Landing Page A/B Testing: 8 Tips for Successful Landing Page A/B Tests
When you conduct A/B testing, you test two different versions of your landing page. This testing is done to help you create the best version of your page. When your website works for your audience, you earn more conversions.
So, how can you conduct successful A/B testing?
On this page, we’ll discuss nine tips to help you get more from your A/B tests. If you need help setting up your A/B tests, call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist.
1. Test one thing at a time
When you run A/B testing, you want to focus on testing one thing at a time. This is critical to help you make changes on your site. If you want to get the best results from testing, change individual elements one at a time.
If you focus on too many elements, you won’t get clear results. Your results will be muddled. It will be unclear as to what is working for your site and what isn’t.
You won’t clearly know which element is drawing your audience in. If you’re testing the change in text while you’re testing the color change in your design, you won’t be able to tell which elements lead to more conversions
To avoid this, you’ll want to test one element at a time. It may seem tedious, but it will help you see clearly which changes work for your audience and which ones don’t. If you want to see valuable results that you can use, test your elements separately.
When you test the two versions of your singular element, ensure that you do them in the same time frame. It’s best to test them in the same day or week. Behaviors can change over time, so you don’t want to wait too long to test the different versions of your element.
For example, let’s say you’re testing the color of a button on your site. When you conduct that test, you’d want to offer the two options at different points in the day or the same time of day over two days in the same week.
If you tested one color in September and the next color in December, you wouldn’t get accurate results. The changes would be too far apart in time to accurately measure their effectiveness. Not to mention, if you were a retail store for example, you may see an influx in traffic in December due to the holidays, which could be the cause for the increased clicks on your button (rather than the color).
To generate the best results, test the two versions of a single element in the same time span. Focus only on that singular element to help you measure which version is the most effective for your audience.
It’s also essential to choose an optimal A/B test sample size, or the percentage of your total audience, that will help you gather statistically significant results.
2. Have a control page
Like any science experiment, you need a control element. This is how you base your success (or lack of) when you test different elements.
When you test your website, you want to have a control page. This can be your current landing page. You already know how that page performs, so you can use it as your control page when you make changes to it.
By having a control page, you can easily monitor how changes affect your page. If you don’t have client testimonials on your page and decided to add them, you can see how that impacts your audience. You can compare your original site’s performance with your new site’s performance and decide if that element will help your page perform better.
3. Test big and small variables
When you test different elements on your site, you want to make sure you are testing big and small elements. Big elements can have a large impact on your page, but so can small elements.
There are numerous types of big elements you will test. These larger elements include the color of your site, the design and style, or the size of buttons on your site. Big elements are more noticeable and can have a huge impact on your audience.
Small elements can have a huge impact, too. Something as small as changing a word on your site can change your site’s performance. You’ll want to make sure you test these small elements, too.
By testing both big and small elements, you create a more effective landing page.
4. Set your goal
When you are conducting A/B testing your site, you want to make sure you have a goal in mind. What do you want to achieve by changing elements on your site? You want to make sure that you define a goal, so you know what you’re trying to achieve.
There are numerous metrics you can measure when you are testing your new site, so you’ll want to choose a primary metric to focus on. It can be a higher clickthrough rate, more traffic, or more conversions. You can choose any number of metrics to set as your goal.
When you run tests, you will see the results of other metrics, but you’ll want to focus on your goal metric. This will help you see if you are achieving the goals you want to achieve with your A/B testing.
5. Think about your page layout
When you conduct A/B testing on your landing page, you want to think about your page layout. You are going to attract leads through different mediums. It is important that you create a page layout that works for your leads.
You need to think about how your audience finds your business. Are they coming through a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or your social media accounts? What kind of information do they want to see?
When people come through methods like PPC ads, they will look for pages with more information. If people come through methods like email, they want to complete an action, like download a guide or make a purchase.
You need to think about the call to action (CTA) you used to drive people to act. What did you ask them to do? You want to think about that CTA and create a landing page that promotes taking that action.
It is important that you deliver exactly what a user was expecting. So, when you create your landing page and want to test it, you need to think about the layout of your page.
6. Test your header
One of the most important elements you’ll want to test is the header. It is the first thing your audience sees when they come on to your page.
This is one element you don’t want to neglect to test. It can have a huge impact on how your audience interacts and views your page.
You want to make sure that you test your landing page header to see how your audience responds to it. This means you may need to conduct multiple A/B tests to see how your audience responds to the header.
7. Test your offer
When you conduct A/B testing, you want to test your offer. Your offer is one of the most important elements on your landing page. After all, you are driving leads to this page because you have an offer that you want them to act on.
As you conduct A/B testing, you’ll want to think about the message you want to send to your audience. What do they get out of your offer? How can you express that on your landing page?
You may need to try phrasing your offer different ways (or changing the offer) to see better results with your testing. This will help you create an offer that is appealing to your audience and gets them to act.
8. Test your CTA button
When you create a landing page, you want to test your CTA button. You need to make sure that your CTA button is effective for your audience and gets them to act. This means you need to test it.
You’ll want to conduct A/B testing on your CTA button to make sure it is effective. Is your button specific enough? Are you phrasing things in a way that entices your audience?
By A/B testing your CTA button, you’ll create an end product that is more effective for your audience.
WebFX can help you conduct insightful A/B tests
A/B testing is an important part of creating the right landing pages for your business. You want to create a page that will work for your audience and get them interested in your business. At WebFX, we take the time to create and test landing pages for our clients.
We’re a full service digital marketing company that specializes in A/B testing. We have a team of 500+ experts that are dedicated to your campaign. Our award-winning team will take the time to test out different elements on your page and figure out what works best for your audience.
If you’re looking for a company that drives results, look no further. To date, we’ve driven over $6 billion in sales and over 24 million leads for our clients. We focus on putting our clients’ success first.
Our clients love the work we do, too. In fact, we have over 1,100 client testimonials from a variety of industries. Check them out to see what it’s like to partner with WebFX!
Learn more
If you want to learn more about how A/B testing can earn your business more conversions, contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist.
We look forward to hearing from you!