Terminologies That Will Help You Understand A/B Testing in a Better Way

Before starting an A/B test, you will have to understand some basic terms which will definitely come on your way while conducting A/B or Multivariate Testing (MVT). Read this post if you want to master one of your most important marketing milestones- A/B Testing.

A/B Testing- 

It is a technique in which you test any one element of your web page like (Call To Action or Headline) and then divide or segregate visitors into two so that each group sees a different version and responds accordingly. Once this test gets completed, you will be able to discover which version performs the best, i.e which one gives better conversions as per the goal of your eCommerce business.

Bounce Rates- 

It is defined as the percentage of people who come to your page but leave immediately. With eCommerce websites, this term is mostly used to indicate “abandonment rate”. If the bounce rate of your website is higher, there is a need to start making changes to your page elements like headlines, images, text, color, CTA buttons or links. These changes can be made by performing A/B tests on individual elements of a web page. 

Click-through Rate (CTR)-

Click-throughs are the first step to conversion. Every eCommerce website wishes to have higher click throughs or visits because it leads to maximum revenue and conversions for your site. 

Call To Action (CTA)-

CTA or Call To Action is a desirable action that you want your visitors to perform once they land on your web page. Call to Action can be in the form of “signing up for registration”, “completing the checkout process”, “click on any link” and so on.

Champion Page- 

The “control” page in your test is a “Champion” or “Winner” page. It is a page which you are testing against the variant. 

Click-through Page- 

In general terms, click- through means when someone clicks a link on your page that leads to another page. When people speak of click-throughs, they are talking about how many readers have clicked the link in their article or blog post and gone to the sales page. 

Conversion Rate- 

Conversion rate is the number of visitors to your site that take a desired action against the total number of visitors in a particular time period. 

For example, if the goal of your website is to maximize large number of sales and increase revenue, then convincing visitors to complete the checkout will be the conversion for your website. 

Control Page- 

That page for which you are going to run test against is known as “Control” page for an A/B test. It is a page which already exists. Once an A/B test is done, you come across a better performing page which is known as “Control”, “Winner” or “Champion” page. 

Element- 

Any component or feature on your website, it could be “text”, “images”, “button”, “sign-up”, “videos” etc. These elements contribute a lot to design a professional looking website and in turn can help to convert visitors into buyers. 

Experiment- 

Performing A/B tests on different websites is an experiment. 

Geo-Targeting- 

A method of detecting a website visitor’s location to serve location-based content or advertisements.

Testing Funnel- 

It is a pathway that visitors coming to your site follow from entry to the end. The idea behind increasing conversions through pathway is to funnel as many people as possible for completing the checkout. 

Heatmaps-

It is another tool that is used to evaluate user behaviour along with clicking patterns on your website. By using heatmaps, you will find out where people scroll and mouse hover on your website. Heatmap allows you to track the overall user activity on your web pages.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)-

KPI’s or Key Performance Indicators help organizations achieve business objectives. It is a type of performance measurement used to track the progress made towards a specific goal. This means that you will need to identify what your goals are first before you can break down each step in the process towards completing that goal. 

Some important KPI’s include-

1. Lead generation 

Goal: Contact Form Fills

KPI’s-

Contact form Completion rate

Bounce Rate for Contact Page 

Abandoned Form Fills

Cost Per Lead 

New Visitors To Contact Form 

2. Ecommerce 

Goal: Online Sales 

KPI-

Return Visitors To Checkout Page 

Bounce Rate For Shopping Cart Page 

Average Order Value 

Average Pages Per Visit 

Keywords

Landing Pages- 

A landing page is simply the page which someone arrives at after clicking on a link. It can be your website’s home page or any other page. 

Lead generation-

Lead generation is a marketing process to find consumer prospects until they become paying customers. In an eCommerce website, lead generation is about getting contact details for people who may be interested in your product/services. 

Multivariate Testing- 

MVT or Multivariate Testing allows website owners to test as many elements of their sales page as they like at the same time. Multivariate testing is much quicker than antiquated split testing. 

Advantages- 

MVT saves time by allowing you to test multiple variables at once. You do not have to design multiple sales pages to test each element and worry about distributing traffic to each page equally. 

Example- You can test 3 versions of your headline, 2 versions of your Call To Action (CTA) and 3 button colors simultaneously. This will finally give you 18 versions (3 headlines * 2 CTA * 3 button) of a single page. 

Segmentation- 

Once you have some traffic generated, you will need to test the best ways to convert that traffic into more buyers. The typical testing scenario is just a simple A-B option. In A/B Testing, segmentation means dividing visitors or website traffic equally into two, wherein one would see version A and the other half would see version B. Ultimately, the better converting option wins.  

Traffic- 

Generating traffic is one of the popular ways to make business online. So, what exactly is a web traffic? Website traffic are the total number of daily visitors coming to your site on an average basis. There are various ways to attract people and let them come to your site. It can be via blog sharing, paid ads, social media sign-ups, effective CTA and so on. 

The success of any A/B Test depends on the daily traffic coming to your website. A/B Tests require large number of users who can take this test. 

Web Analytics- 

Web Analytics is about studying the behaviour of users coming to your site. Users can be segmented and followed through the site to identify patterns of behaviour. These patterns of behaviour can then help to identify pages which produced the maximum number of sales. Web analytics solutions collect session information for every visitor to your site.