AB Testing is a term you may have come across while reading about marketing techniques or even business advice. But what does it mean, and how can you apply it to your business?
AB Testing In a Nutshell
In a nutshell, AB testing is producing two (or more) copies of something and live testing it to see which is most effective. It is a marketing technique that allows a business to refine their product, ads, funnels, etc., to produce one that converts at the highest possible rate. You can use AB testing on the following things:
- Landing pages
- Ads
- Places to advertise
- CTAs (calls to action)
- Marketing emails
- Product descriptions
- Product names
- Titles
- Product planning
- Product testing
- Graphics
- Positioning of ads or CTAs
The more you apply AB testing to your business, the more likely you are to create a superior product and achieve a great ROI on your marketing spend.
Where Did AB Testing Originate?
AB testing is not only used in the business world; it is commonly used in clinical trials and scientific testing. It dates back to the 1920s, and the person credited for its use was Robert Fischer, a biologist and statistician. While we don’t know when it was first used in business, it has become popular with online businesses that can easily conduct live AB testing and receive results within hours.
How Do I Conduct AB Testing?
So, how do you apply AB testing to your business?
Well, let’s use an example of a business owner writing an email to their mailing list about their new course. They have a mailing list of 200 people, and they decide to run a little AB test with 20 people. The business owner selects 10 people at random to be in Group A and 10 more people at random to be in Group B.
They write 2 different emails that market their new course. They might use different copywriting tactics in the email, or they might even address different pain points. The purpose of the AB testing might even just be about the graphics used in the email. The business owner sends one version to Group A and the other version to Group B and collects statistics about open rate, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
Armed with the statistics, the business owner then sends the most successful email to the remaining 180 of their mailing list in order to increase the success of their course.
In order to use AB testing successfully, you need to narrow down the scope of your testing. Only test one thing at a time and try to keep it as small as possible so you can determine its effectiveness. For example, you might test the colour of a button on your landing page or the call to action on that button. You might use AB testing to compare two email subject lines to see what gives the highest open rate.
Should I Run AB Testing?
If in doubt, yes, run AB testing. AB testing is great for making small tweaks if you believe something isn’t performing as well as you hoped. It is also effective for running a small test version before you drop serious money on a marketing tactic.
For example a business owner wants to pay an influencer to run an ad on their Instagram page or TikTok. They have found 2 influencers in their niche who have engaged audiences and could bring a lot of attention to their brand. These influencers know that their curated audience is extremely valuable, and therefore, they charge thousands for a paid promotion. The business owner could just hire them right away and provide an ad, or they could find 2 less-established influencers in the same niche and conduct a small AB test. This AB test will allow the business owner to find the best way to present their product to an audience in this niche and also find out on a much smaller scale if they are likely to get a good ROI from the influencers. The AB test could be creating a carousel with useful content vs a video ad. It could even be 2 video ads that have a different message. Once the testing period is over, the business owner will be able to take the most successful ad and pay the 2 well-established influencers their fee, knowing what the approximate conversion rate is likely to be.