By following the steps outlined in this article to do A/B testing for websites, you’ll be able to develop your CRO strategy quickly and make fewer mistakes.
Only 1 out of every 7 A/B tests increases the conversion rate of a website. Why is this the case? It is due to the fact that conversion rate optimization (CRO) entails more than just experimenting with colors and CTA buttons.
You must learn how to create the right tests and gain a better understanding of the CRO process if you want to see substantial increases in your conversion rate.
How To Implement A/B Testing For Websites
SkilledHub was looking to boost conversion rates on their homepage. They didn’t know what to do, but they wanted to increase the number of leads generated by using the form on their homepage. The form is used to collect information from businesses and homeowners interested in home improvement services.
SkilledHub decided to start by surveying the customers to collect more information.
They posed questions such as:
- How would you explain our service to a friend or acquaintance?
- Did you have any questions that you couldn’t find answers to on our website?
- How likely are you to recommend us on a scale of 1 to 10?
The last question yielded the most useful results. A higher percentage of the participants stated that the most pressing concern they had was determining the cost of the service. Since SkilledHub didn’t have pricing details on their website, that was the most pressing question they had, and couldn’t easily find out how much each of the services would cost.
Analyzing A/B Testing Results
SkilledHub decided to conduct a test based on these findings. “Contact Us” was the original CTA button copy. They wanted to try a new copy that said, “Get Free Quotes.” So, they devised a survey and analyzed the findings. They discovered that the latest version improved form completions by 52%.
But, before you generalize and make the same adjustment on your website, keep in mind that this outcome was unique to SkilledHub’s services and was based on data collected through customer surveys.
SkilledHub didn’t just make a guess on what to measure and then get surprised by the outcome. In order to achieve consistent and long-term results, they followed a tried-and-true conversion rate optimization process.
Prior to conducting research, consider whether there is a clear link between what you want to learn and how your results can affect your business decisions.
A/B Testing Significance In The Customer Journey
The analytics should show you a good picture of who is visiting the site. It should also cover the areas below for the entire buying process:
1. Awareness
Unique visitors, organic search, and referring backlinks are all metrics to keep an eye on.
2. Engagement
Pageviews, returning visitors, social media interaction, and completion of on-site activities (e.g., form completions) are all metrics to look out for.
3. Retention
Returning visitors, repeat purchases, customer lifetime value, and churn are the relevant metrics.
A/B testing results and conversion optimization objectives should be measured against the benchmarks set in the analytics.
Usability Tests
Usability tests are another effective way to learn more about your clients and discover what is stopping them from making a purchase on your website.
A usability test consists of a set of steps that a user must complete. Then you find someone to go through the steps, talk about their experience when using your platform, and capture them while they’re following the steps you’ve laid out.
The video from the process would then show you what was frustrating on your website, what the user enjoyed, and what they were not sure about.
You may miss obvious ways to improve your website if you don’t perform user tests. For instance, users may be struggling with the check-out procedure because they don’t know how to properly input their phone numbers.
While your IT department may have overlooked the phone number entry form, it has become one of the most frustrating aspects for users. You’ll have a hard time finding these types of problems without running a user test.
Performing User Tests
So, how do you go about doing one? There are a couple of options.
The first choice is to manage the user test on your own by finding participants. After setting up your device with a screen capture software and microphone, you can recruit participants for your test and take them to a nearby coffee shop.
Another option is to use a service such as UserTesting.com. It makes user testing simple by automating the recording work and offering scenario templates tailored to your industry.
The tests are $49 each but considering that you only need about 5 tests at a time to get decent results, the price isn’t outrageous for the quality of service offered.
Regardless of which choice you select, the aim of user testing is to:
- learn how visitors interact with your site
- find out their opinion about it
- figure out the problems that they encounter
- understand the type of questions that they have
It’s the most effective way to get into their minds and really comprehend what’s going on when they visit your website.
So, who would you use to test your website? Here are a few possibilities:
Doing Research Based On The Customers
Customers are clearly the ideal candidates for using your platform and providing you with feedback. It’s better if you can find people from your client base to test your website.
