If you watch enough professional wrestling (just go with me here), you will see the scene played out, often on TV.
One of the performers will be in the ring, and a decision will come up. It’s time for crowd participation. The wrestler will then ask the crowd if they want to see said alliance or match or whatever the decision needs to be made.
Most of the time, the crowd will cheer because they want to see the match like the one at Wrestlemania that included Becky Lynch, Rhonda Rousey, and Charlotte Flair.
If you sit and think about it, that sounds an awful lot like split testing.
Well, maybe not exactly, but there is a similarity.
You have more than one version of a web page, an app, an email, or a PPC ad and you need to know which version performs best. You need to know which one converts the best.
Once you have your answer, you can save time and expenses by double downing on the preferred choice.
This is called split testing.
Before you decide to run a split test, you might want to spend some time learning more. Today, I got you covered.
I am bringing you ten guides on split testing which will get you ready to run your own.
Are you ready to begin?
Great, play my theme music!
What is A/B Testing? – VWO
VWO is an A/B Testing a Conversion Platform™
This is their guide for A/B testing, and it includes lots of useful info.
“A/B testing is the practice of showing 2 variants of the same webpage to different segments of website visitors at the same time and comparing which variation drives more conversions. The one that gives higher conversions wins!”
A/B Testing Mastery: From Beginner to Pro in a Blog Post
CXL is one of my favorite conversion optimization blogs. Alex Birkett writes this guide.
Birkett dives into the science behind the testing.
“A/B testing splits traffic 50/50 between a control and a variation. A/B split testing is a new term for an old technique—controlled experimentation.”
How to Do A/B Testing: A Checklist You’ll Want to Bookmark – HubSpot
HubSpot is the leader of inbound marketing. They created the first all-in-one platform for inbound marketing.
Lindsay Kolowich writes this guide which also serves as a checklist. She rightly says,
“But basing marketing decisions off of a “feeling” can be pretty detrimental to results. Rather than relying on guesses or assumptions to make these decisions, you’re much better off running an A/B test — sometimes called a split test.”
What is A/B testing? – Unbounce
This guide is written as part of a series of articles on Landing Pages at Unbounce. The guide coupled with the following article, What Should I Test on My Landing Page, makes for an excellent overview.
“A/B testing is the act of running a simultaneous experiment between two or more pages to see which performs or converts the best. Despite the name (A/B testing), the experiment can be conducted with as many pages as desired.”
The Ultimate Guide To A/B Testing – Smashing Magazine
If you can say “oldie but goodie,” this is that kind of guide. Written by Paras Chopra who is the founder of VWO (Visual Website Optimizer, see above), the guide was published at Smashing Magazine in 2010.
“At its core, A/B testing is exactly what it sounds like: you have two versions of an element (A and B) and a metric that defines success. To determine which version is better, you subject both versions to experimentation simultaneously. In the end, you measure which version was more successful and select that version for real-world use.”
More Split Testing Guides
The Ultimate A/B Testing Guide: Everything You Need, All In One Place– Conversion Sciences
The Definitive Guide To Split Testing With Optimizely – Crazy Egg
How to Create a Split Test (and Why You Should) – OptinMonster
Split Testing: A 55-Point Guide To Choosing The Right Landing Page Tests – Klient Boost
What Is A/B Testing? – Optimizely
Wrapping it up
Split testing is just one of the many tactics for conversion rate optimization. It allows us to make decisions based on real data.
As with content creation, it is crucial to know how our users interact with our web pages and other elements of our digital marketing.
Have you ever used split testing?
