Best A/B Testing Ideas for Improving User Experience
Published on Dec 20, 2022
by Simran Arora
A/B testing, bucket testing, or split testing, whatever you call it, is a great way to compare two different versions of the same feature on your website or application. It allows you to test a new idea among a select group of users and see how they react to it. You can have a better understanding of your customer base, find out what works and what doesn't, and launch what your market accepts. With A/B testing, you will avoid failure at scale.
On this front, the optimization, development, and marketing teams collaborate, work with real-time data, and base their decisions on facts.
There is always something that needs to be improved on a website or application. There could be any number of elements that need improvement. Data serves your purpose here, showing what fetches results and what does not.
The following are some A/B testing ideas for your application or website. Check these out.
10 Ideas you may not have tried Yet
When it comes to A/B testing, the biggest question is "what to test?". If you have not tried them yet, here are some ideas you can try in the future.
1. Social Proof
If a customer is landing on your page and you are trying to convince them to buy from you or try your service, why should they do it without some proof? Everyone promises the best services and quality products. What are you offering that promises you will be true to your word? The answer comes from reviews and ratings by your past customers. Testimonials can also get a space on your home page. Offer the visitors a brief and to-the-point summary of your product or service, but with proof. Make a section at the bottom of the page where you display the logos of the brands you have worked with or your regular partners. It boosts the user’s confidence when they see some recognized brands. Even if you are working locally, testimonials are always great to boost your confidence.
2. Minimum Distractions and Highest Speed
When a user visits a particular product, it is completely justified to show them similar products, but you should not distract them. It’s like you are driving away the customer yourself. Annoying ads and videos from external websites, pop-ups, ads that cover the content, etc., can prove to be detrimental to your application or website’s health. Analyze the data and see if the users leave the site after landing on a particular page after watching certain ads. If so, you need to minimise distractions. The websites often take time to load the page, and the ads are the reason. A user waits for three seconds for a page to load. After that, they leave. Check your page speed, shift the ads, and analyse the speed and conversions.
3. Call To Action
Okay, you might have changed the CTA buttons in the past, but it has gotten you nowhere. Reasons? The traditional test Check it out, Purchase, Buy Now, etc., have seen their days. If you are not getting any clicks on these buttons, no matter how popular the text was in the past, it’s time to change them. Try different texts, like "Limited period offer", "Start Here", "Be a Member", and "Want To Buy?" and test the results. You can also try changing the location of the CTA buttons.
Place them in multiple places on the same page instead of one at the bottom of the page, where most visitors don’t even scroll down. Test the results to see which button is getting the most clicks. You may not believe it, but the CTA buttons' color also plays a major role. Try using bold colors on a straightforward and plain page. Or bare the page and install a button and see the difference. Make the CTAs prominent. When a user hovers the mouse over the button, it can change color, indicating that it is clickable. Try using hyperlinks if you think buttons are taking up too much space, which may be a problem in mobile applications. These ideas can change conversions.
4. Consider a different Offer
Have you tried it before? You developed a CTA that said, "Claim your free product," but the customer discovered that they had to spend half of their wallet on a little offer. Users are fed up with it and want something they can utilize, or at the very least, are not misled by. Consider giving them something they'll appreciate. If customers sign up for or purchase your newsletter, you can offer them a free one-time service. Try it out and see how it goes. You have the option to adjust the offer at any moment. Make it exclusively for occasional or one-time visitors, otherwise, it will lose its value.
5. Traffic Source
You change everything on your website, and still, the traffic doesn’t improve. Why? because you don’t analyse the traffic source. Most of your budget is spent on traffic sources, which bear no results. Why? because most of the keywords you use are useless. Your testing team must scrutinise which sources are generating more traffic, whether it is Facebook or Instagram, which posts are getting more views and likes, if your email marketing is getting any response or not, whether people are watching ads with a male lead or female lead, etc. You will find the answers in the data metrics. Try testing the sources and see the difference in traffic.
