Welcome to Optimize Me; a two-part introduction article about landing page optimization and A/B testing methods. Let’s begin by taking a look at the basics of A/B testing, and see how this method can contribute to accelerated conversion rates.
Before starting
It’s important to have a good foundation before creating any test. To achieve a strong landing page as the basis for your future optimization testing, you will need to know exactly what your landing page is offering. After trying out a few different offers, you will get a sense of what works best with your target audience and product. As a starting point, questions that will help you create a good landing page are: What is the benefit that you are providing the user with? Why does he need it, and how can he get it? Once you have a marketing offer that you trust to be an effective one, you can begin the optimization process by conducting various A/B tests to different elements in the landing page, and by measuring the performance on each stage.
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A/B testing
A/B testing is one of the most common tools online marketers use to optimize and improve landing page results. The main idea is to create multiple tests for selected individual elements of the landing page. A basic A/B test could be; changing the text of the headline, or comparing between two images to see which one produces better conversion rates. The only way to know if you are using the best element for your landing page is by A/B testing it with alternatives, rather than trusting your instincts. Many times, our own personal preferences may deceive us into thinking that what seems like a visually pleasing element is bound to work in terms of a higher conversion rate, but that is hardly ever the case.
Let’s start by taking a look at the main elements that comprise a landing page:
The headline
A powerful headline is highly significant to your landing page’s impact. Sometimes just by changing the headline’s tone, or by shortening it, you are able to dramatically improve the overall results.
The layout
A landing page’s layout can take many forms. It has been proven repeatedly that changing a landing page’s layout, for example: moving the form field’s location, or aligning the headline to the center as opposed to right, can significantly change your visitors’ initial response to the page.
Look & feel
What kind of image should you use? How will you know if it’s the right one?
While conducting A/B tests, you may find that a specific landing page yields better results when displaying the product, or that a different landing page works best with a different image. Perhaps in some cases you will find that an image is not necessary at all. The look and feel of the page will also be influenced by the background color, or the different coloring and texture of the elements it contains.
Form field
Many landing pages contain a form field section, usually with the intention to guide visitors into submitting their personal information. In addition to trying out different placements of the form field, there are many A/B tests that can be applied to the form itself. For example, sometimes changing the color of the form’s submission button will change the overall balance of the landing page, and draw your visitors’ eyes directly to it. Another interesting area to investigate is the number of fields in the form. Many times providing less fields to fill, would yield higher conversion rates, and most of the times you don’t even need the info gathered in those redundant info fields.
A simple and clear copy in a form is crucial for lead generation. Take a look at your form’s headline – Can it be more aggressive? Does it need to be shortened?
Lastly, you can also decide to test what text works best in the form’s submission button; does “Get it now!” work better than “Submit”? Test and find out.
Tone of voice
Changing the tone of voice of a landing page, by adjusting the text or by adding testimonials are great ways to A/B test the desired tone of voice. Many times, certain third-party seals of approval can produce higher credibility and enable visitors to feel comfortable when submitting their information.
Basic examples
Please remember: It is important to test only one element at a time. This is the only way we can be sure exactly what generated a change in conversion. If we test more than one element in one test, our conclusions will only be assumptions.
Example 1
For the first A/B test we decided to check the text on the form field button. The word “Apply” insinuates that not everyone can receive a loan. On the other hand it may provide the visitor a stronger sense of reliability.
Example 2
On our second test we decided the check the effectiveness of an Approval Stamp. Does it motivate users to fill the form? Does it provide visitors the feeling that they are already approved?
Example 3
In this third test we wanted to check if highlighting the form affects conversion rate. Yes we admit, we did change two elements (the form and the button), but only because we did not want to have a red button on a red form. However, we did have only one question we wanted to evaluate – Does making the form more apparent improve our results?
Starting an A/B test in Pagewiz
- Choose the landing page you wish to set up A/B testing for, then go into its settings page. Select the Optimization tab on the left hand side. As you will see, your landing page has only one version (variant) named ‘A’. To add an additional version click the Add New Variant button.
- Click on the Duplicate button to create another version. Then click Options for the new variant and choose Design. You will be taken to the editor, where you will be able to choose the elements on which you wish to conduct A/b tests. When you are done, click Save.
- Now it’s time toset the frequency rate at which each version of the landing page will be presented. Go back to the Optimization Center – there you will be able to set the frequency rate of each version by adjusting its percentage. For example: If you set A to 60% then B will automatically change to 40%. This means that variant A will be presented to 60% of the visitors, while B will be seen by 40% of the visitors.
- Return back to the Optimization Center and follow up on the data collected from the A/B test you just set up. You will now be able to decide which of your variants works best statistically, and zero down the frequency of the less successful ones.
Join us in chapter 2 –Optimizing Elements; where we will take a deeper look at A/B testing and reveal more real world optimization techniques.
Oren Rachum is a copywriter with experience in advertising, online marketing, and online campaign optimization.
He also conducts professional workshops that help organizations improve their advertising work flow and results.
