1 A/B Testing White Paper. Web Spiders Pvt Ltd

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1 1 A/B Testing White Paper

2 Grow Your Business With Customised A/B Testing Ever since Google introduced the concept of A/B Testing way back in 2000, this has been recognised as one of the most critical testing forms, targeted at customer engagement and lead generation. Though the concept was gaining steady popularity amongst IT companies in the Silicon Valley, the practice saw a steep rise worldwide when technological giants like Amazon, Netflix and ebay used A/B testing to boost their sales and consumer engagement. It was not long before the wave received worldwide attention and web based businesses started acknowledging the fact that there is a difference between being Good Enough and Great and A/B testing can bridge that gap! Owing to the increasing demand for A/B testing services, digital marketers ran many campaigns across various companies to study the impact of A/B testing (and corresponding changes) on customer engagement and conversion rates. The results were affirmative on the importance of A/B testing in the digital domain. For instance, in one case it was observed that merely shifting the position of a subscription form from right hand side of the landing page to the center, the conversion rate jumped by about 50%, from 11% previously to about 16%. In another instance, the text for a PPC ad was changed from Get $10 off the first purchase. Book online now! to Get an additional $10 off. Book online now It was observed that for the second case, the click rate almost doubled. As more and more such results started surfacing, business owners realised that to make the leap from a fair conversion rate to a great conversion rate, they need to employ A/B Testing to their websites and applications. Not only does it help business owners identify avenues where there is room for improvement, but it also provides them the solution to make the necessary changes to accelerate their business. 2 A/B Testing White Paper

3 What is A/B Testing? A/B testing is a method of comparing two (or more) versions of a template, which are similar in all aspects, except for one element, which may affect a user s behaviour. The goal of a well defined A/B testing is to identify which of the 2 designs or approaches yield more user engagement ( and thereby, more conversion ). Even though A/B testing was considered superfluous by many companies even a few years ago, it has undoubtedly surfaced as one of the numero uno parameters to ensure higher user engagement. 3 A/B Testing White Paper

4 The Big Giants are all using A/B Testing Not so long ago, we would talk about visiting the Google homepage or the Amazon page. Those statements don t hold true any more. It would be more appropriate to say that we have visited a Google homepage or an Amazon page. What this means is that a decent amount of users are being directed to some kind of experimental page in Google and Amazon, which looks just about the same as the original page, apart from a slight change in design/text or position of one of the components. User response to these changes are continuously being recorded and the design and functionality are being changed accordingly to increase user engagement and conversion. In one of the more popular examples, Amazon developer Greg Linden, came up with the idea of impulse buy where customers would be suggested more products during checkout, based on the products in their cart. Unfortunately, his boss decided it was not such a good idea and advised him not to integrate the code. Disheartened, Linden decided to use the A/B Testing approach to prove the uniqueness of his concept. Sure enough, when the data came in, it was evident that the approach had potential to exponentially increase the revenue generation of Amazon. Tech circles are buzzing with examples of how A/B Testing not only increased revenue for a company, but also identified it as a trendsetter in its niche, thereby strengthening the presence of its brand. All major user facing companies these days are taking the advantage of A/B testing to redesign and restructure their websites, newsletters and social media engagement profiles. 4 A/B Testing White Paper

5 A/B Testing Services to Enhance User Engagement As one of the fastest growing IT companies in India, we have tapped into the potential of A/B testing at its infancy and have mastered the skills necessary to employ the different types of A/B testing to optimise your website, newsletters, mobile application and social media engagement. We start with A/B testing by identifying the key requirements of your business and your target audience. We thereby study best practice methods for your niche and come up with a set of solutions which are standardised, as well as unique. We then employ the strategies of A/B testing to your product or service and share a detailed test report with your marketing team along with our comprehensive analysis and insights. Our team of highly efficient and skilled designers, programmers and content managers then revamp your website, newsletters, mobile application and social media engagement forms to increase the amount of user engagement and conversion rate of your existing traffic, thereby increasing the revenue for your business. Leverage Data Analytics to outperform your existing business John Wanamaker, the famous retail tycoon, once remarked I know half of my advertising doesn t work. The problem is, I don t know which half. Without the advantage of data analysis, our predecessors were limited to designing their marketing technique mostly based on guesswork. Design components were mostly developed keeping in mind best practice approaches. Now that we do have the advantage of data analysis that accurately predicts user behaviour, it is impertinent that we 5 A/B Testing White Paper

