A Peek Into The A/B Testing Sins That Are Costing Your Conversions (Part 1)
It is rightly said that “Some mistakes are unpardonable and can land you in great troubles if they are not corrected on time”. Similarly, considering the widespread use and scope of the A/B testing, you can't take chances due to their impact on the conversion rates, customer engagement and product sales of your eCommerce store. In order to achieve the unprecedented lead in your particular business segment, you need to implement the A/B testing approach with utmost care and attention. A single mistake can cost you heavily and can lead to the complete wastage of your time, money and efforts. If you want to secure the leads that are achieved by your online business, you need to note down these mistakes that are affecting your business prospects in a big way. 1. Don't expect CRO to be the ultimate panacea for your online business entity- No doubt, conversion rate optimization is the foremost criteria for determining the performance of a business entity but it is not the end of the game. There are other factors that play a crucial role in the growth and progress of a business like site traffic, user experience, customer engagement, website navigation, more number of mouse clicks, loading time, total time spent on the site and other such metrics. Considering the importance of all these parameters, you need to test the various elements and components of your site through the help of an effective A/B testing tool like Mocking Fish that comes with a user friendly dashboard design, simple installation and configuration, reliable test results, affordable price and other such features. CRO is not the panacea for all your site related issues and site owners need to pay adequate attention towards all the above mentioned factors for getting the maximum productivity from their online store. 2. Avoid yourself from falling into the trap of unnecessary A/B test results- “Excess of everything is bad”, similarly online businesses should save themselves from falling into the trap of unnecessary A/B tests that are only a sheer wastage of time, money and efforts. You need to analyze the website elements effectively for determining their overall impact on the conversion rates and product sales of your site before implementing split testing on them. Don't try to run A/B test again and again with different versions after completing an earlier A/B test for your site as it will lead to confusions and you will not have a clear insight about
which version is most productive for your online business. Further, it will also arise fingers on the reliability of your testing results as you will find huge differences in the two results. 3. Ending your A/B tests before the scheduled time duration- For obtaining the maximum output from your A/B tests, it is important to wait for the completion of the split testing results. Don't make haste while declaring the completion of your A/B test but wait for the opportune moment before finally implementing the testing results. If you are not waiting for the completion of the A/B tests as per the scheduled time duration, you would not get a clear insight about whether the changes in your conversion rates were due to the implemented changes only or were they just a matter of coincidence. It will further provide a clear information whether the achieved conversion rates will sustain over a prolonged period of time or not. 4. You are just implementing the A/B tests based on the testing results of other websites- It would be completely naive and foolish on your part if you are thinking about implementing the certain A/B tests based on the results achieved by some other website. It is completely practical that what may work for other sites, may not work for your site given the different business scenario and targeted customers. Further, there is no sure shot evidence to prove that the achieved test results are perfecly reliable and they have achieved the confidence level of 95% or more before the final implementation. Moreover, there are chances that the A/B testing results on that site are not run properly which may have caused large scale discrepancy in the final outcome. 5. You are expecting too much from minor changes- No doubt, small changes in your site elements like call- to- action buttons, headlines, body copy, images, banners, ads or other such components can make an impact on the key performance indicators (site traffic, conversion rates, product sales, user experience and other) of your site. But, don't expect your minor changes to win the tough battle of business leads and conversions all by themselves. There are other crucial factors like user experience, website navigation, loading time, registration process and other such components that needs to be improved for a considerable change in your business fortunes. So, spend some time in taking a look at all these mistakes that needs to be avoided for making the maximum utilization of your A/B testing results. If you can stay immune to the ill effects of wrong A/B testing, there is no need for you to panic in terms of the conversion rates, product sales, customer engagement and site traffic. For more insight about these A/B testing mistakes, do check out the next installment of this article- A peek into the A/B testing sins that are costing your conversions (Part 2).