how to test: 7 steps to landing page testing success

7 Steps to Landing Page Testing SuccessHow to Test

What's Inside?• How to determine where to test• How to determine what to test• How to design the test plan• How to analyze the test• How to keep on going• Plus....

• Best practices• Controls, challengers and champions!• Understanding test waves• Selecting statistical confidence

Step 1: Traffic

Determine Where Should You Test

Evaluate Your Current Campaigns

Use a simple chart like this one to evaluate your current marketing campaigns. If you focus on just one channel, like social, adapt the chat to identify performance of your primary vehicle.

Identify Optimization Opportunities

• Where are you getting the most traffic?• Where is your lowest conversion rate?• Where is your highest cost per lead or cost per conversion?• Where is your highest cost per click?• What is strategically, or even tactically, important to you?

Reflect on your traffic to determine the area of greatest opportunity for improvement.

Consider:

Traffic Type Considerations Visitors & traffic patterns Testing opportunity

Paid Search Easiest place to startVisitors have intent, traffic is steady & predictable

Conversion lift & learning

Email Marketing Slower testing acceleration

Visitors have interest, traffic is spiky

Long-term lift & learning, each wave informs the next

Display Advertising Harder to convertVisitors arrive more spontaneously, traffic is steady

Conversion lift & learning

Social Low-hanging fruit Less predictable Conversion lift & learning

Considerations

Decision Time

Based on your traffic review, decide which traffic you will test on first.

Step 2: Messages

Determine Specifically Where You Should Test

Traffic Type Where to start Considerations

Paid Search High volume ad group

Relevancy — keywords & ads in the ad group need to be similar enough to maintain a high degree of relevancy

Email Marketing Your next email drop!Unique landing page test for every email drop, designed for specific learning

Display Advertising High volume buy Visual & message match from ad to landing page

Social A campaign or message that will get significant click throughs

Unique landing page test for each message, designed for specific learning

Considerations

Get Your Messages OrganizedConsider all your ads, ad groups, campaigns, messages & get them organized into topics & subtopics.

software

responsive

best�� practices

case�� studies

Here's an example of four subtopics within the "landing page" topic.

Since they are very different from each other, they require four unique landing pages.

Select one subtopic for testing.

Determine Your Landing Page Ratio

# ads-------------------

# of landing pages = Landing Page Ratio

100-------------------

10= 10-1 LPR

Read more: How to: Calculate Landing Page Ratio

Try to hit a LPR of no more than 10 ads to 1 landing page.

Decision Time

Select a topic/subtopic to start testing on.

Step 3: Pages

Now You Know Where You Will Test....

...but What In The Heck Should You Test?

Message�� MatchMotivation�� MatchActionable

Focused�� &�� SimplePositive�� Call-to-actionScan-able�� Copy"Feel�� good"Disposable��

Evaluate For 8 Landing Page Best Practices

1. Message Match

• Repeats call-to-action• Includes $1 incentive• Reinforces offer visually,

with dollar bill image• Includes "America's #1

Online Provider" in headline

2. Motivation Match

• Stays focused on a specific action

• Visual continuity• Specific

3. Actionable

Directional copy

Easy choice

Mutually exclusive

4. Focused & Simple

One call-to-action

Easy form

Simple, yet engaging design

5. Positive Call-to-Action

Gained-Focused or “Value” Button Copy

Effort-Focused Button Copy

GetViewEnjoy

DiscoverSeePlay

SubmitStart

ActivateLearnPayGo

6. Scan-able Copy• Content broken into digestible chunks• Good use of white space & imagery

7. "Feel Good"

Clear value propositionCustomer-focused language

Multiple form options for easy sign up

8. Disposable

ExpensiveTime Intensive

High InvestmentInflexible

InexpensiveDisposable

Easy to TrashAgile

Your�� website�� Your�� landing�� pages��

Decision Time

What aspects of your page can be improved?

Decide On Testing Category

DesignRelevancyContentOfferExperience

Design

• Page layout

• Form length or form style

• Images & icons

• Visual emphasis or directional cue

Relevancy• Increase message match

• Increase visual match with imagery mirroring

• Personalize the page by displaying the keyword or visitor's name

on the page

Content

• Improved value proposition

• Scan-able copy, bullets, tabs, etc.

• More or less page copy

• Interactive content

(accordions, lightboxes, etc.)

Offer• Change offer to be more valuable or relevant to the target

• Sell it more — show the visitor what they get if they convert

• Ensure your offer is perceived as valuable & concordant

Experience• Test microsite against a landing page

• Test a conversion path against a landing page

• Test a conversion path against a microsite

• Test two conversion paths against each other, with different

segmentation options

Decision Time

Decide on the category of test you are going to run.

Key Concept: A/B Versus Multivariate

Key Concept: Test Waves

Innovation Iteration

‣ Two or more different things against each other

‣ Good for lower traffic‣ Less learning, more lift

‣ Rapid test & learn ‣ Smaller conversion lifts‣ Good for Higher traffic

Alternate between innovative & iterative test waves

Key Concept: Controls, Challengers & Champions

Control — the "original" version of your page; usually this is a top performer

Champion — when a Challenger beats a Control, it is crowned the Champion. But not for long! When a new Challenger is established, it becomes the Control.

Challenger — the version of your page that is being tested against your Control. Challengers are designed to improve conversions over a Control.

Key Concept: Statistical Confidence

99%Shorter test waves.Lower traffic levels.Less confident results.Innovative tests.

Longer test waves. High volume traffic sources. More confident results.

Step 4: Create your test plan

Now, The Easiest Step.Document Your Test Plans.

Included In The Test Plan:

Read more: An Awesome Format for Documenting Your Test Plans

Sample Test Plan

Step 5: Run Your Test

4 Testing Tips To Remember

1. Don't call the test too soon. Wait for statistical confidence

to be reached, even if you think you spot a trend or result

early.

2. Don't despair if you don't have a winner. Some tests end

in statistical draw. Evaluate the test for any potential lessons

& move on to the next test plan.

3. Be ready to be wrong, be ready to be right. The great

thing about testing is that you can leave opinions at the door,

and know with confidence what works!

4. Learn! There's a lesson in every test.

Step 6: Analyze your test

Bounce Rate

the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page:

"A rising bounce rate is a sure sign that your landing page is boring or off-putting…"

Conversion Rate

conversion rate = number of goal achievements

visits--------------------------

User Behavior

Analyze user click behavior & performance. Which behavior leads towards, or away, from conversion?

Traffic Segment Variance

Use traffic source analysis to optimize media spend

Step 7: Keep on rolling

Repeat!

Read more: 4-Phase Landing Page Testing Process

Ion's Customers Report:

Thank you!@ioninteractiveinfo@ioninteractive.com

how to test: 7 steps to landing page testing success

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