December 5, 2011 at 11:01 am
Tips for A/B Testing Your Digital Campaigns
A/B Testing is a great tool for seeing how your audience behaves on your webpage or when viewing your digital ads. (And we all know that when conversion rates are involved, these are the best insights to have!) By dividing your traffic between two versions of your concept or creative, you can see which one solicits the desired response from your audience – whether that’s a click, sign up, or any other action. Marketers and designers are already widely using this valuable tool and here are some tips that will help you make sure you’re getting the most from your A/B tests.
- Test both versions at the same time. As with all experiments, results are best compared against a solid control. Simultaneously testing your versions – usually a current concept against a new concept – will ensure that your results are accurate and not a reflection of an outside cause.
- Closely monitor your statistics but don’t jump to conclusions too early. Set a time frame up front for your test and stick to it. The timeframe will depend on the length of the campaign, but it’s best to give your campaign at least a week to run before running a test. Web traffic varies over the course of a week so this is a way to get the truest results. Ending the test too early can mean that you miss some valuable learnings,but ending it too late means that you have wasted time when you could have had your most effective version firmly in place.
- Be open-minded. A/B tests can have some surprising results. While something may not strike you as pleasing to the eye, it may still be really effective at soliciting a response from your audience. While it can be hard, let the test do the decision work for you – and remember, it’s results you are after!
- Create a unified experience for your users, even during the test. If you are changing a button or even a whole visual concept, it’s important that they see that same treatment throughout the rest of their interaction on your site or within your ad. Not only does this prevent skewing of your test results, it also gives your audience a good brand experience, even during the test period.
Interested in reading more about A/B Testing and how to best utilize it for creating results for your campaign? Check out these resources:
The Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing via Smashing Magazine
How to Improve Your Website with A/B Testing via OneExtraPixel
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