Why Is A/B or Split Testing Important?
The main reason that split testing is important is that it is the only way to tell if anything you’re doing is working is to look at the metrics. What does the data tell you about your efforts? The data tells you a lot more about what is working and what is not working depending on what you’re testing.
For example, let’s say you have a sales page that you’re using to promote a service or a product. You send the information to your email list, to your social media platforms, and even run social media advertisements about your offering.
You’re getting hits but not a lot of conversions. You want to improve. To do so you decide to conduct a split test. Since you’re getting hits, the headline is likely good, so you decide to test a new call to action. You change only the call to action. Perhaps you change the words used, or the colors, or the size of the Call To Action (CTA) buttons. It depends on what you think may be the issue with conversions what you decide to do.
You could run more than one split test too called a multivariant test. In this case, you may run five different tests using the same target audience. In one you change only the size of the CTA buttons, in another, you change the wording used, and so forth. Anything that you think could be an issue with your CTA you can test against the others. Then run your ads, and social media campaigns again.
Look at the data. Which idea works better? Once you know which of those ideas is working better to convert, you can run more tests changing one small part at a time to test against the other to find out which is working best.
It can be easier to use specialized landing page software like LeadPages.net, Instapage.com, or Clickfunnels.com to accomplish this with a few clicks but you can also simply clone the pages and change the one thing you want to be changed giving the URL a slightly different address, so you know which is performing. But, you can also just do one promotion at a time to your audience and note the differences so that you know what is working.
Here at Superhero Digital Marketing we are big fans of Clickfunnels suite of products for landing page creation and A/B testing. Clickfunnels strike a great balance between Content Marketing platforms like HubSpot and more basic solutions like LeadPages.com.
Split testing is essentially just testing variations of your landing page from the images, artwork, colors, copy and more on that page. You can also split test book covers, product packaging, and so forth. Anything that affects a person’s desire to follow your CTA can be tested and should be tested so that you can know what your audience responds to best. Just working off industry averages, which is a starting point, isn’t enough to know whether you’re doing the best you can do or not. But with split testing, you can know.
We will be exploring Split testing in details over the coming months including:
1. Why Is Split Testing Important?
2. A Few Basic Variables Anyone Should Split Test On Their Sales Page
3. Let’s Do Some Math – How Small Changes Can Mean Big Money
4. Simple Ways To Get Started Split Testing
5. What Is A/B Split Testing?
6. What Is Multivariate Testing?
7. When Should You Start Split Testing?
8. When Should You Stop Split Testing?
9. How Many Transactions Does It Take To Get A Valid Split Test
10. Map Out Your Sales Path To Get Ready For Testing
11. Don’t Forget To Check Abandoned Cart Rates
12. Setting Up And Testing Sales Pages For Different Traffic Sources
13. Testing Different Landing Pages For Sub-Niche Groups
14. Long Sales Letters vs. Short Sales Pages
15. Could Video Help Your Sales Page?
16. Don’t Be Afraid To Test Something Completely Different
17. Getting Split Testing Ideas From Your Competitors
18. Test Highlighting Different Benefits
19. Have You Tested Your Buy Button Yet?
20. A Guarantee Can Improve Your Conversion – Test It!
21. Split Testing Different Testimonials
22. Don’t Forget To Test Price Points And Payment Options
23. The Images You Use Are Important – Test Them To Find The Best Fit
24. Testing An Optin Form On Your Sales Page
25. Split Testing Your Page Layout
26. Test Your CTA Until You Nail It
27. Try Incorporating Social Proof In Your Sales Pages
28. Keep Testing – There’s Always Room For Improvement
What to improve your sales and conversions? Get started Today!