A/B Split Testing

We spoke a little bit about A/B split testing on our “Learn to Love Testing” post last January, but it’s such an important and useful testing tool, we thought we’d give you a little more information. To refresh your memories, an A/B split test is when you take two or more versions of a campaign and send them to one database of users. The list is split evenly according to the number of campaigns you are sending and each equal portion of the list gets a different creative. Now, you can also choose to keep the creatives the same and only change the subject lines or from names. There is a lot of insight that the A/B split test offers.

You can move your “Refer a Friend” link from the bottom of the creative to the top, or place an important link in a new location. You can play around with images, subject lines, content, etc-there are an infinite number of possibilities this testing type allows.

Generally, the 1st split will be your control split – a creative or subject line you’ve been using for a while, for example. The number of other splits you choose to use are your tests splits. Using this type of testing allows you to directly compare the performance of one campaign against another. Sending parallel tests rather than sequential tests allows you to control the outside factors, such as what time the campaigns go out. Sending time will not pose an issue because the campaigns will all be sent at the exact same time, so the test results will be more accurate and easier to compare.

At KobeMail, we suggest keeping the number of changes per split to a minimum in order to get the maximum amount of information from your campaign performance data. Changing too many aspects on one creative will make it difficult to truly understand which change triggered the best performance rates. A/B split testing is a process we have implemented as part of our application at KobeMail, with an allowance of 8 splits per campaign. At no additional charge, we can set up A/B spilt testing campaigns for you to help optimize and analyze your performance.

The versatility A/B split testing allows is a great way to determine what your user base responds best to. Sending more targeted and better optimized campaigns can increase your conversions and ROI, so why not give it a shot? You’ve got nothing to lose.

You can contact us at (888) 723-8090 and we’ll be happy to help you set up an A/B split testing.

Author: Courtney Dillsworth

Editor: Peter Schirripa, Yasifur Rahman