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AB Split Testing What is A/B Split Testing

A/B Split Testing

What Is A/B Split Testing

A/B Split Testing is when customers receive a message, email, or webpage view, and a different version is randomly served to different visitors or customers. Typically A/B split testing consists of two nearly-identical versions of the given source material, but with each version having one element that is different. The two "versions" are randomly served, and tracking tactics are then used to monitor the resulting actions to determine which version is most effective in generating the desired reaction.

What Are The Benefits Of A/B Split Testing?

A/B split testing allows webmasters, publishers, and marketers to better understand their customer habits, and to figure out what best motivates them toward the desired action. A/B split testing can be used to test different web layouts, sales copy, price points, graphics, or just about any other factor that might influence the visitor or customer.

How Can I Do A/B Split Testing?

A/B split testing can be conducted a number of different ways. Webmasters will often use web scripts to randomly serve different versions of web pages. Alternately, there are third-party services available that webmasters can use to conduct split testing on a large scale. Some third-party solutions and scripts available include:

Third Party Solutions
offermatica.com http://www.offermatica.com
visual sciences http://www.websidestory.com/
SiteSpect http://www.sitespect.com
Vertster - http://www.vertster.com/
Kefta - http://www.kefta.com/

Web Scripts
SplitRunTest - http://www.phpzen.com/split-run-test/
Split Analyzer - http://www.splitanalyzer.com/

How To Know If Testing Is Valid

In order to validate the results of A/B split testing, the sampling must be large enough to provide legitimate statistical information. If the sampling is too small, the data may be inaccurately skewed for reasons not associated with the factor being tested.

Only one factor should be tested during A/B split testing. In other words, do not try to test price points and web layout at the same time. It is important to only change one thing between the two versions of the test copy.

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Effective Split Testing

 

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