Things you should ponder before taking an ab test

Things you should ponder before taking an A/B test

A/B testing is one of the most trusted tool in regards to conversion rate optimization. The technique is now well established in the e-commerce arena, as it has bought success to many of the present day giants in the market. However, out of thousands who take A/B testing for their website, only a handful are able to utilize the testing effectively to optimize their website. The reason being most of the tests that are taken are not analyzed on the forefront of some basic questions which a test taker should ponder before taking the test. Here we will discuss about those certain things which you should ponder if you are thinking to go for an A/B testing campaign.

Things to ponder before going for A/B Testing

In order to make your testing experience worthy you should ponder the following points: 1. Avoid presumptions: Before taking the test you should not make any blind assumption and go on analyzing the same. For example, don’t make an assumption that a particular CTA variation worked for a particular website so it should work for you. Instead make an informed and logical hypothesis based on what suits best for your website.

Each and every website has its own USPs and same goes to the factors that influence their conversion rates. You cannot tame a whole community of websites with just one stick. A detailed analysis of the usability will let you know the reasons for every conversion and every bounce back on your website. A heatmap tool can help you in this regard by presenting you a usability report of each and every element on your website.

2. Have a benchmark: You should take your present conversion rate as the benchmark so as to analyze weather there is a increase or decrease in conversion rates of your website. Taking a test without having a certain standard background will be as fruitful as hitting an arrow in the dark.

Having a benchmark helps you to decide a starting point and a goal of your A/B testing campaign.

3. Single step at a time: Do not go for a large number of variations in a single test, instead take multiple test with single variation at a time. Testing for multiple parameters will make it difficult for you to analyze which variation has contributed in conversion optimization and which have lagged behind in optimizing the conversion. So, in order to avoid the ambiguity and have a clear insight of every element, you should take the test in steps.

4. Customer feedback: Make your test interactive by channelizing customers feedback through

various social connect. Ask them about their experience on your website and the issues(if any) they face while browsing your website so as to capture the information about the user experience of your website. Utilize the information gathered from the feedback to perform the modification accordingly.

It might ensure the accuracy and success rate of your hypotheses.

5. Take your time: Do not rush to a decision within a week or so of starting your test. Take the test for an optimum amount of time say 1-2 month, so as to capture a large sample audience. The larger customer base will help you gather data optimum enough to make informed choices.

Conclusion Taking A/B test for your website is not like a regular survey or analysis of your website. It is an effective strategy based experiment to capture the deterrence in path of your conversion optimization.

Thus taking a test before certain considerations can prove to be a wasteful experience.