When should you start to split test?

byTheCatherine

13.9K followers

6 years ago

What is split testing?

Split testing is used to compare to slightly different pages on your website. For instance if your landing pages not converting you can make a second page and split test. When you are split testing change at the maximum 10% of the page. Run both pages together and find out which one is the better result.

Take the best converting page and change that by 10% and then find the best converting page. After that you just rinse and repeat until you get page that you are happy with the conversion rates. You can't split test by changing everything because if you do you throw the baby out with the bathwater.

You may have found a better converting page or even worse one. Either way you won't know why. The idea is to make small changes so you can isolate what it is that is making you money or indeed losing you money.

As you can see from the image below you can't compare tomatoes with potatoes!

The great thing about split testing is that anyone can do it. Whether you're a beginner, or a seasoned online marketing veteran split testing can start from nothing and build your business to something amazing. But, there are things you need to know before you start split testing.

This is important to know because that's the only way you can make sure you've set a goal to include enough visitors to gather enough data to make a judgment on what is working better or not. I have found a free calculator for you to work out how long you need to split test for.

https://unbounce.com/ab-test-duration-calculator/.

You Need Enough Traffic
If you're not sure yet how to get traffic to your site, it will be hard to conduct split testing. So, if you're going to engage in split testing it's imperative that you commit to creating a lot of traffic so that you can reach your statistically relevant sample size within four weeks time, but usually a week at a time. More time and your results could be tainted by other factors.

Know Why You're Conducting the Test
Are you conducting the test to improve conversion rates, download rates, or something else entirely? Knowing your why will help you design the best test for that variable. But, remember that you can learn more than that from each test. Once you perfect your CTA for example, you can go ahead and start with that better CTA for your next product, thus getting great results faster.

Understand Your Audience's Seasonal Shopping Habits
There are times when you're going to get more traffic and times when it's going to be dead all due to the time of year that it is. A test that does well during a busy season might not perform well during a slow season and vice versa. Understanding any type of factors outside of your business that can affect test results is essential.

Avoid Testing Randomly

It's important that you have a basis or starting point for each test that you conduct. You may have an idea that your audience prefers blue to red, but you can't know unless you test the hypothesis. Everything you do has to start with the information you have based on research that you've conducted. But, once you put that research to the test you may end up with answers that surprise you.

Learn to Use Google Analytics

There are many A/B testing tools that you can use out there but the best one, of course, is Google Analytics. After all, Google is the number one search engine so naturally, the best tool belongs to Google. They know what works to make their customer's happy, so you need to follow Google's advice and results more than another platform.

Yes, you want to start split testing as soon as possible. But, you do want to ensure that you have enough traffic to get a good sample size that really shows you want is working best to help you reach all your goals.