AB Split Testing | Optimize your Digital Marketing Funnel
When marketers draft email for email marketing or design CTA for a blog, they do not know what would be to convince people to open the mail or click that button. To be sure, the marketers rather rely on A/B testing or split testing (sometimes also referred to as AB split testing or bucket testing).
Those who are unaware of- What is AB split testing?
AB split testing is an experiment conducted with two different versions of the same content, email, or CTA. These different variants are shown to an equal-sized audience for a set period of time. Later, statistical analyses are done to determine which of the two versions performed better.
In short, AB split testing helps marketers to observe the performance of ‘A’ sample against ‘B’ sample. The analysis, further, helps them to boost the overall conversion rate of the website. Since AB split testing is a tool to optimize a website’s marketing funnel, AB split testing should be implemented on-
- Headlines and Sub-headlines of page
- Website Content
- Design and Layout of the Website, Landing Page, and Product Page
- Website’s Navigation
- Call to Action button (CTA)
- Customer Forms
Here are some of the essential Split Testing Steps
Step 1: Choose one element at a time to test: AB split testing enables you to test more than one element for a single page of email, but it is advisable to choose one element at a time. This would help you to determine the exact rise and fall of the website or email performance and the factor responsible for the same. Step 2: Quantify Goal: Although you will be able to measure multiple changes on website and customer action, it is recommended to set a primary goal. It helps you to notice the overall changes and set up the test as per the target. Step 3: Choosing the Research Question In order to stay focused on the A/B split test outcome, prepare a set of questionnaire for yourself and keep checking it periodically:- Which call to action produced higher conversion rates?
- Does video enable to boost click-through rates?
- The highest click rate is witnessed on which day of the week?
- Which subject line has resulted in a higher open rate of the mail?
- Which is the landing page resulting in the maximum purchase?
Step 8: Deciding a Winner:
Once you have collected enough data, compare them statistically. Once you have the result, check if the result is statistically significant to justify the change. There are various AB split testing calculators to help you determine the winner. Later, based on the result, you can implement the changes. On the other hand, if the test result is not satisfactory then it is advisable to change the variables, or analyze the mistakes and re-run the test. In comparison to the past, AB split testing has become much easier ever since split testing tools are rolled out. But it is also quite easy to mess it up as well and end up with the wrong conclusion that could undermine all your efforts.Here is a list of some of the common Split Testing Mistake
- Unplanned optimization roadmap
- Testing too many variables simultaneously
- Undermining statistical significance
- Unequal division of samples
- Not providing enough time for tests to collect substantial data
- Failing to decide on the right kind of split testing tools
- Ignoring external factors