A/B testing is a way of optimizing websites, apps and even products. But what does that really mean? ELR12 breaks down the basics for you, stay tuned!
What is A/B testing?
A/B testing is a type of experiment that compares two different versions of the same thing. The goal of A/B testing is to find out which version performs better at attracting potential customers. If a company wants to increase conversions on its site, it can run an A/B split test by comparing two different landing pages and finding out which one performed better.
The history of split testing began with the development of A/B tests in the early 2000s. The popularity grew when Google made it possible for people to conduct A/B tests on their website with little effort and no programming knowledge needed.
The basic idea behind A/B testing is that you run two separate experiments. One with version A and one with version B. You then compare how many people choose each version in order to determine which version performed better.
A/B testing can be used on websites as well as mobile apps. It can also be used on a variety of different platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Why do companies need A/B tests?
A/B testing has been around for a while now and is still an important tool in the marketing arsenal. It can help companies figure out what is working and what isn’t working in their campaigns. Whether it be online or offline.
This technique has many benefits for companies that use it correctly. It helps them understand how their users interact with the product, what features and functions work best, what content should be included, etc. It also helps them create more targeted marketing campaigns by understanding which content resonates with their target audience. In addition, it helps them decide how much they should invest in producing one version versus another.
A/B testing can be used to test changes in design, content, or functionality. The most common use for A/B testing is determining which landing page converts the best. But it can also be used to determine whether or not your product has been successful in reaching its audience or whether or not your ad was effective at generating conversions.
It’s a versatile technique that can be used in digital marketing, web design, and software development. A/B testing is also used in other fields such as finance, education, and healthcare.
Benefits of using A/B testing
- Helps you make improvements in your product.
- Saves time and money, as it allows you to compare different versions of your product and find out which one performs better.
- Helps you create more engaging content, as it provides data on what content resonates with users the most.
This can overall lead to improved conversion rates and increased revenue for online businesses. However, A/B testing can be expensive, time-consuming, and resource-intensive for small businesses that don’t have a lot of resources at hand.
What can you A/B test?
There are many types of tests that you can run with the A/B testing technique. Some of the most common types are:
- Website A/B testing: used when you want to compare two different versions of your website.
- Landing page optimization: helps determine which page on the site converts more visitors into customers.
- Email campaigns: used when you want to send an email campaign and determine which version performs better in terms of click-through rates and conversion rates.
- Headline Test: used to find out which headline performs better in terms of clicks, shares, and conversions.
- Call-to-action test: used to find out which button leads to more conversions.
What are the different types of A/B tests?
A/B tests are a great way to test different ideas and see which one does best. There are three main types of A/B tests:
Split URL testing
Split URL testing is a method in which the landing page is split into two URLs. The first URL is the main landing page and the second URL redirects visitors to a secondary landing page.
Split URL testing allows for more accurate data collection because it allows for more precise measurement of changes in behavior. It also lowers the cost of running an experiment because it can be done in parallel with other tests, rather than one at a time.
Split URL testing can be difficult to implement on mobile devices due to the nature of split url testing and the fact that mobile apps are not yet able to support split url tests. Another disadvantage of split URL testing is having to maintain multiple websites which can be costly for smaller companies.
Multivariate testing
Multivariate testing is an A/B test where you run multiple tests at the same time with different variants of your website or landing page.
This type of A/B test is effective for large websites that need to see which design will perform better in different countries, languages, or browsers. Multivariate testing takes into account multiple aspects at once – this makes it more accurate but takes longer to implement as there are more variables involved.
Multivariate testing has a number of advantages such as:
- There are no clear guidelines for which factors are significant or not significant, and this can be difficult to determine without a lot of trial and error.
- You need to have a lot of data and experiment with many different combinations of variables before you find out which ones are best at predicting your outcome.
- It generates a big number of hypotheses.
- It can be time-consuming, and it doesn’t always provide accurate results.
Multipage testing
Multipage testing is a process that consists of testing each page of an application, website, or product individually. It can be used to:
- Quickly identify bugs and errors on each page of the application, website, or product.
- Compare the performance and quality between pages.
- Identify new features that are not yet visible on the product’s homepage.
However, there are also some disadvantages such as:
- It is more time consuming than single page testing because it requires more time and resources to test all pages individually.
- be conducted in the same order as they were designed. – The number of tests you need to run increases exponentially with each new page added to the test suite.
- The process might lead to less focus on user experience because they are only focusing on one page at a time.
Conclusion
A/B Testing is an analytical technique that helps businesses to improve conversion rates. It is a process of comparing two versions of a website or app and measuring which one performs better. In other words, it’s about optimizing your marketing strategy by finding out what works best for your business based on real data from your site visitors. Now that you know the basics of A/B testing, let us teach you how to run an A/B test effectively.