One of the hardest things to do is predict whether your business strategy will work or not. Consumers no longer rely solely on traditional marketing strategies – it’s all about innovative and fresh ideas. That’s where A/B testing comes into play. If your business has the bright ideas but not the benchmarks to rely on, it’s time to take matters into your own hands and produce results of your own.
What is A/B testing?
A/B testing is an efficient method for comparing two versions of a variable to determine which performs better. This method allows you to produce results that specifically and accurately reflect the variables you are testing. As technical as it may sound, many businesses complete A/B testing on a frequent basis. This form of testing has been proven to be a highly effective way of mastering strategies that work best for your business and audience.
Why is A/B testing important?
A/B tests are key factor in your approach to refining your strategies and practices. Unlike your usual statistical trend reports, these tests produce results that allow you to confidently implement new or improved strategies.
A/B testing can be used to discover a variety of insights on your business and audience, such as:
- Finding out whether your audience responds best to images, video, or audio; or if written or visual information catches their attention more.
- Trying a new format or strategy to see if your engagements increase, decrease, or remains the same.
- Determining whether attention and resources are allocated to the right channels – which ultimately will help you cut costs or maximise returns.
Whether you’re unsure of which headline will attract the most viewers, or if you’re thinking of switching up your tone of voice, A/B testing can help you be more result-driven by reducing the uncertainties involved in trying something new. Learn more about your audience from the results you obtain as these results inform how you can tailor your plans to optimize audience interactions.
A/B tests are especially important and beneficial if you’re a small business trying to grow a social media presence. Carrying out these tests will help you navigate through what works and what doesn’t, slowly streamlining your strategy over time towards producing desired outcomes.
What works for others may not work for you.
Have you ever come across an interesting post or technique and considered adapting it to your business model? You might be wondering if it will translate well across your brand. While it may be what everyone else is doing, it doesn’t always mean you should do it too. All audiences behave differently, so it is important to remember that you are doing things for them, and not for its popularity. The best way to know for sure is to, you guessed it right, run an A/B test, as the results you receive are specific to your business and your audience.
What works today may not work tomorrow,
Which is why it is equally important to continuously conduct these tests. Trends come and go, and consumer behaviours transform with every digital innovation, especially in today’s digital space. A/B tests will help keep you in check and let you know if your strategies are out of style. Rather than worrying about whether your next campaign or post will do well, save that energy for putting in the actual work by conducting A/B tests.
How do you conduct an A/B Test?
There are many A/B testing tools out there that makes this task easy-peasy, so worry not about setting up an actual scientific experiment.
First, you need to know what variable you are testing (independent variable) and the performance variable (dependent variable) you’re testing it on. You then need to create two versions of the independent variable. Depending on what you’re trying to test, you might choose to test the different versions one at a time, or both at once. You may also test the two versions on different audiences. To do this, ensure the size of your audience is the same or similar for both versions to have a more accurate result. You will want to see how each version performs over a suitable amount of time before determining which performed better.
And just like that, you’re one step closer to perfecting your marketing strategy!
If you need assistance in maximising your marketing strategy, our team at Purple Giraffe are standing by to step in and deliver results for you. Just get in touch with us today – we’re here to help!
