I am sure that you work hard to create eye-catching content and develop a user-friendly design of your website. But let me guess, you feel like your customers need something different, something unique, and you do not know what they want.
Test marketing is the answer to your problems. It is the experiment where you study the customers’ behavior concerning the control variant and single or several variations of almost all features of your brand. And then you choose what variant is more profitable for your business.
The most popular type of test marketing is A/B testing. And today, we will talk about all the peculiarities of this kind of testing.
But before we start, I want to mention that A/B testing is a time-consuming process that needs careful preparation and professionalism. Fortunately, you have a reliable partner. You can always get some help from the marketing agency Adloonix.
You have to know the prosperous brands do not run businesses with the help of intuition. And our team provides entrepreneurs with a comprehensive step-by-step plan based on the results of A/B testing.
→ Here is the link to our Market Research Company — Adloonix 🔗
Now it is time to tell you more about A/B testing. And we will start with its definition.
What is A/B testing? 🧪
A/B testing is a randomized experiment with two variants, A and B. It is a simple way to compare two versions of a single variable, typically by testing a customer’s response to variant A against variant B, and determining which of two variants is more effective.
This testing defines which of two versions of a site, an ad, or other components of the marketing strategy performs better.
For example, you can randomly show visitors two versions of a website that differ only in the design of a single button element. Thus, you can measure the relative efficiency of the two designs. It also helps to test marketing channels for the best conversion or the best creatives inside the advertising campaign.
Then you can improve the marketing plan, using this data, to get more leverage upon the competitors. With testing, you can attract more clients, turn them into customers, increase conversion, and get more profit.
→ Here is the link to our Market Research service 🔗
Usage of A/B testing 📙
You know what A/B testing is. And now I want to highlight two ways of its usage. Marketers use it for validation and optimization of any element of the marketing campaign.
I think that sometimes you regret that you have used the ineffective CTA (call-to-action) or so on. And A/B testing can validate the best CTA for your PPC (pay per click) campaign before starting it. You can test two options and then validate the best one for your marketing strategy.
You can also optimize the features of your ongoing campaigns. You can optimize logo, headings, layouts, forms, CTAs, and other aspects that can influence the rate of conversion.
How to create hypotheses for A/B testing? ✏️
Building a hypothesis is a vital stage of A/B testing. The clear hypothesis helps you to easier analyze the results of the experiment and define whether they prove or disprove your assumptions. So, a hypothesis is a so-called prediction of the results of testing.
As a rule, we use this model for building hypotheses during the preparatory phase: changing X feature into Y feature will have Z result. It is a simple but effective way to measure your KPI (Key Performance Indicator) before, during, and after the testing.
Also, you should follow several steps to achieve an objective outcome of the A/B testing.
1. You have to define your goals and key metrics.
2. You have to build a hypothesis.
3. You should determine the duration of the test with sample size.
4. You have to arrange the test with projected ROI (Return on Investment).
5. You should collect and analyze the results.
6. You should repeat testing.
Our agency also follows a high-effective way of testing: Research — Analyze — Plan — Test — Repeat method.
→ Here is the link to our Market Research service 🔗
As I said earlier, you should define key metrics for A/B testing. Usually, marketers monitor and adjust such criteria:
· Bounce Rate. You can generate huge amounts of traffic but your rate of conversion still can be miserable. The bounce rate will show you the percentage of actually converting traffic. Then you can identify high-traffic and high-conversion campaigns.
· Unique Visitors. This metric will show you the effectiveness of your campaign. You will understand how to reach new markets and new-customer possibilities.
· Time on the one page and the total time of the web session. These two metrics are extremely important. You will understand how targeted audiences are accepting and consuming your content.
· Conversion Rate. It is one more key metric that measures every completed conversion per unique visit.
And we move on to the advantages of A/B testing.
Eleven advantages of A/B testing 💎
1. Offer many options for testing
You can ask me what you can test. And the main advantage of the A/B testing that you can investigate and then optimize everything that your customers see and what can drive them to purchase your products or services.
For example, you can check what size and placement of images appeal to your customers. You can test the position of your social media ads. You can try them as the headings, combined with your content, or within the content itself. You can also define what size, the weight of fonts, the spacing of lines are better to choose for headlines and content.
And I want to draw your attention to the most important elements that you have to check.
The first one is the headings. It is the first thing that visitors see. And if they are not eye-catching, the users will not spend time on your brand.
