The Importance of A/B Testing
Testing is a way of knowing what exactly is working and what isn’t working within your marketing strategy. By conducting A/B tests, you can gather hard facts about which marketing campaigns, media categories or individual advertisements work best and what types you might need to change to get better results.
So, what exactly is A/B testing? It is simply creating two versions of a ad and testing them to see which one gets the best response. To perform an A/B test, you must start by dividing your desired audience into two groups. You can break up test groups based on location, product type or demographic. Once you decide how to divide your groups, show one version of an ad to one group, and the other version to another group. You will get the most accurate results from testing if you change only one element at a time, keeping everything else as identical as possible. Trying to test multiple elements at once makes it very difficult to determine which element is affecting the results the most.
Some examples of things you can test are:
· CTA/Headers. Changes to wording could make a significant difference in conversions, especially in prominent headers, titles and calls to action.
· Images. Different subject matter can appeal to different people. For example, perhaps a younger demographic may not respond as well to a photo of a mother and baby, as they would a photo of a man and dog. Try switching up your images in your creative.
· Color. Often times certain colors can emit different emotions so, try changing the color scheme of your background, text boxes, and buttons.
· Layout. Try switching around the location of CTA buttons, forms, and photos. Typically the most important item is located at the top of the page, in the most prominent spot.
It’s important to remember to use a large enough sample size and a long enough time frame to allow for accurate ad analysis of your results. Also remember that consumer preference can change over time, so you can conduct multiple tests to stay up to date.
Also read on – Media analysis
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