5 Reasons Why You Should Be A/B Split Testing

A/B testing is an important weapon in any internet marketer’s arsenal. What is A/B testing and why is it guaranteed to improve your website? Let’s find out.

What is A/B Split Testing?

A/B testing, also called split testing, is an effective way to optimize response rates and conversion rates. You split traffic between two pages: Page A and Page B. Page A might be a landing page or a homepage. Page B could be an alternate landing page or a redesigned home page. When you send 100, 1000, or 10,000 visitors to either one of these pages, you can see patterns start to form. On Page A, 5 out of 100 visitors may enter their email address and join your mailing list. Each person who joins your mailing list is a conversion. On Page B, 10 out of 100 visitors might do the same thing. Based on that small sample, Page B is the better option. If split testing continues to suggest Page B over Page A, then you can start to make reasonable conclusions about your A/B testing results. Is A/B testing the right choice for your website? Probably. Here are five reasons why A/B testing is guaranteed to improve your business online.

5) It works for just about anything online

A/B testing is a battle-tested method as old as internet marketing itself. It’s not specific to any industry or niche. There are very few requirements for A/B testing. All your site needs is some valid way to measure a “conversion”. You also need a statistically significant amount of traffic. A conversion could be any of the following: -A sale -An entry into an online form -An email address submission -A click on an advertisement -And much more What do you want your customers to do on your site? If you can measure that action, then you can perform A/B testing. It’s as simple as that.

4) It’s a positive feedback loop

The more A/B testing you do, the more optimized your site will be. You never have to stop A/B testing. In fact, you never should stop A/B testing. Your visitors’ habits may change. Or, they may become too accustomed to an old site design and ignore certain parts of your site – like an email entry box or advertisements. The more A/B testing you do, the higher your conversion rate will be. As you continue A/B testing, your conversion rate will continue to grow. It’s a positive feedback loop that will help your business grow at every step of the way.

3) It’s effective as long as you avoid common mistakes

A/B testing isn’t perfect. Sometimes, it’s not implemented correctly. There are many common mistakes that rookie marketers (and experienced marketers) can make. If you’re going to A/B test, avoid the following mistakes: -Insufficient sample size: This is the biggest mistake made when A/B testing. If your sample isn’t large enough, A/B testing will not produce statistically significant results. If you can’t produce significant results, then you won’t be able to accurately determine if Page A is better than Page B or vice versa. -Unforeseen damages: Let’s say you’re trying to sell designer sunglasses online. On your site, you have a button that says ‘BUY NOW’ under the picture of each pair of sunglasses. You test to see if the products receive more clicks if you switch that command to ‘FIND OUT MORE’. Your products receive more clicks, but fewer of those clicks turn into sales. You’ve increased your conversion rate for clicks, but reduced your conversion rate for sales. Guess which one is more important for your business? -Time-consuming and difficult: If you don’t have A/B testing experience, then you should rely on online marketing professionals who do have experience. Otherwise, A/B testing could be time-consuming, difficult, and worst of all, ineffective.

2) It can be A/B/C testing or A/B/C/D/E/F testing

A/B testing is simple: there are two pages visitors can choose. However, you can split your visitors between more than 2 different types of sites. You can split it between A/B/C/D versions of your site, for example, and measure conversion rates. Or, if you want to get more complicated, you can split test your split test results. You can split test visitors to choose between Page A and Page B, and then further split those visitors into Page A1 and Page A2 alongside Page B1 and B2. Before long, this strategy will turn a simple A/B test into a multivariate testing scenario. It’s more complicated and requires even more traffic to produce statistically significant results, but it can have a powerful impact on your business when done correctly.

1) It can have a major impact on your bottom line

Performing accurate and intelligent A/B testing is an effective way to improve your business’s online presence: it’s as simple as that. When you perform A/B testing, you improve your website’s conversion rate and thereby increase your business’s revenue and bottom line. Without A/B testing, you don’t know why your site is performing poorly. Your site may only get 5 sales out of every 100 visitors today, but if you change image size on one part of your site, that rate may rise to 10 or 15 sales per day.