The average adult makes between 33,000 and 35,000 decisions every day.
What to wear, what to eat, what to say, how to say it.
What if you knew all the facts before making every decision?
How easy would that be!
A/B testing helps us do exactly that.
Put very simply, A/B testing is a method to compare two pieces of content against each other to see which performs best.
You can use it for webpages, adverts, headlines, copy, forms, social media.
So we know what it is, and where to use it…
But how do we use it? How does it apply to your business.
Let’s investigate.
We’re going to use webpages as an example.
You’ve just got the clean slate of a new website, and your mind has gone completely blank.
You have no idea what to type, what your title should be, what pictures are good, what colours to use.
Most people would guess. Throw anything on there and think about it another day.
You’re smarter than that. You’re going to run a few tests and decide based on facts, not blind guesswork.
To do this you would make two pages. One of them has headline A, the other headline B.
You decide what you want to measure. Do you want to keep people on your site for longer, do you want more people to click a button, do you want more site visitors?
When you decide what you’re measuring, you can run your test.
It’s up to you how long to run your test for. For a small change like this, we would recommend no longer than a week.
7 days have passed, and it’s time for results.
You can see which version has outperformed.
Let’s say headline B shows 30% more visitors.
Now you know that headline B is the best. You have all the facts, you can now put this on your website.
Simple. Quick. Effective.
You wouldn’t stop here of course.
You can test anything on your webpage. Font type, font colour, button size, left aligned text etc.
Each test you run brings you one step closer to carving the perfect website.
*As a general note, we would only recommend testing one item at a time. If you change 10 things at once and run a test, it will be quite difficult to see which change make the difference.
Test small, test fast is the rule of thumb when it comes to this testing.*
The beauty of A/B testing is it’s versatility.
Let’s say you’ve decided to take the plunge and run Facebook adverts. You don’t want to spend your ad budget on a poor advert.
With A/B testing, you can show 50% of viewers advert A, and the rest advert B.
As soon as you see the better performer, you can go all in on the advert that works.
All the guesswork that comes with being a business owner can be removed, and your money will be spent where it will make the biggest impact.
A/B testing is the perfectionist's dream.
You will wow your visitors, and your competitors will be scampering to decipher how you’ve made something so brilliant.
All that’s left is to go out and have fun. Remember us when you’ve got the best adverts, websites and social media!
Talk soon,
Jamie
P.S. Do you need a hand in your first batch of testing? Contact us at https://www.jumpstartmarketingsolutions.com/ and we’ll be in touch to help you get this in place.
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