Aug 28 2007
A/B Testing for Results
Wikipedia defines A/B testing as “a method of advertising testing by which a baseline control sample is compared to a variety of single-variable test samples. A classic direct mail tactic, this method has been recently adopted within the interactive space to test tactics such as banner ads, emails and landing pages.”
A/B testing is a simple, effective and inexpensive way to analyze variations of a test case for effectiveness. In an A/B test you create a two or more versions of a test case distributed to a representative sample of your audience or market. For example, if you want to conduct a test for your email marketing campaign your may do an A/B test on the subject line.
When conducting the test it is important to change only one element at a time, otherwise, you will not be able to track results properly. It is ok to test several “subject lines” at once if you distribute equal sample sizes and can effectively track versions.
Another common tactic is to test versions that may have several differences to gauge effectiveness. The type of test can be used when planning to launch something new. Most often this is used for testing a redesign of features or function on a website but it can be applied to almost anything. Once a version is decided it can be fine tuned by using the A/B test on specific elements.
Do you use A/B testing or other techniques to improve marketing results?
