Advances in software based testing linked to statistical algorithms eventually led to multi variate or multi variable testing.
In this form of testing, a single page is marked up with code tags. Each tag allows the software to rotate a pre defined variation of that section of the webpage. Therefore, with multi variate testing you can test an almost unlimited combination of changes to a webpage. You can have several headline changes served up to your visitors with several different image locations and many different first paragraphs and so on.
Eliminate Guesswork From Your Marketing Strategy And Convert More Sales With FREE And Simple Split Testing.
12
Charles Kangethe - ©2012 www.wealthcreatingprogram.com Each combination served up is statistically analysed for conversion rate using algorithms that go by names such as Taguchi.
As the test is running you can review ongoing results on the fly to determine which combination of headline, offer, images and copy is “converting more sales.”
Brilliant! Except that for this level of sophistication and quick results you must pay a new higher level of premium.
Another recent trawl through the available software uncovered one gem selling for a little under $1,000.00. That was for an outright purchase that you can host on your web server. The software is a highly technical piece of kit that requires the creator to install it for you!
For a more user friendly package which you are not permitted to host on your own server, the subscriptions are about $600.00 per annum. Yikes!
So again, we have a cost issue despite the undoubted advantages of multi variate testing software.
The next chapters of this e-Book will look at how to use software that has combined A\B and multi variate split testing capability. It is easy to use and requires no great technical ability and best of all it is FREE.
Did you get that?
1. It does all the testing you want and need
2. It gives you statistical evidence on the fly about what is working and what is not in easy reports
3. It is FREE.
A billion dollar company has created the software, so you can assume, (yes, I know,) that it is well written and supported.
That software is Google’s Website Optimizer.
Eliminate Guesswork From Your Marketing Strategy And Convert More Sales With FREE And Simple Split Testing.
13
Charles Kangethe - ©2012 www.wealthcreatingprogram.com Creating An Account
You must log into Google’s Website Optimizer and set up an account before you can use the software. This simple process requires that you sign up to an agreement which is standard fare these days.
Figure 1 - Sign Up \ login page for Google's Website Optimizer When you have set up your account, you will be taken to your account page where there are numerous aids and links to help.
If you are not very clear on technical matters, I assure you this looks far more scary than it really is.
In any event, techie or not, it is always a good idea to read the material on such pages so that you get a feel for what you will soon be able to do with your new software.
Assuming you have read the really quite useful help topics, you are now ready to plunge into the world of the big guys. You are now ready to eliminate guesswork from your marketing strategy and begin to “convert more sales.”
A word of caution. Testing is not an end in itself.
Testing your websites is all about one very simple thing. It is about improving or increasing your “conversion rates.”
Some software out there almost seems to justify its existence on how many different tests it can do. These tools use increasingly complex statistical algorithms and give many different slices of reports of the results.
Eliminate Guesswork From Your Marketing Strategy And Convert More Sales With FREE And Simple Split Testing.
14
Charles Kangethe - ©2012 www.wealthcreatingprogram.com This is fine if “techie” testing is your main priority, but as I have said, testing is not an end in itself.
Testing has a very real and very practical purpose. It is about comparing web creatives and offers, to improve and increase your conversion rates.
Nothing more or less!
You set the tests up, you monitor the results, and you change your website to better converting combinations of conditions. Simple!
Google’s Website Optimizer gives you major league testing features without bogging you down in testing for testing sake. This is one more huge plus for this software.
Eliminate Guesswork From Your Marketing Strategy And Convert More Sales With FREE And Simple Split Testing.
15
Charles Kangethe - ©2012 www.wealthcreatingprogram.com Testing
A\B Split Test Or Multi Variate Test?
The first question you have to decide on is are you going to perform an A\B split test or a multi variate test.
If your website is a simple one page landing and sales page in one, you may choose to do A\B
splits.
If your website has many different pages, with many different “convert more sales,”
propositions you may feel more comfortable using the multi variate features as these give more testing flexibility.