You can also test the length of your content. Using A/B testing, you can define what your customers expect from you: long or short types of content. It is useful to know it since content impacts your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
The next element is the CTAs. I have told you about them earlier. But I want to remind you one more time about this. The customers want to know what they should do, and your task is to give them an answer. You have to check what phrases force clients to visit your site, subscribe to email automation, follow you on social media platforms, and so on.
You can even test the description of your products. A/B testing allows you to check the performance of the short and long descriptions and define the best for you. You can also test the design of the product description.
It is a good idea to test videos, images, podcasts. Video and audio advertisements become a more and more powerful way of promotion. Customers like to watch cute videos and respond to them. So you have to determine what appeal most to your target audience.
You should also test an email subject line. You know that only half of the subscribers may open your letters. And you have to test different types of subject lines to see which of them increases the rate of clicks.
2. Solve visitors pain points
Customers visit your website to find solutions to their problems. They visit your website to learn more about your brand, read interesting articles, or buy your products or services.
But they have some issues browsing your website. For example, it is hard to find the prices, the contact info, and CTAs buttons like request demos or buy now. These drawbacks of your website lead to negative customer experience.
The way out is to track heat maps of your site and collect feedback from visitors to solve their pain points. Then A/B testing will help you to decide what appeal most to your customers.
3. Improve user engagement
Remember, you have to interact with your customers and respond to their needs. And before running A/B testing, you should discover what people think about you and your products. It can help you to understand how to drive them to your site and what you should improve.
Remember, the smallest transformation of the single element of your website, content, or advertising campaign can improve user engagement.
4. Decrease bounce rates
As I mentioned earlier, a bounce rate is an important metric to check. Moreover, the results of A/B testing can help you to decrease it. The reasons for a high bounce rate can be too many options to choose, many forms to fill, unclear CTA, and so on.
Our team can help you to define what does not work in your favor and test hypotheses that help you to improve your situation. Consequently, you will boost the user experience, and visitors will spend more time on your website.
5. Boost conversion rates
You can do not believe me, but A/B testing is the best way to find out what content converts visitors into customers. Besides, our team will help you to create two versions of your marketing campaign and see what works and does not work for your business. It can take some time, but an increase in income is worth it.
6. Increase ROI
You know that getting quality traffic is an expensive way to reach a new audience. But even the minor change of your marketing campaign can affect the conversion growth. If you want to increase your ROI, you have to run A/B testing to increase the rate of conversion and make the most of the existing traffic.
7. Update content strategy
Do you know the topics that interest your audience? A/B testing helps you to determine what interests your customers. Remember, it has no sense to publish content on boring topics. Our team can help you to discover current trends that boost huge traffic to your website and increase conversions.
8. Reduce risks
The next benefit of A/B testing is reducing risks. It helps you to understand the behavior of the customers on your website and increase your chances of success. For example, you can define what features and elements your target audience does not need. Thus, you do not have to spend time and money on unprofitable things. And it helps you reduce business risks.
9. Decrease cart abandonment
Cart abandonment is a common problem of online business. The visitors often leave the website without check out. Marketers say that the rate of cart abandonment is 40–70%. And this rate can cause business failure.
There are many reasons for it. It can be due to the long text of confirmation of purchase, a lack of payment options, or even the color of the buttons. And A/B testing can help you to define what prevents customers from purchase and how to decrease cart abandonment.
10. Increase sales
All these benefits above lead us to the main benefit for each business owner. A/B testing allows you to improve your content, website, advertising campaign, customer experience, and so on. And consequently, it helps you to increase business income.
11. Give a clear report
The last advantage of A/B testing is that it gives you clear results of testing. You only have to compare the KPI of both variants and determine the winner of the testing. But you can get objective results after careful preparation and marketing consultation.
I want to emphasize one more time that A/B testing plays an important role in your business development. I highly recommend you using A/B testing in your life, business, and marketing for better effectiveness.
But it can be difficult for you to combine the usual business tasks and additional testing. And it is a wise decision to hire a digital marketing agency.
Marketers are not the futurists to predict the future of your brand. But we know how to track effectiveness, make A/B tests, and choose the most effective variants.
Test smart with Adloonix. Contact us to find out more information about A/B testing particular for your business.
Best Regards,
The marketing architect and founder of Adloonix
Vlad Sapozhnykov 🔗,
E-mail: founder@adloonix
What marketing tests do you use for your business development? How do you use them? Please, leave your comments below.
