Another synonymous term for split testing is A/B Testing. Split testing is a crucial aspect of any digital marketing strategy. Every campaign is essentially an experiment with the common objective producing maximum ROI through the best combination of marketing components. The only way to do this is to conduct split testing on a running campaign.

What is Split Testing?

Split testing is a way to compare two versions of digital marketing elements to measure the performance of various metrics such as website visits, sign-ups and even purchases. From the results, you will be able to determine which marketing component is most effective in achieving your marketing goals. Some elements you can test are creative assets, audience types, delivery timings and ad placements. Split testing is a great way to optimise your campaign as it is based on the actions of real people. Thus, you are provided with accurate, actionable results. From there, you will be able to develop new best practices to further improve your advertising strategy.

A simple split test with 1 variable component will look like this:

Source: The Daily Egg

How does Split Testing work?

Each version of the ad is set to audiences of similar sizes to determine which version performs better according to the metric in question. These pool of audience comprises of a small sample of the entire target audience. After running the experiment, results will be analysed to determine which version produces the best results for your marketing objective.The results of the split test allows you to identify which elements of your ad works best in terms of conversion. Adjustments should be made until they are able to produce the highest number of conversions

When To Conduct Split Testing?

Split testing should be mandatory for businesses that have any form of online presence. This is because each person who visits your website represents an opportunity for you to expand your business by acquiring new customers and building relationships by maintaining the existing ones. A highly optimised website will yield higher conversion rates, and this is where split testing will help you in guiding your optimisation efforts.Split testing would definitely a step in the right direction if you are looking to solve these issues on hand:

1. Solve Customer Pain Points

Visitors to your website usually enter with a specific goal in mind. If they find that their expectations are not met, and their goals and not achieved, they will leave the website with a bad user experience. This will result in an adverse impact to your conversion goals. For instance, a goal could be to understand more about a product/service. Other goals could be to simply browse, to make a purchase, or to learn more about a topic.

2. Reduce Bounce Rate

A high bounce rate is detrimental to the website’s performance. Determining the reasons for high bounce rates is a very complicated process as there are many components of the website that can affect its performance. Split testing can help you test different variations of an element on your website until you have found the version with the best user experience.

3. Make Minor Website Changes

Split testing helps you to channel your resources in a focused way with minimal modifications in order to yield maximum output.  For example, you will be introducing a new feature into the website but are unsure of the reaction of your visitors. Testing that new feature in a split test can help you to determine the reaction of the visitors. This is especially important if the changes made have an impact on the customer journey and sales funnel in the website.

4. Eliminate Guesswork

The results of split testing is completely data-driven. There is no room for intuition or instincts as the numbers will clearly determine which is the better performing ads.

5. Completely Redesign Your Website

A website redesign can range from a minor change in CTA text or colour adjustment to a complete revamp of the website. The decision behind each element of the website can be purely data-driven with the most engaging version being the one that most of your visitors will eventually see.

Split Testing Illustration

Let’s say you are heavily reliant on the performance of your booking form for revenue, but it is not performing well. You would like to know how to boost the conversion rate. In this case, it will be easier to just change or test one element of the booking form. In the example below, the test is conducted on the placement of the booking form.

 Test A with horizontal form: 

Source: Freshworks

Test B with vertical form.

Source: Freshworks

As illustrated above, we will only test the layout of the form, while keeping the other elements exactly the same. The fonts, colour, form fields, CTA button size are all kept identical. After the test, it was discovered that conversions have drastically increased by 52%. The vertical display (Test B) performed much better than the horizontal display (Test A).

This split test result shows that even minor adjustments in your digital marketing asset can have a big difference in the conversion rates. Additionally, you would have also obtained great insights on your audience behaviour and expectations. Use this information wisely to implement pertinent changes that will help to boost your conversions.

Conclusion

Split testing is an easy way to optimise the performance of your website. It may seem overwhelming and time consuming in the beginning. However, with consistent effort the work will eventually pay off and you will have an easier time managing a truly optimised website. We also share with you a guide that you can follow when performing the split test.

At times, there are just too many things to test! Let is help you prioritise the essential elements that require split testing for your website now. Watch the magic unravel itself as you uncover unique user behaviour that can help you achieve greater success for your business.