A recent study discovered that marketers waste 25% of their marketing budget on ads and marketing campaigns that don’t work. This is a shocking statistic considering the ability to easily split test most campaigns is now a marketing game changer.
The days of a boardroom decision about the direction of a marketing campaign being the end of the discussion are over.
Split testing is an unemotional, entirely logical, coldly scientific way to compare variables in your marketing side by side, to determine which of the two variables works best.
The concept of split testing isn’t all new.
The first person to successfully use A/B testing was William Sealy Gosset. In 1908, he wanted to determine which strain of barley produced the best ale for Guinness.
Over 100 years later, with the growth of digital marketing, A/B testing has really come of age allowing marketeers to tweak every detail of their online campaigns to optimise the results from their effort
8 reasons why you should start split testing;
Optimize your content
Split testing allows you to test a myriad of variables from which images or text resonates with your target audience to which calls-to-action get noticed. Taking some of the guesswork out of your efforts means your final campaigns will be optimized to get the maximum results.
Helps you choose the right platform
It’s tempting to spread your budget over numerous platforms when you launch a new campaign under the impression that more platforms equals more results, but don’t! Split testing will save time, effort and money. Comparing the analytics from difference placements will allow you to work out which ones work best for which target audience and which campaign.
Speak their language
Starting a new campaign can be like meeting a room full of strangers. Split testing will allow you to track site visits, clicks, audience engagement. Translating this data will help you understand what message resonates with them, what drives them to click on an ad and so on. The sooner you understand this language, the sooner your campaigns will get results.
Reduced Bounce Rate
We all know the feeling when your analytics suggest that people are clicking through from your campaigns but then bouncing right on out of there! It’s a sure sign that your content hasn’t engaged them. Split testing allows you to review your campaigns, tweak fonts, headlines and visuals to help avoid the dreaded bounce!
Increased conversion rates
Getting people to your landing page is the first hurdle, but getting them to engage and ultimately convert is the end goal. Split testing a campaign to see what works and what doesn’t will give you a far greater chance of getting your audience to convert.
Higher Revenues
If you’re starting out with split testing, you might choose to just dabble in it on lower value campaigns. Once you see it works, however, you’ll have the confidence to put it into practice on larger projects. Increasing conversions across numerous campaigns and those for higher-prices products and services will have positive implications for your bottom line.
Ease of Analysis
One of the major benefits of split testing is it gives real, factual results. Endless discussion and differences of opinion amongst the marketing team can be put to one side as it’s easy to determine a clear ‘winner’ based on simple metrics.
Fast results
Split testing online campaigns can give you very fast and accurate results in a relatively short time scale with small numbers of data. This is a new and easy form of market research that takes a lot of the guesswork out of digital marketing.
Less wasted time, effort and money
Before split testing some marketing was a stab in the dark. A/B testing now helps you avoid unnecessary risks by allowing you to target your resources for maximum effect and efficiency, which helps increase ROI whether it be based on short-term conversions, long-term customer loyalty or other important metrics.
So, if you’re tired of guessing which marketing strategy works or not …
it’s time to start doing dry runs in the form of split testing. Getting to grips with even the basics of A/B testing will take some of the guesswork out of the equation. Testing will help you understand your audience, what content compels them to follow your calls to action and ultimately buy your product or service.
