What is Split Testing?

Author: Lori Highby

What is Split Testing?

Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a method that helps you understand what works and what doesn’t work within your marketing efforts. The idea is that you tweak a single aspect of a marketing effort, whether it’s a paid ad or if it’s a process within your website, and then run both the original version and the tweaked version to see any differences. It is recommended to only change one characteristic at a time. This means if you are testing which text works best, only change the text. If you are testing what color works best, only change the color. If you change more than one characteristic, you will not know what to attribute the success to. Was it the change in color, or the change in the text? You won’t know if you change both at the same time.

Example:
I want to test whether a red and green color scheme or a blue and white color scheme performs best for my Christmas ad. I create two identical ads, with only the color scheme changed. Remember, change only one characteristic, in this case only the color scheme. Run both ads at the same time at a limited budget. This is only a test to see where you should allocate your full budget. Once you have run your test, look at your analytics and see which ad had the best performance in your specified KPI (Key Performance Indicator). Was this ad to promote awareness for your business? Check your reach and impressions – which ad had more? Did the ad have a CTA (Call to Action)? If so, check your CTR (Click Through Rate).

Now that you have a better understanding of what a Split Test is, think about other processes to test. You don’t always have to have two new sets of content or processes. Maybe your current checkout process has room for improvement, but you don’t know where. Change one aspect at a time and keep testing until you find a significant improvement.

What ideas do you have for a split test? Comment below or @ us on social media with your ideas!