All about A/B testing: How to Do A/B Testing

If you have an online business or a website, A/B testing is definitely a marketing technique worth implementing. For those of you who may not have heard of A/B testing before, you have come to the right place. In this article, we explore A/B testing and teach you about everything you might need to know, how to use it and why it is so effective. 

What is A/B testing?

First off, you might be wondering what A/B testing is, also known as splitting, this is a marketing experiment wherein you split up your audience to test variations of a campaign and determine which performs better. In simple terms, you show version A of content to one half of your audience and version B to another half of the audience. 

What is the purpose of A/B testing?

The purpose of this type of marketing test is to identify valuable information on how audiences behave differently as a direct result of the type of content that they have been in contact with. It’s important to note that what works well for one business, might not work for another. In digital marketing, there is not always such a thing as ‘best practises’ because ultimately, best practise is dependent on the nature of your brand and its audience. However, you need to consider that this type of testing is no simple task.

How does A/B testing work?

To run a split test, you first need to create two different versions of one content with changes to a single variable. You will then show these two versions to two different but similarly sized audiences and analyse which one performed better over a specific period of time. The time scale must be long enough to make accurate conclusions regarding the results. 

Example of A/B testing framework

1. Collect data
2. Identify goals
3. Generate hypothesis
4. Create variations
5. Run experiment
6. Analyse results

Common goals of A/B testing

There are a wide number of tests you can run with A/B experimenting. Here are a list of some of the most common end goals marketers have in mind when creating A/B testing campaigns:

• Increased website traffic
• High conversion rates
• Lower bounce rates
• Lower cart abandonment rates

How different markets may want to utilise A/B testing

A travel company- would potentially want to increase the number of successful bookings completed on their website or app. To improve these metrics, they may test the following variations:

• Home page search modals
• Search results pages
• Ancillary product presentation

A media company- may want to increase their readership. To achieve this, they may want to test variations of:

• Email sign-ups
• Recommended content
• Social sharing buttons

An ecommerce company- likely to want to increase the number of completed checkouts or the average order value. To do this, they may want to test the following variations:

• Homepage promotions
• Navigational elements
• Checkout funnel components

How to do A/B testing

A/B testing is a powerful tool when done correctly, however, unlike other forms of digital marketing, it needs a sound understanding of website development to effectively integrate these tests. In order to implement A/B testing, we always recommend speaking with an expert who has experience with user experience platforms such as Optimizely. One of the leading specialist consultants who could help you with A/B testing is Ultimedia Agency– the UK’s first Optimizely partner.

In any business, you have to be careful in choosing the right marketing strategies to get the best results. One way to improve your marketing strategy’s effectiveness is to do A/B testing. This blog post will go over A/B testing and how you can do it effectively.