Chris LucasOne of the straightest paths to optimization is A/B testing. But it’s a big job: From call to action text to button shape, there are virtually limitless elements that can be tested, and improved. Analyzing and optimizing the entire funnel requires a great strategic plan – and a toolbox full of assets to help put that plan in action, and learn from the results.
To get you started, here are some resources to facilitate all aspects of A/B testing – from implementation to analysis.
#1. RJMetrics
This complete analytics platform features seamless visualization dashboards that support quick and painless reporting from a variety of data sources, all within a single interface. They recently raised $ 16.5 million in Series B funding, too, so look for even more innovative features on the horizon.
#2. Pagecritiq
This crowdsourcing tool allows any marketer to submit their landing page, receive feedback and share feedback on other landing pages with other marketers. The bonus? Not only does the process provide solid feedback on A/B tests in progress – it also helps to inspire other ideas for future A/B tests, too.
#3. Charted.co
Sometimes, a data set is hard to look at. This GitHub project from Mike Sall allows for beautiful, immediate renderings of even the most atrocious data sets.
#4. Google Alerts
Want to keep tabs on which ad words or organic search terms you should be testing? Or stay up to speed on your competitors’ messaging, so you can try their best practices on for size? Google Alerts are still one of the best tools to monitor a wide swath of data from the Web. Set up an alert, and Google will email you new mentions of a keyword, phrase, company name, etc.
#5. SplitButton
This tool lets you dip your toes into the waters of A/B testing by allowing you to create a simple test on your call to action button. All you have to do is set up three button text variations and embed a short script on your site. SplitButton will show the variations randomly and keep track of the results.
#6. Hemingway App
Hemingway is an awesome tool for writing clear, bold copy. You copy in your text, and Hemingway shows you how it could be shorter, less complex and easier to read. It also breaks down your copy by letters, characters, words, read time and even reading level!
#7. Optimizely
Optimizely makes A/B testing second nature. The solution allows you to design experiments visually and define goals with a single click. Optimizely then takes care of everything else, from hosting your test designs all the way to the results page.
#8. Five Second Test
Five Second Test helps users fine tune landing pages and calls to action by analyzing prominent elements of your design, and by finding out what a person recalls about your design in just 5 seconds. Using this method, you can ensure your message is being effectively communicated, to test your brand message, and quickly find out what users like most and least about your website. You can choose how many responses are provided to your test, and even use your own set of testers.
#9. A/Bingo
A/Bingo can test display or behavioral differences using just one line of code. It can measure any event, test for statistical significance and is extremely fast, meaning it has minimal impact on page load times or server load. As the A/B tests are defined in code, there is no setup or configuration required, the first time code for a particular test executes, it does all the setup work for the test and logs the first participant. Subsequent test alternatives are read straight from the cache. Each A/B test is defined in controllers (or views), and A/Bingo also allows for multivariate testing, with the ability to build your own dashboard or use the default one provided to view the results of your tests.
#10. KISSmetrics
KISSmetrics is a an analytics platform to help increase customer acquisition and retention rates. The KISSmetrics JavaScript library provides a function to help you set up your A/B test, which has three major features; it randomly assigns the current visitor to one of the variations, ensures the subsequent calls return the same variation to the visitor and sets a property with the name of the your experiment. You can also include KISSmetrics into your in-house testing code, or integrate it with another A/B testing platform. Once you’ve set up your test, you can then segment any report to see the test’s performance, and determine if the results are significant. You also have the ability to track two completely different page designs, not just changes in individual elements, using a single URL for all of your landing page variants.
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