If you’re a marketing professional, generating quality leads is probably top-of-mind. And while the prospect of conversion optimization may excite you, it can be difficult to know where to start. Understanding how to run different experiments, like A/B tests, can help power your conversion strategy as well as help you gather valuable insight on what factors influence your online audience’s choices.

ab testing

What is A/B Testing?

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is the act of running a simultaneous experiment between two marketing variables (such as copy, images, layout, etc.) to identify which one brings about a better conversion rate. This is not to be confused with multivariate testing, which enables you to test many variables simultaneously. 

In the context of marketing, the element that is kept the same in the experiment is known as the “control” and the element that is hypothesized to give a better result is known as the “variable” or “treatment.” 

The Good

Running A/B tests in your marketing initiatives can be a great way to learn how to effectively drive traffic to your website and generate more leads from the visits you’re getting. Even small tweaks to a landing page, email, or call-to-action button can affect the number of leads your company attracts and converts. 

The potential benefits of A/B testing include:

  • Improved content 
  • Higher page engagement
  • Higher conversion rates 
  • Reduced bounce rates on pages

The Bad

As you build assets like landing pages, calls-to-action, and email campaigns, you may wonder about the elements you can test and optimize to increase conversion rates. Will changing the color of your call-to-action button result in more clicks? Does adding an image help the submission rate of your landing page? While so much choice can be a good thing, it can also be frustrating if you don’t know where to start. 

What you can do

Not all variables are created equal, and some may prove more worthy of your time than others. You may find that certain elements in your marketing assets don’t have a large impact on the click-through rate or conversion rates at all. So what should you do? In short, start by focusing on elements that frame your conversion opportunity. 

ab testing

On landing pages, this can mean testing areas such as:

  • Headlines
  • Content
  • Images/Video
  • Social Proof
  • Calls-to-action
  • Layout
  • Form design

On calls-to-action, start by testing out areas such as:

  • Wording
  • Color 
  • Images
  • Shape
  • Placement
  • Size

And let’s not forget A/B testing in email! Think about testing the following areas:

  • Subject line
  • Layout
  • Personalization (Example: “Mr. Smith” vs. “Joe”)
  • Body text
  • Headline
  • Closing text
  • Images

The Ugly

A/B testing enables you to ground your findings and use data to determine what is and what isn’t working well. On the flip side, however, the element you’re testing is often only a piece to a larger conversion process. Other factors, completely outside of your control, may be influencing whether or not a person converts. As a result, it can be difficult to determine, with 100% accuracy, if the change you made influenced visitor behavior. 

Check out my other blog on AB Testing

Thanks to HubSpot

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