do it like a pro.

 

We hope you enjoyed this section.

 

Until Next Time...