Split Testing: What It Is & How To Be Effective To Increase Conversions

Home > Digital Marketing How To's > Split Testing: What It Is & How To Be Effective To Increase Conversions

Transcript:

You’ve only got one chance to make a first impression… 

The powers of split testing mean you get to try both those chat up lines… or *ahem* call to action in your marketing.

Now make like a banana and split, because Wednesdays are about to get GIANT.

 

Hello, my name is Sai and welcome to Giant Wednesday, the only place to be to discover the wonderful world of digital marketing. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and post your comments below.

We’re here today to look into what split testing is, what it allows you to do and the things you can achieve with some clever tactics.

Split testing, by definition, is a method of conducting controlled, randomised experiments which in the wonderful world of the internet allows us to better understand our audience’s behaviours.

It’s all about comparing two different versions of something and determining which one works better – using that information to make sure you make the relevant tweaks and changes necessary to move closer towards your goals.

So, if you’ve ever wondered whether your call-to-action wording is quite right, or whether an image of a kitten or a baby in your ad is more likely to get clicks… then wonder no more.

If you find your audience is more likely to complete an action when you use a certain colour text, or a certain tone of voice, or maybe like I said… they prefer kittens to babies, then you can use the knowledge gained from the split testing to inform your future marketing.

Running these split tests helps take the guesswork out of marketing – allowing you to make decisions based on hard facts.

Most digital advertising platforms make setting up split testing easy as pie but if you need advice on a specific platform then leave us a comment below and we’ll lend a helping hand. 

But let me share with you some split testing top tips… try saying that five times faster.

 

Number 1: One is a magic number

To make your life easier and to really split test your content then you should only really change one thing between your original and amended variation.

This will help you to pinpoint exactly what resulted in increased performance.

If you just try different fonts, then you’ll get a feel for which one resonates with your audience best. But if you change the fonts, the call to action, the colour and the picture then you can never be truly sure which was the winner in the situation…

This won’t always be possible, I get that, but make sure you try to keep track of what you’ve changed and where so it isn’t a wasted effort!

 

Number 2: Focus on the call to action

So now you’re wondering… what one thing should I change to REALLY test my awesome marketing capabilities?

Well your call to action is the best place to start. And by George I hope you’re using them in your marketing…

The way these are worded can have a huge impact on whether or not your audience will resonate and take action. Some might like a more forceful approach, some might like it subtle but you won’t know until you try.

These are the things that have a big impact on conversions – hence a great place to start your split testing journey.

 

Number 3: Trust your own data

A big mistake we often see is those basing their activities on things they’ve seen working for others around them. This is a big no no. 

Just because someone else found that red buttons worked better than blue doesn’t mean the same will apply for you.

You could have different products, different audiences, different locations… no two businesses are the same despite how it might look at times.

Use your own data found through analytics software and past experiences to determine your activity.

 

Number 4: Go big or go home

Google one famously tested 41 different shades of blue to determine which performed the best… damn.

However, unlike those guys, most people don’t have the time and resources to commit to such intense testing on such… small matters.

Instead of whacking out those paint samples, try to focus on testing variations that are likely to make the most GIANT impact on your conversion rate.

 

And finally, number 5: test, test and test again

Something important to remember is that when it comes to split testing, not every variation you try is going to work.

In fact, the amends you make to test things out might make things worse! It’s a gamble – but it’s worth it.

If things go wrong then it’s back to the drawing board with you, time to try something else.

There is always something to test – just because you do see success with your first variation doesn’t it’s the best it could be.

So as long as you strive to be the best, just like me, then you should be in for split testing splendour.

 

And that’s my advice for smashing your split tests. Focus on one thing at a time, get creative with your call to actions, trust in yourselves, go big or go home and most importantly, keep up that testing.

You can’t go wrong with split testing, because there’s always an opportunity to get it right.

So, that’s it for today, go forth and comment your views – give us a like and subscribe to see more great digital and marketing content every week.

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next week for another GIANT Wednesday.

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