Analyzing and Optimizing Your Digital Marketing Performance
Analyzing and Optimizing Your Digital Marketing Performance
16 A/B Testing
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to.
- Describe what A/B testing is and how to use it
- List several common areas to A/B test
- Explain the required steps to conduct and A/B test
- Name several online tools that support A/B testing
In its simplest form, A/B testing (also known as split testing) is the process of comparing two variations of a marketing asset, e.g., a webpage element, call-to-action, landing page, email, etc., usually by testing users’ responses to Variant A vs. Variant B and concluding which of the two variants is more effective (see figure above).
Why You Should A/B Test Your Marketing Activities
Many marketing departments rely on A/B testing because it is one of the most effective ways to tailor your approach to customers. While data and trend analyses are important elements in designing engaging web pages, A/B testing provides practical, tangible evidence of your most impactful marketing techniques.
Modern online metrics and analytics also make it easy for you to evaluate the results of your A/B testing. With analytics, you can easily monitor key metrics, including:
- how many people were exposed to each version,
- how long they interacted and engaged and most importantly,
- what percentage completed the campaign goal and converted.
An A/B test takes a significant amount of guesswork out of marketing. For example, if you think of a new marketing approach that could improve your company’s performance, you can set up an A/B test and then monitor the data. If you’re right and the new option gets better results, you can move forward with your new plan. If the original technique still performs better, you can continue with your regular routine and think of different marketing approaches in the future. Ultimately, A/B testing helps you make decisions based on data. Or, more importantly, when one is failing.
Since every organization is different, don’t assume that what worked for others will automatically work for you. When you A/B test your marketing activities and content, experiment with different ideas. This is useful because sometimes a small change can make a big difference in the results you get.
Think about a marketing activity or piece of content. Where might you conduct an A/B test and how might you test different ideas?
Common Areas to A/B Test
While not exhaustive, the following list presents several common key areas where marketers A/B test:
- Headlines and subheadings
Whether it is the “titles” on a webpage, headlines for a piece of content, or the subject line of your email, you may want to experiment with these to see if small changes make a difference in engagement rates. - Copy
Copy is simply the text that you have written in your marketing materials. While copy can include the words and text itself, copy can also include the location of your text. Presenting two options and seeing which version is more engag