How are you assessing and refining your marketing approach? From your landing page content to email newsletters, blogs, advertising, and even social media offerings for your business, you can’t just set up a campaign and forget it. You must look at what you’re doing in terms of marketing activities and analyse it to understand what works (and what doesn’t), how and why it works, and what will be best practice going forward.
Part of this is implementing an accurate method of testing so you can identify the best headlines, copy, images, graphics, colours, fonts, forms, buttons, and other features for your marketing materials so that they deliver on your goals.
What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing compares two versions of what is essentially the same marketing material and that are identical except for a single variable. It can be applied to everything from a landing page to a marketing email to a Facebook Ad.
For example, it may compare whether users prefer and act on:
- Red or green call-to-action buttons?
- Font A or font B on a Home Page?
- Version A or version B of call-to-action wording?
- Headline A or headline B?
- Weekly or twice-weekly EDM (electronic direct mail) marketing?
- Feature Image A or Feature Image B?
- Light or Dark website background?
The applications of A/B testing are wide and varied.
Why is A/B Testing Crucial for Digital Marketing?
Having accurate data is essential to refine your marketing processes. Marketing costs money, and business owners do not wish to waste hard-earned revenue on tactics that don’t work effectively. A/B tests enable marketers to make tangible decisions based on raw, empirical evidence as opposed to theory and guesswork.
Marketers use A/B testing to compare the engagement rate for two pieces of near-identical content. It focuses on a single, specific goal. For example, which of two Facebook Ads triggers the most engagement in the form of click-throughs? After an A/B test, the process is repeated based on testing a different variable or with a different metric as its focus.
Does this all seem like a very lengthy process? It can be – but it can also deliver incredibly valuable results for your business and the success of your marketing campaign.
It’s quite amazing what a significant impact very small elements can have on marketing and open, click-through, and conversion rates.
By testing to identify which of two distinct options delivers the better outcome based on your goal, you can tweak your campaign or content for a more favourable impact and return on your investment. This is an important factor when you consider how competitive the modern digital marketplace can be.
One thing to note! There is little point in undertaking A/B testing if you’re not willing to potentially make changes to your website/ad campaign/ content/copy/etc. based on the results.
Did You Know[1]?
More than 70% of marketers consider A/B testing to be essential for conversion enhancement – yet fewer than 50% of marketers use A/B testing to boost conversion rates[2].
A/B testing demonstrably improves:
- Average conversion rates by almost 50%
- Customer engagement for video landing pages by 12%
- Conversion rates by 10% for headline selection
- Mobile app engagement by 72%
- Click-through rates for banner ads by 76%
- Click-through rates for A/B tested calls to action by 127%
- Page ranks by up to 36%
According to a study by QY Research[3], it’s estimated that the global A/B Testing Software Market size by 2025 will be worth $1.08 billion.
Choosing the Right Elements
For successful A/B testing, you need to first know which element/s you need to test. Many areas are ripe for experimentation, from testing and analysing the impact of a new website design to a new email format or wording for your call to action. It’s important, however, to exploit A/B testing in the most effective way to suit your goals and your budget.
Those elements most commonly interpreted through this lens include:
- Headlines
- Calls to Action (CTAs)
- Content Length
- Content Depth
- Subject Lines
- Forms
- Images
- Offers
Results can be applied to Display Ads, Call to Action triggers, Email (subject lines, date and time of delivery, content, and pre-headers), Websites/landing pages, and more.
For example, you may wish to identify which of two colour scheme options appeals to and drives the most action in your target audience. An A/B test is your key to getting a definitive answer.
A/B Tests – Analysing and Interpreting
You must look at your existing data and understand the hypothesis it supports. Further testing based on this hypothesis can substantiate or negate – and inform you on which direction to go in from there.
- Consider Your Existing Data – track metrics with built-in analytics tools and consider where your conversion rates are currently highest and lowest. What is working well and what needs improvement?
- Set Measurable, Specific Goals – this is essential so that you can track your progress. (An example goal could be to increase your opt-in rate for email newsletters by 5% within two months.) Set realistic goals based on past patterns and what is legitimately attainable.
- Predict Results Through a Hypothesis – this will help you determine the scope of your test and glean more information if your hypothesis proves incorrect.
- Variance – select one variable at a time to elicit meaningful results that you can properly analyse. Having more than one variable delivers flawed results and your test will have been a waste of time.
- Conduct the Test – and let it run its course before looking at results. Don’t cut the test short and, for best results, have as large a sample size as is feasible.
- Analysis – the ideal A/B test will deliver distinct results with major differences between variants.
- Subsequent Tests – retest your “winning” variable with a change in another element to continue learning and improving your engagement levels.
Note –A/B Testing and its SEO Implications
A/B tests rely on duplicate content. Duplicate content is the enemy of effective SEO. While this is not particularly relevant for emails, Paid Ads, or Social Media Ads, it does have ramifications for website and blog content and search engine results. If you wish to undertake A/B testing for your website or onsite blog, there are specific ways to minimise any negative impact on your SEO. A digital marketer with specific SEO expertise can help with this.
Speak with a Strategist at Dot-to-Dot Digital
Dot-to-Dot Digital is ideally positioned to assist you with your digital marketing strategy – including A/B testing to improve your outcomes and help you realise your company goals.
The right approach to A/B testing can:
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Increase conversion rates
- Enable consumers to feel “heard”
- Increase lead generation
- Optimise user interactions on websites
- Boost your ROI
We are experienced digital strategists with creative flair, a passion for what we do, and a commitment to excellence in all areas. Our friendly professional team offers a variety of services, including:
- Brand Strategy
- Digital Media Strategy
- Search Engine Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- SEO
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
Speak with a Digital Strategist and let us help you by conducting effective A/B testing to fine-tune your marketing approach. You’ll enjoy better click-throughs and enquiries and improve your ROI for your business.
[1] https://zipdo.co/statistics/a-b-testing/#:~:text=40%25%20of%20A%2FB%20testers,boosting%20their%20profits%20and%20revenue.
[2] https://99firms.com/blog/ab-testing-statistics/
[3] https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/global-a-b-testing-software-market-to-reach-us-1081-mn-by-2025-suggests-qy-research-inc-1028310219
