In today's rapidly evolving digital age, every business is looking for ways to improve their products and services, as well as their customer experience. The A/B test is proving to be one of the most effective and powerful tools for this purpose. It is used by a number of businesses, helping them to increase their conversions and lead to company success.
But what are A/B tests and why should we trust them? How do they work and what strategy should we use? You'll find all this out in the next lines of Grow Easy's article!
What is an A/B Test
The A/B test is one of the most common ways to optimize conversions, with almost 80% of companies using it to identify which areas they need to improve. This optimization method is so effective and rewarding precisely because it allows businesses to make decisions based on data instead of assumptions.
In addition to improving web pages, this type of test is also perfect for optimizations on the following marketing variables:
- Different types of ads
- Newsletters
- Blogs
- Apps
Why it is important to use A/B Test
In the world of marketing, optimization is something extremely difficult to achieve, but A/B tests stand out and make it achievable. Continue reading to find out why it's important to use an A/B test.
The two main reasons that make this type of testing so useful and indispensable are that it leads to direct and actionable results that are data-driven. This is because the test directly compares two versions of a particular item under exactly similar conditions.
In this way, you get concrete evidence as to which change led to the performance improvement. These results are not based on intuition or guesswork, but on reliable behavioral results from actual users.
A/B testing reduces the risk and opportunity for error and helps optimize specific goals, such as conversion rates. This testing also provides scalability and flexibility because it can be applied universally across a variety of platforms. Finally, A/B testing is not a one-time process. It offers quantitative results that are objective and measurable.
How does it work?
A/B testing is used to test the effectiveness of various marketing variables, such as content, images, layouts, and more. In order to test their success, different versions are created and it is monitored which one will lead to the most conversions. Each variable can be tested, however, as long as you do it one at a time.
Let's imagine we have an ad for our business with ready-made content, images and layouts that we want to upload, but have no idea how they will perform. To see their effectiveness we can use an A/B test , where we create a second identical ad, making a change to just the image. This way we will have two ads: A and B. In time we will see which of the two ads performed better and we can invest in it.
A/B Test strategy
In order for a test to be effective and provide the most accurate and reliable results, we should always have a certain strategy in place.
Create test variations
Before we start testing we need to create our test variations, and to do this we need to consider the following things.
First we need to decide what we want to test. A/B tests can be used to optimize a myriad of different things, so it's important to choose one specific marketing variable before we begin, namely defining and articulating our goal and hypothesis, as well as identifying the items we want to test.
Best practices
Continue reading, because in this section we'll discuss what are the must-have elements for an effective A/B test that will make measuring results easier.
It is imperative to run one test on one variable at a time, otherwise, the results will not be specific and reliable. If we test two or more variables at the same time, we cannot be sure what makes the ad better or worse. Thus defeating the purpose of the test.
Small changes are just as important as big ones. Many businesses underestimate their results, but they can also significantly improve desired outcomes. Even changing the color of an advertising element can produce impressive results.
Using two audiences of the same background and size is also important, as is running the tests at the same time. To have guaranteed results, changes must be controlled.
Common mistakes
The most common mistake made in this type of testing is not being familiar with A/B testing best practices. The above mentioned practices ensure success in optimizing marketing variables and if we don't follow them, we would hardly achieve success.
Using A/B Testing
A systematic approach is used during A/B testing. They are used to compare two versions of a web page, email, app feature or other marketing elements to determine how they can be optimized. This process includes implementation, traffic split, duration, and results tracking.
A/B test implementation
Implementing such a test requires careful planning and execution to ensure reliable results. Once we ensure that the test environment of the two versions is the same, we can start with a change to track in a timeframe sufficient to give the necessary information.
Traffic splitting
In the most perfect distribution, traffic should be split evenly. This way 50% of the audience will see version A and the other 50% will see version B. This will ensure credible and accurate results.
Duration of A/B test
In order to determine the correct duration of the test, we need to take into account the traffic of a given website and the conversion rate achieved. One of the most common mistakes is terminating the test too early because it does not lead to good results. To avoid getting wrong results the duration of the test should be long enough to see the differences in user behavior.
Tracking the results of the A/B test
As with any test, tracking results is key. At the end of the test, data should be collected for key analysis so that I can take action to optimize.