If you read our recent blog post about creating effective landing pages, you probably noticed our recommendations on three landing page design elements that can be easily “split tested” to help determine what works best.
In the context of that article, the guidance was a bonus next-level tip aimed at those who already had some experience with split testing, otherwise known as A/B testing. We recognize that some readers may have wondered, “What is A/B testing, and why should I care?”
With that in mind, we’re taking the opportunity to dig more deeply into the “whys” behind A/B testing. Today’s post takes a step back into those more fundamental questions to discuss precisely why testing matters—especially when it comes to the written content at the core of your digital marketing assets, like emails, social media posts, paid advertising, and service/sales pages on your website.
First Things First: What is A/B Testing?
Essentially, A/B testing involves creating two different content variations and showing both to your audience to see which one they are more responsive to.
HubSpot offers this definition, which is a good one: “A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a marketing experiment wherein you split your audience to test variations on a campaign and determine which performs better. In other words, you can show version A of a piece of marketing content to one half of your audience and version B to another.”
The appeal of A/B testing is that it brings a bit of science to the art of creating content, as the tests are run much like experiments in a laboratory (the “lab” here being a given marketing channel, like email or your website).
What Written Content/Copy is Good to Test?
In our previous article linked above, we focused on testing elements of campaign landing pages within the lab of your website, but these are just one example—any digital marketing asset can benefit from testing content variables against one another to see what “wins” with your audiences. Nearly every place where content appears presents opportunities to optimize that content through testing.
Opportunities abound on social media and paid ads platforms like Google Ads, other areas of your website, and email marketing messages, such as newsletters and promotional emails. You can choose to test full versions of an asset—like an entire email—or test content elements within any asset. In fact, some of the biggest “bang for your buck” content elements to test that can make a difference are relatively small features, including:
- Calls to Action (CTAs)
- Subject lines in emails
- Ad text variations
- Social media post variations, such as hashtag inclusion vs. elimination
- Form fields – (Note that form placement on pages is also a good test, which is more visual design and layout-oriented).
A new testing option that has been generating excitement among brands and creators is video thumbnails on YouTube, which might be another example of an opportunity to test visuals and written content together. For instance, you could test whether including the video title on the thumbnail vs. a compelling image from the video without overlaid text is more persuasive to users. YouTube makes the process easy within its Creator Studio interface to set up variations, serve them to users, and declare a winner at the end of the testing period, which then becomes the video’s thumbnail.
PRO TIP: Content length and tone are also good things to test but require more copywriting effort and skill to create the variations. You can find out more about improving your copy chops in this past GRIT blog post.
The Top 3 Reasons to Test Content
So, we’ve covered several types of content that can be tested, but what are the main reasons for testing? It is really quite simple—optimizing your content can yield lots of benefits for (often) minimal extra effort.
1. Better understand your audiences
You probably have a good sense of who your customers, clients, or users are, but they may still surprise you. You will get to know better who is engaging with your content by discovering what they respond to. And for newer brands or businesses that have not yet dialed in their ideal audience, testing content can be a simple way to gain foundational insights to hone your branding.
2. Increase engagement
By systematically testing variations of CTAs, ad text, and other elements, brands can identify what drives more clicks, longer page visits, and higher interaction rates, also known as engagement. This data-driven approach helps to refine content strategies, ensuring that the final version is optimized for maximum engagement and ultimately leading to a more connected audience.
3. Make more money
It may sound like an oversimplification, but A/B testing your content can absolutely lead to increasing your business’s bottom line or attracting more participants to your organization’s programs. As these real-world case studies from Unbounce show, A/B testing can meaningfully enhance conversions or provide a better return on the investment of your marketing spend as your audiences engage more.
Experienced marketers talk a lot about key metrics that will be compared in A/B testing results, such as conversion rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, and others that are significant data points to examine depending on the type of content elements you’re testing and on which specific channel (e.g., your website, email, social media). For those less familiar with the terminology surrounding tracking and measurement, we invite you to take a read through our previous post on the marketing “don’t” of inadequately measuring success!
A Note About Measuring Success & Key Performance Metrics
Experienced marketers talk a lot about key metrics that will be compared in A/B testing results, such as conversion rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, and others that are significant data points to examine depending on the type of content elements you’re testing and on which specific channel (e.g., your website, email, social media). For those less familiar with the terminology surrounding tracking and measurement, we invite you to take a read through our previous post on the marketing “don’t” of inadequately measuring success!
How To Get Started with A/B Testing
The internet is rife with lengthy how-tos on A/B testing, but many assume that you already have an extensive background in digital marketing and a backlog of content. For smaller or newer brands, this may not be the case. Plus, there is a common pitfall of testing in which you can actually get too “in the weeds” and test too many variables or even test variables that don’t ultimately matter.
As mentioned above, the content elements you can test are nearly endless, but you don’t need to get too bogged down. Start small—try pitting the content of one CTA button against another one. For example, “Learn More” vs. “Get Started.” Don’t do anything else to either button at this initial stage (e.g., changing colors or placement on a page). Just try the different wording variations and see which receives more clicks.
One positive of testing content in 2024 is that it’s typically quite user-friendly. Some testing doesn’t require much additional effort from those deploying the content—refinement is automated after an opt-in. For instance, email subject line testing in platforms like MailChimp, videos on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram), and Google Ad variations present opportunities for the user to simply choose some options within the platform, provide content variants, and then the testing process is carried out automatically over a relevant period of time. When the test has been completed, the platform will determine the winning content, and in many cases, continue to serve the best-performing content to users going forward.
On your website, owners/administrators can install specialized plug-ins to help make testing seamless. And Google Analytics can provide insights on different versions of pages that you’re testing on your website. Of course, it is important to remember that a basic understanding of web analytics will be vital in interpreting test results and making meaningful changes to your digital marketing strategy based on those results. This is where a digital marketing and website optimization expert can help as you refine your content for the future based on your test results.
Next Steps in Your A/B Testing Journey
To recap, split testing, aka A/B testing is kind of like running mini scientific experiments to make your content the most appealing it can be to your intended audience. While it may seem intimidating to undertake that experimentation, it is not difficult to get started, as we’ve shown—and the payoff for your brand could be substantial. That said, the challenging part of A/B testing comes after the tests are finished and you are presented with results and data metrics.
Interpreting your test results and then implementing changes based on your learnings is much more nuanced than simply running tests, and this is where assistance from seasoned digital marketing pros can be especially valuable. For example, that CTA button text A/B test we noted above might show that more users interacted with your brand because of the “Get Started” call to action, but now you will need to consider how to implement that learning to drive better results in the future. You may want a reliable guide to help you as you begin refining your content to perform better and achieve your goals, ultimately driving a better return on your marketing investments.
Ready to A/B Test Your Content and Need More Guidance?
GRIT is here to help. Whether you are ready to dive into testing and need a helping hand, or you want to leave content creation and optimization to the experts so you can focus on running your business or nonprofit organization, our friendly team will meet you where you are to help you achieve your marketing goals. We invite you to get in touch with us today to see how we can work together on your marketing strategy and more.