A/B Testing: Types, Tools & Benefits

A/B testing plays an essential role in improving your conversion rates. It's the only method to determine if your current landing page is up to the mark. 

A lot of companies construct landing pages and then ignore them. And most of the modifications on those pages are based on intuition.  

And they're frequently incorrect. 

Landing page A/B testing allows you to evaluate which landing page variation will get more clicks, converts better, and has a lower bounce rate.  

That may appear to be a lot of effort, but it's also one of the fastest ways to get more visitors to your website. Every aspect of your landing page puzzle must fit collectively, and the components must work together to bring in new customers.

What is A/B Testing? 

A/B testing is the process in which you have to compare sets of elements arranged in a different order. This approach is frequently used by marketers to measure the performance of their web pages, emails, or any other elements of their marketing strategies.  

The difference in arrangements also alters their performance.  

Consider it as a contest. You're competing between two versions of your resource to see who comes out on top. 

Benefits of A/B Testing 

Before moving forward, let's understand why you should do A/B testing in the first place. Will it really make a difference? Let's find out! 

1. Better User Engagement 

The title or subject line, graphics, call-to-action (CTA) forms and language, style, typefaces, and coloring are all examples of components that you should be A/B testing on your website. Every adjustment you make will reveal which changes had an impact on customers' behavior and which did not. Refreshing the content with the "winning" adjustments will enhance the general user experience, and will help you to make your content more appealing to your customers. 

2. Better Content Structure 

For example, while testing ad copy, you'll need a list of possible modifications to show to your users. The act of making, reviewing, and assessing these lists eliminates inefficient language, making the final versions much more readable and user-friendly. 

3. Lower Bounce rates

If you can run an A/B test on all your elements, it helps you to structure your content in the best possible way, which will be appealing to your readers. This means the readers will tend to spend more time on your website. And, all of this will considerably decrease your bounce-rate in the long run. 

4. Easy To Analyze 

A/B testing has made it a lot easier to pick which variation is performing better, as it takes a lot of elements into consideration.  

Previously, A/B testing measurements were just raw numbers that you had to understand to make a choice. But now, you can use these analytics engines to make recommendations for you based on your optimal standards.  

Therefore, with a detailed report, it's easier to make modifications that can add value to your website. It can be highly beneficial for your website in the long run.  

4. Reduced Risks  

A/B testing can help you avoid making costly, time-consuming adjustments that can turn out to be unproductive. It is important to be well-informed while taking any Important decisions, otherwise, it will only harm your website.  

For instance, before adding any new features, you should use A/B testing to determine whether it will work or not. Making a modification to your website without first analyzing it might not be a wise decision in the long term. It is possible to increase the certainty of the final result by testing and then making improvements.

One major benefit of A/B testing is that it doesn't rule out any possibility. If you see that any modification has the possibility to increase your bounce rates, don't do it. Further, businesses also conduct User Acceptance Testing to ensure that the changes meet the requirements of the user to confidently talk about the engagement and usage.

Types of A/B Testing 

Until now, we have understood what A/B testing is and have gone through some of the benefits of A/B testing. Now, let's some of the types of A/B testing that you should be doing on your website: - 

1. Headlines and Subheadings 

When a visitor visits your website, the first thing he or she notices is your headlines. It's also what determines their first and last impressions in determining whether or not they'll proceed to become loyal customers. As a result, it's critical to pay special attention to the headlines and subheadings of your website.

You have to make sure that they're concise, to-the-point, and snappy, and that they deliver your intended message right away. You can try unique font styles or add some interesting colors, which can pique the interest of your readers and can persuade them to stay longer on your page.  

2. Body  

While writing your body, you have to make sure that it perfectly describes what your readers are looking for.  It should also perfectly match the title and opening paragraph on your page. A well-written content can considerably improve your platform's chances of becoming a lead magnet.  

Use the appropriate tone for your intended market when writing. Your material should speak clearly to the end customer and address all of their concerns. It must include crucial phrases that promote usability as well as decorative aspects that draw attention to your key points. 

Use meaningful headings and subheadings, split your material into small, easy-to-read sections, and structure it with bullet points to give it a neat look.  

3. Design and Layout  

Since everything appears to be necessary, organizations may have difficulty deciding which parts to retain on their webpage. To solve this issue, you have now got A/B testing on your arsenal. 

