Getting Started With Landing Page A/B Testing
The term “A/B testing” may sound like a science project that has nothing to do with a website, but that’s not the case at all. It can be extremely useful in fine-tuning your website’s presentation to give you the best possible return on your investments.
A website functions as a whole unit, and yet each individual element affects its performance; everything from specific copy text, layouts, images and colors affect how users interact and engage (or not) with the site and. A/B testing means that you use two versions of an element at the same time, and test which version is the most successful at whatever action you are hoping for.
Here’s a simple example: You want to get more people to sign up for your email list.
A website functions as a whole unit, and yet each individual element affects its performance; everything from specific copy text, layouts, images and colors affect how users interact and engage (or not) with the site and. A/B testing means that you use two versions of an element at the same time, and test which version is the most successful at whatever action you are hoping for.
Here’s a simple example: You want to get more people to sign up for your email list.
Your website currently has a sign up field at the top right corner next to a green rectangle that says “Sign up now.” An A/B test could start by changing the placement of the sign up field from the top right corner to the top left corner, nearer to the navigation menu. All other elements on the website remain identical. Visitors to your site would see one of the different placements in random order, and the results would be tracked to reveal to you which placement results in more clickthroughs. Once you find the optimum placement, a second test could differentiate between the green color field and an orange color field, for example. Further testing could alter the text so that it reads “Free e-deals” rather than “Sign up now.” Over time, the results will help you to fine-tune this single element of your website.
Other examples of A/B testing could single out the placement of an image, different images, different call-to-action text, or whatever element on your website you feel may not be “working.” A/B testing lets us be sure that the landing page is giving the user the best experience possible. Also, the data provided by such tests are very helpful to teach us how users are behaving on your site; what they expect, what they like, and what gives them confidence in your business. The length of the test will depends on your overall conversion volume; it might only take a couple of weeks, or it could take a few months to get a good data set.
Don’t worry about needing to make a major overhaul of your entire site. We will not make any changes to the overall look, color scheme, or layout of your site. What we are looking for are opportunities to make small changes to product descriptions or titles, product images, layout of the product elements, font type and size, etc. If desired, all proposed variations can be sent to you for approval before each test begins. If a page variation is shown to perform less well than the control, it will be removed from the test, and new page variations built with features that are proven to provide a positive customer experience. There is actually no reason to ever NOT be doing A/B testing; your landing page could always be just a little bit better!
Don’t worry about needing to make a major overhaul of your entire site. We will not make any changes to the overall look, color scheme, or layout of your site. What we are looking for are opportunities to make small changes to product descriptions or titles, product images, layout of the product elements, font type and size, etc. If desired, all proposed variations can be sent to you for approval before each test begins. If a page variation is shown to perform less well than the control, it will be removed from the test, and new page variations built with features that are proven to provide a positive customer experience. There is actually no reason to ever NOT be doing A/B testing; your landing page could always be just a little bit better!
