A/B testing is great for those who want to improve the performance of their website, tailor content around their customers and – ultimately – increase the number of people converting into customers.
The basic concept is to create two variations of a landing page on your site and testing to see which one performs better.
We’ve already written two short guides on A/B tests:
Today, we’re going to be giving you some actionable tips on what to do when the test is over to get the most out of the results.
Go back to the original goal.
When you start looking at the data your A/B test has brought in, it’s easy to get distracted by all the shiny new statistics. Remain focused on your original goal – what was it that you were testing?
Conversion rate? Click-through rate? Or perhaps something else like how long people are spending on a certain page/action?
If you were testing conversion rate – i.e. the number of people who have converted into customers – there’s no point in getting hung up on anything else.
Choose the version that has the highest conversion rate.
Take a closer look at your statistics.
Once you’ve picked out the best performing version, it’s time to decide whether your results warrant a change on your website.
If you followed the steps in our Three Things To Do Before You Start An A/B Test blog, you’ll already have this threshold noted down.
E.g. “The successful version must have 10% more clicks than the other version.”
So is the difference between A and B significant enough to justify making the changes?
It’s your call.
What happens if there aren’t any clear results from your A/B test?
Unfortunately, not all A/B tests bring in unequivocal, clear-cut results. Sometimes your results are inconclusive, with neither version A or B having a notable impact.
However, this is not a complete write-off, and you can still learn from your results. They could point you in the right direction of your next A/B test and inform you of the areas you still need to work on.
One way to get more out of the numbers is to get real-life feedback from the visitors to your site.
In our Three Things To Remember During An A/B Test blog, we talked about including survey polls as people exit your site to ask them a series of questions on why they didn’t click through. This kind of feedback can give you invaluable insight into which direction to go in next with your landing page A/B testing.
Take action.
If there was a version that significantly performed better than the other one – woohoo! It’s now time to make those changes and start seeing some great results for your business.
This doesn’t mean your testing has to end there – your website should always be evolving to keep customers engaged and coming back for more. It’s a good idea to keep an eye out for further opportunities for improvement, either on the same landing page or a different area of the site.
Want to discuss how A/B testing could improve your website? Talk to a member of our team today.