What is A/B Split Testing? A/B testing is a scientific experience of web users behaviors based on changes of independent variables. These tests are performed to verify what may seem meaningless independent variables such as color, size, layout, location or even down to the font type to determine how users react to the changes differently.
Customer Paradigm is performing an A/B Split test for Red Apple Lipstick. In this case study, our goal is to determine which landing page yields more conversions, this particular scenario conversions is determined when users sign up to receive the newsletter. In this A/B test we have two variables, one is having a button instead of a small text and the other is adding relative content.
How can an A/B split testing be performed effectively? The best way to perform an A/B test is to face the process similar to a scientific experiment. First, you always have a control which is your base of comparison. For Red Apple Lipstick, our control was the landing page is below:
Notice, below the “Subscribe & Start Shopping” button there is a small text link that reads, “I don’t want to subscribe, I just want to see what you have.” Although our goal is to increase points of contact through users signing up for a newsletter, we also want to increase the overall click-through rate.
This is an alternative landing page with the small text “I don’t want to subscribe, I just want to see what you have” as a more visible button, we will call this version BUTTON. Through the BUTTON version, our goal is to increase conversions (newsletter sign-ups) while decreasing bounce rate from the landing page.
The second alternative landing page, features both a button for “I don’t want to subscribe, take me to your lipstick” in addition to a small content blog about the gluten free lipstick products. We will call this version BLOG:
Now to measure the A/B split test the alternative landing pages BUTTON and BLOG as well as the control page are active, when users click through ads unknowingly they are directed to one of these pages. In our test ideally we would like to wait until a total of 100 conversions are completed on each landing page. Since we cannot control traffic to our webpage, this turns into a waiting period until you reach the goal of 100 conversions. From the base point of 100 conversions we are able to draw conclusions and determine the performance due to the small changes in the independent variables.
For example, if we see that the BLOG landing page is able to increase newsletter sign ups through the change of more information we have increased our conversion rate. From here, we can apply this same theory to other pages that are performing poorly and add content to the site in hopes of increasing the conversion rate.
After 100 conversions on the BUTTON landing page, we see that there is a decrease in the conversion rate for newsletter sign-ups; we would want to change the button back into text. The final optimal landing page from our A/B test would be to have content on the page with no button.
If you are interested in performing an A/B split test to increase the conversions on your pages and work on your Search Engine Optimization please contact Customer Paradigm or call and talk to a real person at 303.473.4400.