Running a business is stressful enough in itself, and making important decisions is part of the game. Some of these decisions involve aspects such as the copy or graphics of your site: but how can you be sure you are making the right ones? Thanks to the A / B tests.

A / B tests, also called split tests, allow you to compare two or more variants of the same text, button and / or image and show them to different segments of your site visitors in order to decide which is the most effective version. 

So let’s see in practice what A / B tests are and why you should start using them in the management of your business.

A / B test: what is it? 

Imagine having to create a sales funnel for your new product or service. You will study every word, every color and every detail of your web pages, and you will not leave anything to chance. A newsletter subscription form, some upselling and cross-selling strategies , and a nice red button that invites visitors to add your product to their cart. 

Finally, the time has come to launch your funnel, and everything is proceeding normally. But you have the feeling that something could be better. Some customers abandon their shopping cart without completing their purchase, and someone else does not complete the subscription form to your newsletter right before clicking Confirm. 

There will therefore be disturbing elements, and it is necessary to identify them. But how to understand what to change, how to identify the elements that need to be optimized? That’s right, with A / B testing.  

While it is true that every customer is unique and has different expectations and needs, there are different aspects of your site that will have greater resonance and will be able to convert the majority of visitors. 

Think about it: what is your goal once a visitor arrives australia email list free download on your site? You will probably want him to take an action, be it signing up for your newsletter or buying your new products. 

To achieve this, you will structure sales funnels that you will study in every detail. And the more optimized your funnel, the higher your conversion rate. 

A / B tests will allow you to compare different alternatives for different variants of your site, to choose the best ones with the highest potential. 

Why do A / B testing? 

It is therefore clear that carrying out tests to understand what works best for your site is essential. Some aspects may seem superfluous to you, but they can really make a difference. 

Maybe all those customers abandon the cart without completing the purchase because the directions are not clear enough, or maybe those potential customers have chosen not to subscribe to your newsletter because they did not understand what they would receive. 

But what is the A / B test for? 

Optimizing for users:the goal of every business is (as well as clearly making a profit) that its customers are satisfied, and that navigation on their site is fluid and intuitive. Thanks to the A / B test you can get rid of all those too cumbersome steps and those buttons that nobody clicks on, making your site extremely optimized. 

Increase ROI:A site that converts quickly equates to a better return on investment, and split testing can help you improve conversions and get the most out of your traffic without having to spend more to gain new visitors.

Reduce the bounce rate: one of the fundamental metrics for any ecommerce is the bounce rate, or the number of people who leave your site after a few seconds. Split testing will help make your site as engaging and enjoyable as possible, so visitors will want to spend a lot more time on it. 

How to do an A / B test?

Split testing is a systematic and organized way to find out which details work and which ones are best avoided on your site. But what strategy to follow to conduct an A / B test at best? 

1. Research

As with many other marketing strategies, the key word is being prepared. So research, research, research. How is your site doing right now? How many visitors come every day, which pages attract the most traffic? 

Once you have analyzed every aspect of your site, you can start making your first hypotheses about what your first A / B tests might be. 

2. Hypothesize

The data collected during your research is not enough to understand what you can improve. It is up to you to analyze that data and study it to identify the aspects of your site that you can improve.

3. Varies

Once you have identified the areas for A / B testing, you will need to take care of creating variations. 

What is a variant? Basically, this is an alternative to your current version, which changes the look you want to test. 

An example would be to change the “Add to Cart” button to “Buy Now”, or to create a simplified variant of a form that is not getting enough data from users.