6. Headlines and Subheadlines
What effect can a headline have on customer decisions? I am afraid that’s not right if you think so. Users notice every little thing about the site, and they may or may not click on the next page. Why? Answer this. Which headline from the two caught your attention? "Launch of a new diamond showroom in the city" or "Check out the sparkling diamonds at the newest glitter hub in town!" Of course, the answer is the second one. Why? because it is catchy. The same goes for the headlines on your website. You will receive more clicks and reading time on the page if they find it interesting. It is not rocket science, but simple psychology. People like drama and mystery. So mix it with your headlines and subheadlines and test it. You will see the results.
7. Video Usage
A video where you don’t need to use your mind works better than reading a long page full of content. Videos have proved to attract more users in the past, and they will be more useful in the future as well. They result in 80% more conversions. Using a video to illustrate product or service descriptions is a good idea for every website or application. You can also use a video of testimonials, showing off happy customers, or an animated video with a story that can be useful. Try this out.
8. A Multi-Step Form
Analyze the data and see if forms are the reason leads are not resulting in conversions. The visitor may be offended by a 5- or 6-field form, and they'd instead leave the site. To avoid this, you can show them one step at a time. Ask one question and show them the progress. It is advised to keep the form as small as possible and have the minimum fields. A two-step form is perfect. Don’t show all the fields at once if you want more details. Instead, divide it into two pages and make a heading called "Last Page." It will make them fill out the form hurriedly and move on to the next step.
The reason behind doing so is that customers don’t want to feel pressured. An extensive form makes them feel so. Thus, test a small or multi-step form and see the difference.
9. Site Navigation
It refers to how users visit from one page to another or whether they find it easy to roam around on your website. An ideal website is easy, meaning all the important pages are listed on the landing page, and users need not find out where they will find what they are looking for. Use the data again to see which pages are getting the most clicks and which aren’t getting any.
Test their existing elements and derive what is driving users to specific pages. It may be the engaging text that makes them click or the location of the tab on your home page. To test site navigation, test whether users prefer a horizontal menu or a vertical one, whether they like the submenu to appear on hovering the mouse or not, and whether the menu items' current order is correct. Ask these questions, analyze the data, and find the answers after launching it for the test customer base.
10. Mobile Usage
People use applications or access services mostly from their mobile phones. All your testing and efforts are in vain if you don’t A/B test the mobile web. Thus, testing mobile web pages is crucial for success. First, analyse which chunk of your users use the mobile version of the webpage, the amount of traffic from the mobile web pages, and the ratio of conversions from mobile.
Measure the date against the benchmark and see if your pages yield results. Try changing the navigation on the mobile site, placing the CTA buttons if the webpages are too long, if the visitors are ready to scroll down or comfortable visiting new pages, etc. Also, target your testing based on the OS of users, i.e., Android or iOS.
Tips to Succeed In A/B Testing
The most common mistake that most website owners make is that they think they own a unique website or application and don’t need to change a thing. But data never lies. Or maybe you are getting conversions, but you forget the concept of marginal utility. With passing time, the conversions slow down, and you start making changes that were not required at all. You change the CTAs, the banners, and the layout when all you need to do is add a video or modify the content. You start on the wrong footing and keep walking on the wrong track.
As a marketer or a businessman with an online store, you must be open-minded to start A/B testing. While you may think your creation is unique, the truth may be the opposite. So, the tip for succeeding is to gauge the horizon with an open mind. Maybe you will stumble across some better ideas.
Final Words
The concept of A/B testing is vast and can test a wide range of things. Optimization strategies are limitless, and what you have just read is the tip of the iceberg. Start by choosing an element from the list above if unsure where to begin. Tests and data analysis will reveal several other elements that are not working or yielding the desired results. It is then possible to test them further. Until then, check out these elements. Let us know your thoughts or feedback in the comments section.
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