A/B testing is the most efficient means of predicting the value of website conversion measures and WhichTestWon.com explains the strengths and weaknesses of particular tests and the companies conducting the tests. They have over 350 case studies and tests on file from a variety of industries & businesses of all sizes. By having access to review some of these tests that have already been conducted and seeing the outcomes can give you great insights into what converts well, what sells and better ideas for testing going forward for your website.
Just imagine all the time, effort and money it would take to conduct all these tests on your own. WhichTestWon.com can help you with predictive modeling and give you a better understanding of all the elements that go into conversion rate optimization. It may not be the crystal ball you were looking for that sees into the future, but it is probably the next best thing when it comes to website testing & optimization. After all, most statisticians or analysts use data from the past to help build predictive modeling for the future.
What is A/B Testing
Traditional website optimization regularly entailed guesswork. Often times, changes did not increase a website’s search engine ranking. Sometimes the changes would actually drop a website’s ranking. While there was a system and philosophy behind traditional optimization, even the most skilled developers — at times — made changes that did little to improve a site’s ranking or negatively impacted the website.
The purpose of A/B testing is to remove the guesswork from optimization. A/B testing is a means of understanding what effects changes to a website will have in respect to the web optimizations prior to the changes being officially implemented. Simply, A/B testing compares a website’s current landing page performance against the website’s potential challenger landing page to see which landing page performs better. The “A” refers to the current landing page or website item and the “B” refers to the challenger landing page or website item with the potential changes.
But, rather than making the changes and then testing the site, the testing is completed prior to the changes being posted on the server in a controlled environment using data and statistical significance to determine whether changes should be made to the current website.
The result, A/B testing promotes conversions based on data-based conclusions. The notion of hoping a conversion will improve a website is no longer necessary. The effects of decisions can be tested before a change to those commitments are made. That means every change increases revenue, experience & knowledge and this continuum can continue to build upon itself by the testing that you implement. All the while, creating a better website for you or your business that continuously converts at higher rates and continues to become more profitable as time goes on.
Monetary Commitment
Like any other aspect of digital marketing or web development, the amount of time and money required to perform A/B testing to optimize a website can vary greatly. The amount of both time and money that administrators are required to spend depends on the number and extent of changes needed to raise a website to its true potential. However, there are price ranges offered by most A/B testing websites or services.
The lower the price, the less services offered. However, $300-$400 is about the average spent testing a website per month, the tests conducted often include: targeting, personalization, mobile website testing, cross browser testing, multi-page funnel testing, multivariate testing, visitor segmentation, geotargeting, and testing other various items on landing pages.
Sifting Through the Service Providers
There are literally hundreds of companies that offer optimization testing services or software. That means it can be difficult to find the right company to conduct A/B tests. Fortunately, WhichTestWon.com has conducted a substantial amount of research to determine which testing companies rank the highest. Equally as important, WhichTestWon.com evaluates each individual test within those companies.
The evaluations of the tests that WhichTestWon.com conducts are as comprehensive and complex as the A/B optimization tests themselves.
Understanding WhichTestWon.com’s Test Evaluation Platform
WhichTestWon.com evaluates A/B tests using a variety of metrics. Their State of Online Testing report is broken into five primary sections:
- An analysis of which types of companies are and are not conducting testing.
- An evaluation of the types of tests that do and do not work well.
- A statement of fact as to whether or not testing best practices are being followed.
- A prognostication regarding the future of A/B optimization testing.
- WhichTestWon.com’s Findings
- Files of over 350 website optimization tests and the results of the tests from a variety of industries and businesses of all sizes. This provides great reference and case study material for developing your digital marketing strategy or optimization tests.
What WhichTestWon.com has discovered is that only about 60% of all the companies with websites are using A/B testing. That means there is still a large portion of the internet’s total number of landing pages that are either not undergoing conversion optimization regularly or not even being optimized at all. Even more interesting is the fact that the majority of the companies that are testing are in Europe and the rest of the world. The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are actually the furthest behind.
Another surprise is the fact that the world’s largest companies and the world’s smallest companies, those with more than 1,000 employees and those with less than 20 employees are conducting the least amount of testing. Those companies that have fewer than 1,000 and more than 100 are the companies that are conducting the most A/B tests and conducting those tests on the most regular basis to raise their conversion rates.
Marketer Trends
WhichTestWon.com also conducted a survey of the different types of online marketers and discovered that almost 75% of digital marketers who specialize in online sales were conducting A/B tests on a regular basis. On the other hand, only about 27% of digital marketers who specialize in engagement and brand awareness conduct A/B tests on their websites on a regular basis. 58% of digital marketers specializing in lead generation conduct A/B optimization tests quite often as well.
Departments Within an Organization Responsible for Testing
Of the organizations, whether they had 1,000+ employees, between 1,000 and 100, or less than 20 employees, the vast majority held their marketing and web design/development departments responsible for the testing. Even of the organizations with more than 1,000 employees, only 10% actually had testing departments. Zero percent of the companies with under 100 employees had a testing department or allocated any of their marketing budgets to online testing.
Results
It would be a fair assumption to believe that the reason testing is not conducted regularly by more than 59% of organizations world-wide would be because it is a waste of time, resources or does not work. However, of those organizations that do online tests, 47% confirm “big results” in multiple categories such as optimization, money generation, profits and ROI. Another 43% see “moderate” results and only 9% said the results were “neutral.”
In other words, according to the vast majority of those organizations surveyed by WhichTestWon.com, A/B testing works very well and can help your business become a lot more profitable. Any digital marketing expert will stand behind the value of A/B testing or online testing as well.
It is truly a wonder why more organizations are not doing it today. Are you currently testing your landing pages or are you slowly falling behind?