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What is A/B Testing? and how to get started

What is A/B Testing? and how to get started

22 September 2024 • Diederik Gerbranda

Many businesses may think that having a “beautiful” website is enough to drive prospects into their sales funnel. But let me tell you that having a beautiful website is not all that there is to it.

Your website plays a significant role in your marketing strategy. Thus, it must serve its purpose of driving prospective customers into your website and turning them into qualified leads. Yet, not all websites do it right off the bat or get excellent results on their first try - even if they have followed all the principles of Conversion-driven design.

Let me introduce you to A/B testing, which will remove all the guesswork of what makes your online marketing strategy more effective in bringing in the desired results.

What is A/B testing?

A/B Testing is an experiment you run between an original variant (A) and test variants (B) on your website. The variables in this experiment may be a web page, page element, content, etc. This experiment helps you optimize your website to better cater to your audience.

For example,  your marketeer decides that he wants to change the color of your call-to-action button from blue to red. He reasons out that he wants to test if the color red stimulates the consumer’s behavior better than blue because he saw a study by researchers of University of British Columbia that blue is shown to improve creativity while red is shown to improve memory and attention-to-detail. Although, we cannot deny that color has an effect on people, but remember that there’s a lot of factors aside from the color itself that is in play.

This is the time you create an A/B Test experiment to see which variant drives more conversions. You can run multiple variants against your original one to test out which ones are better at results. You create hypotheses to prove whether your initial idea of reasoning to why you design it that way is still on the trend of getting your audience’s attention. Many times I have been proven wrong by the experiments which then helped me improve better in understanding and researching about what’s best for the client project I am working  on.

A/B testing has proven to me repeatedly that some beliefs I had that I thought were good choices but were not. According to a blog article by vwo.com, it’s essential to run A/B testing because it eliminates the guesswork for website optimization and helps optimizers make decisions on the website with evidence of the data provided by the experiment.

The importance of A/B Testing

Many articles on the Internet can list multiple benefits from creating A/B tests. But, here are the top three reasons why:

It helps you understand your target audience better.

Sometimes you think you’re doing the right thing on your website until you see the number of visitors and engagement go down. There might be many factors to consider why there is a decrease in traffic. Yet, changes on your website such as color, content, or even placement of an image can help your visitors engage better. Gaining insight about these things will be determined by your A/B Test experiment results. You can then provide a better user experience for your audience.

It helps you improve your conversion rates and funnel effectiveness.

A/B Testing points out which one works well and which doesn’t. Thus it makes your conversion process and your funnels work better than before and can be proven with actionable data provided by the experiment.

It helps reduce bounce rate.

Testing regularly ensures that your website serves up relevant content and keeps visitors engaged. With this, you could expect more prospective customers to engage more and stay longer on your website.

What elements can you A/B Test?

There’s no rule book for which elements you could test. You can, of course, experiment with any component on your website but here are some elements you might want to focus on to get best results.

Hero images or videos

Almost always, the first thing that your eyes will land on will be a hero image or video on your header section of the page. According to a blog published on t-sciences.com, “Visualization works from a human perspective because we respond to and process visual data better than any other type of data. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Since we are visual by nature, we can use this skill to enhance data processing and organizational effectiveness.”

With this, you see the importance of selecting the appropriate hero image or video that you will add to your website to capture and/or retain the attention of your prospective customers.

Headlines or subheadlines

Next to hero images and videos, the second thing your eyes might notice are the headlines. Some people write their headlines in a way that’s too catchy to read but doesn’t deliver the message you want them to understand from it. Testing headlines, finding the proper phrasing might do the trick. This way, you will also know what kind of tone your audience would want to hear from you for them to go further down your funnel.

Body text

You may be too technical or too vague in this sense. Trying a different approach to phrasing your intention in the body text may be more effective. You could also consider the length of your copy. Maybe the text is too wordy to the point that it’s giving too much information or too short that the message is unclear.

Consider your writing style, tone, and formatting when creating your copy for the body text. Most people who visit your website have a few minutes in their hands to get the information they need. Highlighting keyword information may do the trick too.

Form

Forms are critical, especially when the prospective customer is already at the stage of deciding to make a purchase or contact you for inquiries. In A/B Testing, you can test out the labels, the number of fields, or how you structure your forms to know which method will make your visitors engage better with your website.

It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. It always depends on your customer and your product.

Color

Color psychology has its effects on the buyer’s journey. Although there is little evidence regarding this notion, a study was conducted to prove that color does influence a buying decision. In this study, the author mentions that color affects consumer’s behavior because most consumers buy at their subconscious level. Thus, picking the right color for your brand will have an impact on your business.

But it’s not the only solution. Color may only be a factor in your buyer’s journey, but it doesn’t hold all the answers to it. There are many factors to cater to when selecting a color scheme or palette for your brand. One obvious factor is your target audience’s preferences. Testing out what colors will most likely for them to interact with can be done through A/B testing.

Color psychology is just one part of the solution. Designers should also learn to apply color theory - playing with contrast, hues, and saturation.

Design and layout

Even if you have picture-perfect hero images and engaging headlines, if your design and layout are a jumble, no visitor will stay till he discovers what he wants. Make sure that your layout follows a natural flow of content hierarchy. Suppose elements on your website do not look like they’re pointing towards a single collective purpose. In that case, you might have been putting the wrong components together.

Remember that you have to provide clear information, especially for lengthy web pages. A/B testing can help you optimize your pages better to know which sections of your design works better for your audience or not.

Call-to-action (CTAs)

Your CTAs can make it or break it with your potential customers during their buyer journey because this is where the real action takes place. You can test your CTAs in different ways in an A/B experiment. This can be the placement of your CTA, the color and size of your CTA buttons, the text on your buttons, and many more. Such variations will help you determine which one works best to drive more conversions to your landing page.

Social proof

Social proof elements like testimonials, trust markers, and client logos add credibility to your business. With A/B testing, you could try out different ones to see which resonates better with your audience and which ones convert better, depending on your business goals.

Drivers which influence consumer psychology

There are more drivers which guide consumer behaviour in a certain way like the social proof. This is actually a part of behavioural psychology or behavioral economics. With your A/B tests you are able to test different drivers for behaviour.

Conclusion

With the use of A/B Testing, you can eliminate all of the guesswork on what works and what doesn't on your website. A/B Experiments don’t just help you increase your conversions and traffic, it also enables you to understand your audience better how they think and interact with your website.

A/B testing plays a significant role in improving your website and your strategy. With dedication and knowledge, you will be able to conduct proper experiments that are beneficial to your business. This blog is but an overview of what A/B testing and its importance are. Tons of resources will help you better understand A/B tests, which will help you with your first steps to A/B testing. So, if you got some insights from this blog, make sure to share them and start testing!

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