You have launched a marketing campaign, but it does not produce the expected results? We are almost sure that the culprit is the lack or the inappropriate use of A/B testing. It doesn’t matter if you have already made similar tests or it is your first time, we’ll show you how to do it the right way!
What is A/B testing?
A/B testing is a very useful conversion boosting method if you want to compare two (or more) different versions. To put it simply: A/B testing is like trying two different watches on to decide which suits you better.
How to get started?
Staying at the above example, let’s go through the basic steps. Let’s say that you have a smartwatch online store which will have a new model coming and you would like to promote this through online marketing channels.
0. Set the goals of the campaign!
Before diving into anything, it is important to clarify: who would you like to reach, which indicators are the most important for you, what is your conversion goal?
When introducing a new watch your goals could be for example sales, making the product known, or to drive the consumers to the landing page.
1. Make different versions!
Important: only one of your tests should be active at a time, to get the most accurate results. If you have a campaign already running, you are ready with version A, you just have to create a version B. The results will only be significant if you only make one change (e.g., use a different picture or copy) and you look at a sample of at least 1000 people.
Let’s see what this means in our example!
You are advertising on Facebook, the goal is to increase the number of conversions (sales here). You must know what kind of content your audience reacts best to. First you want to test the copy, so your two versions should look like this:
“A”: A long but informative copy, with a video and one or two CTA (call to action) buttons.
“B”: A short, attention-grabbing copy, with a video and one or two CTA buttons.
The test will show with which copy can you get better results.
Tip: Go through the process in case of the creative content and the CTA, using the winning copy!
2. Let’s get testing!
It is important to test the different versions always at the same time because the given period can affect the results. When running parallel ads, the CTR (click-through rate) clearly show which type of ad works better for a given target audience. Allocate the traffic evenly between the two versions and leave enough time for the results to arrive. Getting at least a thousand visitor will take more than a few hours, and even more than a few days. Be patient!
In the smartwatch campaign example look at these indicators for the given period: CTR, reach, appearance, the cost per result and the frequency.
3. Summarize the results!
The indicators help you choose the most effective version. We know that according to the example you have measured several indicators at the same time,
but we would still advise you to choose one, which is the most important to you, and focus only on that. This way you don’t have to split the budget and can only concentrate on the winning version.
With testing it becomes clear which way is more successful and cost-effective when advertising the new product.
Summary
A/B testing is an easy and cost-effective way of finding and changing the weakest points of your campaign, with this you can increase the traffic of your website even in the B2B or B2C sector. We suggest instead of guessing always use testing, especially when introducing a new element. Believe us, success is guaranteed!
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