AB Testing Step By Step For Beginners

Split Testing is a marketing term used to describe the process of measuring the performance of different pieces of content against each other. These pieces of content (email, web page, etc.) have to have some things in common:

• The same goals (i.e. sell a specific product)
• The same medium (email, web page, etc.)

At the same time, there are a number of things that can be completely different:

• The Heading
• The Call to Action Phrase
• Testimonials
• Placement / Type of Offer
• Content
• etc...

The purpose of AB Split Testing is to work with one of these at a time (or possibly several at a time) in different, controlled, variations, to try and find the best possible combination of several on-page factors.

The process is quite simple:

• Measure
• Test
• Evaluate
• Optimize

This process needs to continue for as many iterations as possible. Ideally, it is an ongoing process that never ends. However, practical real world issues will dictate that, at some point, the testing stops and the marketing begins.

Nothing can be tested unless it is measured. There are many vectors that can be measured, but we will concentrate on:

• Hits or Delivered visitors
• CTR : Click-Through-Ratio (number of times the prospect has clicked through to the sales page)

• Sales
• Conversion vs. CTR
• Conversion vs. Hits

The above must be tabulated with reference to the Medium (email, web page visits, etc.). The initial measurements are taken against the 'Control'. In the first iteration, the Control wil be the existing landing page or email promotion.

In subsequent iterations, it will be the best performing variation of the promotional piece. This will be a combination of the best performing A/B Variations that are established as a result of the Testing process.

Testing is the process of creating two variations (called A and B), and measuring their success against one constant. This constant is usually equivalent to the number of mailings - it is the number of times the promotional piece is viewed.

By convention, the Control Page is denoted as A. Going into the first iteration, there will only be two variations, both of them labeled as the control; each has an equal chance of becoming the control.

In order to track which page the conversion comes through, Link Tagging should be used. This is the process of naming a target link -A or -B so that they can be easily identfied in the statistics package used to measure vectors above.

In each iteration, Variations of the control page are introduced, and link tagged with the -B suffix. The variations must not be too subtle, otherwise the testing process (which can be expensive, depending on how hits are generated) will not throw up worthwhile results.

Only ever vary one element at a time, or it will be impossible to know which A/B variation has caused any change in the measured vectors.

During the testing process Measurements must be taken. However, they should only be taken once the delivery quota has been achieved on both the A and B variations.

The Evaluation process compares the vectors that have been measured. The control is then set to the best performing variation (A or B). This then becomes the 'new A'. The exact definition of 'best' performance will depend on the goals of the marketing process.

The optimization process takes the best performing A/B splits by category (Headline, CTA, etc.) and combines them to produce the best overall content to test.

Remember that having Control of the Variables means only changing one item at a time. At the point of optimization, the content is reused from previous A/B test runs.

It is important to Continue to Test. Even after the optimization is complete, the process is not over; because small changes can lead to variances.

Once a well optimized page has been created, it should be used to Establish the New Control for future A/B Split Testing. It is this Control that future variations have to beat!

The following is an example of some of the page elements that can be varied.

Headline - the single most important (after the content) feature of the sales page is the headline. It is the aspect that will capture the prospect's attention.

Content - this is the story that the sales page weaves to keep the prospect's attention. It needs to be varied greatly i.e. the angle has to change for the variance to be effective, and not just the inclusion of power words or emotional wording.

Call to Action - otherwise known as the CTA, it is the action that the prospect should carry out. Phrasing and placement can be varied, as well as the guarantee.

Testimonial Placement & Layout - testimonials can have a big impact on sales.

Placement of Offer (Buy Now!) Links - these are the links that are sometimes present between blocks of text or testimonials to encourage the reader to head for the CTA.

The Offer - this refers to any bonuses or up-sells that the marketer adds to the package to increase perceived value.

The Price - this can be varied up OR down. Small variations might make a big difference.

Also, placement and color (of text and background) as well as images can be tested to see if they affect performance. Always keep a log so that changes can be traced back to their source.