A/B testing
What is A/B testing?
An A/B test is a technique that consists of developing two versions of the same element or product, with the sole intention of measuring which of these two versions works better.
A/B testing has many different uses in digital marketing. Some of the most common (though not the only ones) are:
- Determine the best design for a web page.
- Measure which is the best version of an app.
- Find the best newsletter for your bulk email campaigns.
- Quantify which landing page gets more conversions.
- Calculate the effectiveness of two different CTAs.
- Determine the best redesign of a website logo.
- Test specific elements of the design such as buttons and images.
- Check the effectiveness of two different copy versions for the same product.
1. How does an A/B test work?
This method consists of developing two versions of the same element/product before launching it on the market. It applies to both physical and digital products. In our case, we will focus on an example based on creating an A/B test to find the best subject line between two candidates, so that an email marketing campaign delivers the best ROI.
Naturally, you can run multiple A/B tests to take more versions into account, but an A/B test is usually used to decide between the two “finalist” options.
To do this, we create two subject lines for a newsletter from an animal shelter that wants to raise funds among its members.
One includes the name of the email’s recipient and a question whose answer is obvious to the contact list it is sent to: “Name, don’t you just love animals?” The other version is more direct and aims to get the recipient to read the email: “The lives of our animals depend on you alone.” The content of the email is exactly the same; only the subject line changes.
Then, to run the A/B test, we take a percentage of the total list of subscribers we want to send the newsletter to, for example 20%, and send 10% of them the subject line “Name, don’t you just love animals?” The remaining 10% receive the one with the subject line “The lives of our animals depend on you alone.”
After 24 hours, for example, we review the A/B test statistics and determine which version got the most opens. The subject line with the most opens is the winner of the A/B test, and the newsletter is sent to the remaining 80% of subscribers using that winning subject line.
2. Advantages of A/B testing
In general, incorporating A/B tests into any marketing strategy brings you numerous advantages:
- Increase the profitability of your campaigns. A/B tests let you easily find out what really works with your target audience.
- They allow you to experiment with different options. What worked a few months ago may not be as effective today, so you have to constantly experiment in a controlled way and A/B tests are ideal for that.
- They help to improve engagement. Through subtle changes, A/B tests show you, unequivocally, the way your audience wants to be treated, the tone of the conversation they like the most, the content that is relevant to them, etc.
- The details make the difference. You may not have realized it, but polishing seemingly minor details, such as font size or color, can make the difference between a text or CTA succeeding or failing. A/B tests highlight the importance of details.