6 use it to grow our businesses. While data analysis gives us the tool to analyse user behaviour, A/B testing is the means to achieve that end. A user rarely comes up with a suggestion regarding the colour component of a button, or position of a call to action. It is we, who must present the user with two or more variations of the same component and try to gauge which of the ones offered is accepted by more users. What this means is that we should first prepare variations of the existing component, which we want to A/B test against the initial component known as control. After that, we must create experiments against measurable and predetermined timeline and then study the data related to the individual components to arrive at a the winner. The data analysis part not only helps us to ascertain which of the designs work best, but also it helps us understand the bottlenecks of a business the reason that holds your business going from good to great! Data vs Assumptions One of the biggest surprises in A/B testing is how it often invalidates common assumptions. While designing our web pages, opt in forms or templates, we usually keep our focus on our understanding of the human psyche. This creates the ego bias and we end us projecting our assumptions and desires on the design. What this means is that we design the components thinking about how we would behave or respond to it if we were the end user. Though this approach is totally acceptable, as life would have it, it's not always the best one, albeit one that generates maximum user engagement. The reason this is so is because people think they respond to something, but actually respond to something else. To demonstrate this concept, Hubspot ran a test in it s company site. Against a certain enrolment plan, they had two different types of 6 A/B Testing White Paper

7 call to action buttons, obviously, in two different forms which were being A/B tested. Everything in the two forms was similar, including the design, size, shape and text of the buttons. The only thing that differed was the color. While button A had the color green, button B was red. The team at Hubspot assumed that the green button would get a higher response as the color green generally invokes the response of Go in our mind, whereas red symbolises Stop or Danger, making us more cautious and alert. The test was performed across thousands of visitors and what the data revealed surprised everyone the red button outperformed the green button by 21% That is how important A/B testing is against conventional methods of design that solely depends on assumptions! How to get your templates A/B tested It is abundantly clear now how important A/B testing is to optimise and outperform your existing virtual platforms. If you have decided to get your site or templates A/B tested and are looking for a company who will help you with that, here is what you should expect: Real time reporting As soon as the different versions of the site or form or which are being A/B tested have been released to the user base, people will be engaging and using them. To understand their usage patterns and 7 A/B Testing White Paper

8 behavior, one should have steady real time access to the data analysis which has been incorporated with the pages being tested. Different user base One must be very sure not to send a different variation of the same form to the same user base. Your user will possibly have no idea that your page has temporary, multi variation instances. Such a mistake can put your credibility at question. Double check on this parameter with your service provider before you give a go ahead to the test. Experiment Customisation Your service provider must offer you the flexibility to customise the experiment instances to allow reusability. If you are A/B testing a certain page of your site and have defined the test parameters, you should be able to reuse this set while designing another experiment for another page. How we can scale your business by A/B testing If you would like to check for yourself how A/B testing optimises the business for you, allow us to offer our extensive experience and expertise across various custom modules coupled with our knowledge in A/B Testing and Digital Marketing to design the best templates for you that guarantees the maximum rate of conversion. Contact us with your business details and we will suggest the areas where we can custom the 8 A/B Testing White Paper

9 templates. We will share the analysis of the experiments with you and also implement the winner directly into your site, so that the transition from experiment to business is seamless and confident. Services That We Offer A/B Testing services can be categorised into the following types A/B Split Testing: This is where a single element of a page is tested against another, to verify which of the two perform better. Multivariate Testing: This is where several elements of a page are tested against other elements and a Performance Profiling is done to evaluate which set of elements work best in a page or design component. Experimental Design: This is where the testing approach is customised depending on the requirement and niche of the module to be tested. Though we are proficient in both Split and Multivariate forms of A/B Testing, we hold the crown for the Experimental Design Approach, as it is the most efficient form of A/B Testing an 9 A/B Testing White Paper

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11 d allows us the best option to provide the solution to our customers to increase their business. Interested to get your services A/B Tested? Just drop us a line and we will tell you how we can help you leverage on your existing traffic to grow your business and your brand! 11 A/B Testing White Paper

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