A/B Testing (Split Testing): How to Improve Your Website's Conversion Rate

Introduction

In today’s digital age, businesses must build a solid online presence to stay ahead of the competition. A website is the best way to create a digital footprint for your business and attract potential customers. But is having a website enough to grab user attention?

Certainly not! You need to optimize your website performance to convert visitors into valuable customers. As a marketer, you are always intrigued to predict what CTA, ad, or layout will make people click and tick your website. However, basing your marketing efforts on gut feelings could adversely affect your business. This is where you need A/B testing comes to play.

A/B testing (also known as split testing) helps you determine how visitors perceive your website and what aspect needs to be tweaked to convert the visitors into loyal customers. It is an effective tool that can help improve your website’s conversion rate using data-backed insights to boost your website performance and conversions.

In this article, we’ll explain what A/B testing is, how it works, and how you can use it to optimize your website for conversions.

What is A/B Testing?

A/B testing is an experimental process of comparing two web page versions to determine which one derives better conversions. The two versions are referred to as the control (original) and the variation (new). By randomly showing half of your visitors the control and the other half the variation, you can determine which version is more effective in achieving your desired outcome (e.g., clicking on a button, filling out a form, making a purchase).
In simple terms, A/B testing is an analytical process where two or more variants (A and B) are compared to determine which is more effective in driving a desired action.

How Does It Work?

A/B testing works by randomly splitting your website’s traffic into two groups: Group A and Group B. Group A is the control version of your web page, while Group B is the variation. The two groups are compared against each other to determine which version performed better in deriving a quality website conversion rate.

Benefits of A/B Testing

There are several benefits to this method, including but not limited to:

• Improved conversion rates: Split testing allows you to optimize your website for conversions, which can lead to increased sales, leads, and revenue.
• Data-driven decisions: It provides objective data on which version of your web page is more effective, allowing you to make informed decisions based on evidence rather than intuition.
• Cost-effective: It can be done with minimal cost and effort, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes.
• Continuous improvement: Continuously improve your website’s performance, ensuring you’re constantly optimizing for conversions by performing split test.

When To Use A/B Testing?

A/B testing can be used to optimize any aspect of your website that affects conversions, including:

• Headlines: Determine which headline resonates better with your audience using split testing to increase engagement and conversions.
• Call-to-action (CTA) buttons: It can help you analyze which CTA button text, color, and placement most effectively get visitors to take action.
• Images: You can A/B test different versions of images to identify the most effective version in conveying your message and driving conversions.
• Forms: It enables you to pick out which form fields, and layouts are more impactful in getting visitors to complete the form.
• Landing pages: Compare two different landing page variations to determine which gives better website conversion.

How to Conduct A/B Testing

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to conduct A/B testing on WebEngage dashboard::

1. Define your goal: Determine what you want to achieve with your split testing efforts. Do you want to generate leads, boost your sales, or improve your click-through rates (CTRs)
2. Identify your variables: Identify the variables you want to test. It can be anything from a headline, a CTA button, an ad creative, a form layout, send times, campaign channels, and more.
3. Create your variations: Assuming you are running web-push ads. Create two different variations of the same ad creative – the control and the variation. Here only the variable will differ from the original version or the control.
4. Randomly split your traffic: Split test of the versions of your ads (differ based on layout, channel, send times) to randomly split your target audience into small groups A and B (a control group and a variable group, respectively)
5. Run your test: Show Group A the control version of your ad campaign and Group B the variation. Monitor your results to gain real-time actionable insights to tweak the creatives.
6. Implement the winning version: Once you have A/B, test different variations of creatives on both groups of audience. Optimize the winning version to the larger set of your target audience and continue to monitor its performance to enhance campaign effectiveness.

Best Practices for A/B Testing

To ensure that your A/B testing is effective, here are some best practices to keep in mind:
• Test one variable at a time: To ensure accurate results, only test one variable at a time.
• Ensure your sample size is large enough: To ensure statistical significance, make sure your sample size is large enough.
• Run your test for a sufficient amount of time: To ensure accurate results, run your test for an adequate amount of time (e.g., at least one week).
• Use relevant metrics: Set metrics relevant to your business goal (e.g., conversion rate, click-through rate).
• Don’t stop testing: A/B testing is a continuous process, so don’t stop testing even if you’ve found a winning variation. And in case you fail at both variations, create a new A/B test based on the insights of the failed data and keep repeating the cycle till you meet the goal.

Conclusion

A/B testing is a powerful tool that can help businesses optimize their websites for conversions. By comparing two web page versions, businesses can determine which version resonates the most with their target audience in getting the desired results. It can optimize any aspect of a website that affects conversions, including headlines, CTA buttons, images, colors, landing pages, and forms. You can also perform split testing against two distinct variables to determine which yields better results: text vs. video, webinar vs. ebook, free trial vs. webinar vs. ebook, etc. Following best practices and continuously testing can improve your website’s conversion rate and ultimately increase your business’s sales, leads, and revenue.

FAQs

Is A/B testing expensive?

A/B testing can be done with minimal cost and effort, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes.

How long should I run my A/B test?

To ensure accurate results, run your test for a sufficient amount of time (e.g., at least once every week).

Can A/B testing be used for mobile optimization?

Yes, A/B testing can be used to optimize mobile websites and apps.

How many variations should I test?

To ensure accurate results, only test one variable at a time.

Can A/B testing be used for email marketing?

Yes, A/B testing can be used to optimize email marketing campaigns, including subject lines, sender names, and email content.