19 A / B Assessments You Ought to Run On Your Web site
Optimizing the conversion rate isn't an easy game, especially when you're the new kid on the block. One of the best ways to improve the CRO is through A / B testing capabilities on your website.
The real challenge at CRO is knowing how to start and what to test. This post covers the latter.
One thing to note: Testing every random aspect of your website can be counterproductive. You can spend time and money on software, staff, and consultants, testing things that don't increase your website sales enough to warrant testing.
So think about your goals before diving in.
Then take a look at the tests below and find out which ones make sense for your business. If so, go ahead and run it. If not, try another one.
A / B test: typography
Typography has been shown to have a significant impact on conversions. However, if you casually test every Google font, you will get stuck. There are a few aspects of typography that you need to test out first before delving into fonts.
1. Serif vs. Sans Serif
Serif fonts are accented with different widths for each line of a character and contain flourishes (e.g. Times New Roman). Sans serif fonts are just the opposite, plain with a uniform width (like Arial).
I suggest using sans serif, but interestingly Georgia (a serif font) is by far the most popular font on the internet.
Try both varieties to see which one is best for your website.
According to a WDD infographic, sans serifs are best for the web and serifs are best for print.
2. Colors
Your blog, long-form copy, and most of the text on your website will always use black (dark) text on a white (light) background. It's a traditional color scheme that our eyes are used to.
However, for your calls-to-action and other smaller, more impactful text elements, test each of the eight basic colors (or whatever colors go with your design). Always remember this principle: what is noticed is clicked on.
3. Font size
Tahoma is best readable with 10 px, Verdana and Courier with 12 px and Arial with 14 px.
Whichever font you choose, be sure to test the differences in user interaction and click-through rates according to the font size. Nowadays, when mobile traffic increases, bigger tends to work better – but not always.
4. Fonts
Finally, we come to the most tedious typography tests – fonts. Take this with a grain of salt. Don't test every one of the 700+ Google fonts available. This would be very counterproductive. Just test a few of the most important ones that will go with your design.
If you are testing this, you will also want to take an A / B / C / D / etc. exam. This way you can test multiple fonts at the same time.
A / B test: Calls to action
Your call to action (CTA) is the most influential element on your landing page. Period.
As such, it requires a considerable amount of experimentation. Here are some of the most important Calls to Action that you need to test.
5th position
Too often, web designers place the "call to action" button in the center of the landing page above the crease and just leave it there because that's what you're supposed to "do".
But did you know that locating your CTA below the crease can increase your conversion rate by 304 percent? Don't take anything for granted: test above the crease, under the crease, in the middle / left / right of the page, and in relation to text elements.
6. Color
Color is a big problem in most CRO tests. Many have read this post on HubSpot about how a red CTA button beats a green one with a 21 percent increase in conversions. However, a similar test in the Content Verve post (linked in Test 5 above) detailed how a green "Add to Cart" button generates 35.81 percent more sales for an ecommerce store than a blue one.
A contrasting color that is different from the other elements on the page seems to work best. Experiment to see what works for your CTA. Do not rely on other people's tests to choose a color.
7. Text
As the most important copy on your landing page, the text on your call-to-action button needs to be thoroughly tested. Try different lengths, pronouns, power words, and action verbs.
As the 2007 US election campaigns underway, Obama raised an additional $ 60 million by changing his CTA button text from "Sign Up" to "Learn More".
Yes, that's a $ 60 million test.
Don't miss out on these potential returns.
A / B test: Pricing schemes
There is more to this section than just the price you set for your product / software. You also need to think about free trials and money back guarantees.
8. Freemium vs. Free Trial vs. Money Back Guarantee
In order for potential customers to try products (and yes, product demos are important), vendors typically offer at least one of three models: a very basic freemium product with limited features that can be used forever, a time-sensitive free trial that allows users allows you to experience all the bells and whistles and a time-sensitive money-back guarantee.
By switching from a freemium software model to a 14-day free trial, Acuity Scheduling's paid signups increased by over 268 percent. Try each model to see which one is best for your business.
9. Length of the free trial
If a time sensitive free trial works for your website, how long should that free trial last? 7 days? 14, 21, 30? Try it!