For instance, if you have an online business, your product page is the most important part in terms of conversions. One thing is certain: at this point in technological development, clients like to examine stuff in detail before making a purchase. Therefore, you should back down in your design and test out different layouts.  

Some things to keep in mind while designing your products page: -  

Crystal Clear Info

Find innovative ways to offer all required context and precise descriptions depending on the things you sell so that potential consumers are not swamped by disorganized content while looking for solutions to their questions. 

Customer testimonials that stand out

Add both positive and negative feedback for your items. Negative feedback boosts your store's trustworthiness.

Create straightforward content

In your desire to embellish your material, avoid confounding potential purchasers with convoluted jargon. Keep it brief, straightforward, and enjoyable to read.

Create Urgency

To urge potential consumers to buy right away, you can use tags like "limited time offer" or "only limited stocks left". You can also promote unique discounts and holiday offers, or something that might convey to your readers that this particular offer will not last long so buy quickly.  

4. Navigation  

Navigation of your content is another aspect that can be improved through A/B testing. When it comes to providing outstanding user experience, it is one of the most important factors. First, you have to decide on a perfect structure for your content, and how your subsections can be placed to improve the readability for your customers.  

You have to make sure that your visitors shouldn't face any trouble while locating any of your content. Otherwise, they can get lost and may never come back to your website.  

Try to make your navigation simplistic and predictable, so that your visitors don't have to work hard to look for them. For instance, if you have an electronic eCommerce platform, then you can place all your earphones in one bucket, all your laptops in another bucket, and so on. 

5. Call To Action 

Your introduction can act as your CTA. It's your moment to wow the customer and persuade them to take advantage of your offer. As a result, doing your A/B testing will require some extra attention.

Multiple components of your call to action can be A/B tested:

• The color of the background and the font
• Font type and styling
• CTA placement on the page 

Keep looking for new variations. You may need to go through several variations before you discover the special recipe so that your CTA can't be overlooked.  

Best A/B Testing Tools 

Until now, you have got a brief idea about A/B testing and got to know some of its major advantages. Now, if you have decided to do A/B testing on your website, then let's discuss some of the best A/B testing tools in 2021: -

1. HubSpot Platform

With HubSpot, you can a/b test your email campaigns, landing pages and Call-To-Actions (CTA) to understand which design or copy is more effective than others. The platform also offers detailed statistics that provides you information about the performance of each of the content variations.

2. Google Optimize 

The Google Optimize tool provides a range of tools to assist businesses to enhance the efficiency of their web pages.

Their A/B testing tool, for instance, goes beyond traditional A/B testing. Customers can test multiple versions as well as run:

• Multivariate analysis
• Split URL testing
• Server-side evaluation 

And apart from that, it's completely free to use for all of your customization and testing requirements. 

2. Freshmarket 

The Freshmarket tool specializes in enhancing your conversion ratios via A/B testing approaches.  

Their A/B testing tool can analyze, optimize, and validate your trial, as well as interact with Google Analytics. It can also help you to monitor the increase in revenue due to the changes made to your website.  

You can also see detailed heatmaps for your modifications, helping you to perfectly analyze which element is working for your content, and which are not making any impact.  

3. VWO 

VWO is an A/B testing and conversion rate optimization software developed exclusively for enterprise clients. 

With a drag-and-drop editor, you may create A/B experiments, Split URL testing, and multivariate assessments in their package. 

VWO provides a powerful monitoring dashboard for evaluating the results of your testing. You can find a smart stats element in VWO that uses Bayesian analytics to enable you to run speedier tests, get greater control over your assessments, and achieve more precise results. 

4. Optimizely  

Optimizely has quite a competent A/B testing tool, however, it particularly specializes in web design. It also has a lot of in-build design templates, which you can apply on your website, to see which ones are working.  

Optimizely also enables testing on interactive websites, as well as other experimental variables such as ad campaigns, target regions of your demographic, cookies, etc. If you are looking forward to enhancing your design and appeal, make sure to try out this tool.

Final Thoughts 

A/B testing will help you to observe how your customers interact with your website when they first arrive. First, you have to figure out the components that will genuinely impact the outcomes. Numerous companies have used A/B testing to modify their layouts, and their engagement scale has skyrocketed. So, try to harness the potential of A/B testing and make your business bloom.