Intro to A/B Split Testing
Split testing is a process used to optimize conversion rate. The term conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors who take a particular action. If we are talking about an email newsletter opt-in page, then an opt-in is a conversion. If instead, we are talking about a sales letter, then each and every sale is a conversion.
Split testing comes in two basic flavors. The first is the relatively simple, yet effective A/B split testing. In this type of testing the idea is to test only two options against each other while trying to keep all other factors constant. The second family of split testing is the possibly more effective, yet significantly more complicated, multi-variant split testing. In this post we will examine only A/B split testing.
Now that we know what split testing is, let’s consider some of the situations that we can use split testing in. We can split test different layout versions for an e-commerce site. We could test different versions of a sales letter. Alternatively we could split test various attributes of an email opt-in, name squeeze page.
Even for a specific medium, such as email opt-in pages, we can run multiple series of tests on one page. For instance in one series of test, we could test different titles for our name squeeze page. In another series of tests, for the same name squeeze page, we could test various versions of the sub-heading. And a third series of tests, we could test various bullet point style, lists of features against each other.
We can think of a series of split tests on a specific attribute of any conversion piece, kind of like a childhood game of “King of The Hill”. In the first round of a King of The Hill tournament, two boys climb a hill and wrestle to see which can throw the other one off. The one who remains standing is the champion.
In the world of split testing, this champion is called, the “control”. In subsequent rounds of King of The Hill, boys will line up to take their turn to unseat the champion. It may take one boy, or it may take twenty to unseat the current champion and find a new “control”. So the idea of split testing becomes to always try to beat control.
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