Using The Platform Yourself And Performing A User Test
Sometimes advertisers and business owners produce something and then hand it over to others to use. But you must try out your own product before leaving it to others.
It is important to use what you’ve developed in order to gain a better understanding of your web page and to become acquainted with each step of the customer journey.
Using Other Suitable Testing Candidates
Even if they aren’t in your target market, there’s a fair chance they will spot bugs or confusing aspects of your website because most people are used to browsing and know what is and isn’t confusing.
Who participates will depend on the ones that are available at the time that you perform the test. Start by asking your coworkers to test the website, then move on to asking customers at a coffee shop to test it. Finally, use a service like UserTesting.com to test people in your target demographic.
For conducting a test, you must first devise a set of tasks for the participants to complete. To begin, ask users to follow a path that your customers typically take to reach your website.
You might, for example, ask them to go to Google and search for your service, then talk about what they find and how they feel about the results.
You could then ask them to visit your site, look around for a few seconds, and then tell you their first impression.
Next, you could get them to order a specific product and then observe them as they complete the test to see if there are any roadblocks.
A/B Testing Landing Page
A landing page is a standalone page that appears when a user clicks on an email, advertisement, or other online location. It is what many businesses use to conduct their A/B tests.
The marketing message on your landing page should make sense to your target audience. Users can get confused as a result of cognitive dissonance. Avoid building one-size-fits-all landing pages for the various types of website users.
Unbounce is a service that can greatly simplify the process of developing and A/B testing landing pages.
They’ve resources that break down the components of a high-converting landing page. They can help you overcome any challenges related to design to start producing results right away, particularly if you’re new to online marketing.
A/B Testing Framework
Here are some tips for the A/B testing process:
- The ability to identify your company’s unique selling proposition is the starting point for your marketing strategy. Make it clear how your product differs from the competition. The following elements can help you articulate your value proposition:
- Main headline: People will see or read this first on your website
- Subheading: The most effective way to keep your main headline short and concise. Add extra information to make your message as transparent as possible
- Reinforcing message: Since people will be skimming through your website, include this statement as a backup (to cover all bases)
- Closing statement: This is the last chance to get web page users to engage with your business
- Pique people’s interests and remove uncertainty. This can be accomplished using an image or an explainer video that best represents your service, product, or team.
- Include a more in-depth overview of the key features and advantages of your service or product. Although the headline is the main draw, these blurbs get right to the meat of the matter. Answer the one burning question that all website users have: “How can this benefit me?”
- Give comprehensive feature and benefit details to go along with what you’ve said so far in. First and foremost, communicate the value of your offering. Start explaining the features after that. These particulars would be crucial in reaching users who need more detailed information in order to take action.
- Offer a bulleted list of the most important features or advantages. Write one short sentence or paragraph and use bullets to explain the remaining aspects. If you’ve finished writing this part, go back and edit out any fluff.
- Social proof is a convincing and powerful technique. These are social elements that indicate a high demand for your service or product. Users are more likely to engage if they know of other consumers who have had a positive experience with your business. The following are some examples of applying social proof:
- Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn social shares
- Customer case studies and testimonials
- Trust badges to ensure information security
- A count of the number of customers your business has
- Customer ratings and reviews that set the company apart from the competition
- Accolades from well-known organizations
- The conversion objectives should be prioritized in the final segment. This is conveyed to visitors via the website’s call-to-action (CTA), which can be a separate button or an element of a lead generation form.
- Be very clear (and specific) on what visitors should expect when they click the button
- The most important elements in your CTA should be the copy of the text and the color
- Make the button as appealing as you possibly can. A good rule of thumb is to pick a color that contrasts with the current color scheme. To draw attention to it, use some visual cues. Your CTA should be bold and clearly articulate the ROI that customers would receive from working with your business or using your services. After all, you’re dealing with real people, not bots.
Follow these steps to build different landing pages that you can use for your A/B test to determine the best one.