This Sixteen Ventures post mentions how shortening a 30-day trial to 14 days has proven to be a profitable choice for a SaaS company.
Depending on your particular niche, results may vary. As you can see below, a 14-day free trial is the sweet spot for Crazy Egg.
10. Pricing for each plan
Don't forget to experiment with your pricing plans. Not only should you try different pricing for plans (should your price be $ 9 or $ 7?), But also play around with their respective features to improve the conversion of your plans with higher tickets.
Oh, and don't forget: Decoy pricing models are the bomb. By offering a much higher price tag over a mid-tier option, users are likely to be spending more without knowing why.
A / B test: Landing page copywriting
The art of persuading through words on a page – the writing of text – is another essential part of a landing page. Great copywriting is never great the first time you draft it. It requires careful testing to ensure maximum effectiveness.
11. Short form copy vs. long form copy
From a philosophical point of view, a short form should work better than its longer rival. Humans have shorter attention spans than goldfish, don't they?
Unfortunately, this is not a hard and fast rule. For example, a test with Crazy Egg found that a long-form copy produced 7.6 percent more leads (and better quality ones too). On the other side of the spectrum, a Scandinavian gym chain had 11 percent more conversions with shorter copies.
Take that away? TEST to find out what works for your business.
12. Video / Text Sales Pages
Making video copies is both difficult and expensive. hence the general preference for text-based copywriting. But could you be missing out on potential conversions if you don't test the video copy? Maybe like this.
Depending on the size and capital of your business, you need to decide whether a video sales page is worth it (and don't forget about text and video combinations).
This video landing page helped Six Pack Ab Exercises improve conversions by 46.15%. What could a video do for your business?
13. Actual text
As with fonts, testing hundreds of different versions of your text-based copy, each with only a slight change from the previous one, can be a pointless waste of time and money.
So remember to look at the bigger picture while continuously editing and experimenting with your copy. Don't get involved in any other word.
General A / B testing for your website
Below are various A / B tests that don't fit into any of the above categories. They fall under sales funnel, website design / structure, and more.
14. Number of columns
Multi-column landing pages definitely look a lot cooler than those with single columns.
But in CRO, coolness doesn't count.
In fact, one SaaS company increased its conversion rate by 680.6 percent when it changed its two-column pricing page to a single-column one.
15. Background images and patterns
The background of your landing page (solid color, a pattern or an image) has a very subliminal effect on your readers. If you haven't tried different types of backgrounds, leave money on the table.
Spreadshirt tested their homepage images and increased clicks by 606 percent and sales by 11 percent.
16. Navigation links
The presentation of your navigation menu affects how and whether you can attract visitors to your money pages (your pricing page, your contact form, etc.).
Test the number of links, the color of the menu, its position, etc.
17. Link color
Are you trying to get visitors to click links from your blog post to your money page? Test the link color.
The presentation of your internal links is not immediately associated with CRO by most people. However, if you think about it, the color of the internal links can have a huge impact on the number of visitors that will get into your sales funnel.
Take Beamax, for example, who increased the connection click-through rate by 53.13 percent by changing the connection color from standard blue to red.
18. Contact form fields
If you want to receive contact / quote requests from your website, the format of your contact form is critical to your conversion rate.
Test the number of fields (the minimum is usually best) and the field types (check boxes vs. dropdown) to get more form submissions.
We changed the number of contact form fields from 4 to 3 to increase conversions by 26%.
19. Number of steps in your checkout process
Case study after case study has shown that single-tier registers almost always convert significantly better than multi-sided registers. If you've never thought about a one-step checkout, it's time to give one a try.
Final thoughts on A / B testing your website
Sometimes the most obvious A / B tests aren't what produce the greatest growth. Instead, it may be the unconventional tests that you never thought would have an impact that turn out to be the most valuable. In other cases, less can actually translate into more conversions than constant testing.
The A / B tests mentioned above should serve as a starting point. Once you see what changes are affecting conversions, you will have a better understanding of what is driving your audience.
Have you successfully A / B tested your website? Which change made the biggest difference?
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