If undecided, you can start with the simple A\B split test and then progress to multi variate testing once your control is converting well. In this situation, your multi variate tests would serve to fine tune what your A\B tests had revealed as, credible and trust building, web pages.
(Do you remember those two factors of successful marketing?) Google’s Website Optimizer allows you to choose between simple automated A\B split testing or more sophisticated multi variate testing.
Figure 2 - Test Type Selection Screen
Eliminate Guesswork From Your Marketing Strategy And Convert More Sales With FREE And Simple Split Testing.
16
Charles Kangethe - ©2012 www.wealthcreatingprogram.com A\B Split Testing.
Google suggests you use this A\B Split Test if these conditions apply: 1. You can publish an original control page AND an alternative test page or pages 2. You want to test the overall look and feel of the page.
Note - These are recommendations and not prescriptions. You have the choice to use multi variate testing even if these conditions apply.
The A\B split tests require you to start with an original or control web creative. You then create several different alternatives in which each alternative varies from the control by one condition so you can tell what change is generating the increase in “converting more sales.”
Figure 3 - Setting up an A\B Split Test
The four stage sequential set up process is
1. Determine a name for your experiment.
2. Select your control or original test page.
3. Create several alternative test pages varying each by once condition so you can tell what change has contributed to a change in your “convert more sales,” proposition.
Eliminate Guesswork From Your Marketing Strategy And Convert More Sales With FREE And Simple Split Testing.
17
Charles Kangethe - ©2012 www.wealthcreatingprogram.com For new testers, I suggest you use something like Excel spreadsheet to list out all your test conditions with a description of what you are trying to test. This allows you to construct your experiments quickly and to have a check against which to monitor the test results easily.
4. Identify a conversion page – this is the page that visitors will go to which signals a successful conversion.
You then elect whether you will embed a small piece of code into the HTML of the pages or whether your webmaster will do this work.
Figure 4 - Screen to elect who will add code to web pages Now believe me the level of computing skill required here is an ability to “Copy and Paste.”
If you can do this and know where your web pages are on your local machine, you can achieve this task yourself easily and quickly.
Figure 5 - Software creates code to Copy and tells you where to Paste it in the pages Eliminate Guesswork From Your Marketing Strategy And Convert More Sales With FREE And Simple Split Testing.
18
Charles Kangethe - ©2012 www.wealthcreatingprogram.com The software will generate the code you need to copy AND it will tell you where to paste it.
Unless you really struggle with basic computing techniques and have zero knowledge of HTML, you do not need your webmaster or anyone else to do this basic task for you.
If however, you choose to let someone else handle this task for you, the software will give you a URL they can use to log in and complete the work before loading the pages back up to your server.
Figure 6 - Link a webmaster would receive to with instructions to add page tags When you (or your webmaster) have finished “Copying and Pasting” the code in your test pages, you load them back up to your server and then the software verifies that you have done everything correctly.
Figure 7 - Verify pages after inserting the code and loading them back to host server Once you trigger the test to start, the code tags serve the control and the alternative pages to visitors on your site in a random, rotational basis. It calculates which page is converting best and shows you the results in clear reports.
A visitor to your site will always be shown the same page they saw at first visit because the code uses cookies to recognise returning visitors.
Being a Google creation you can be sure this code will not affect your web pages’ ranking on the search engine either.
Eliminate Guesswork From Your Marketing Strategy And Convert More Sales With FREE And Simple Split Testing.
19
Charles Kangethe - ©2012 www.wealthcreatingprogram.com This is a very good introduction to split testing and worth a try if you are just beginning to use this hugely important marketing strategy.
Advantages of Google Website Optimizer for A\B Split Tests 1. Automated tool, accurate statistics with clear reporting.
2. Created by Google and fully compatible with their other software such as Google Analytics.
3. Does not adversely affect your Google page rank.
4. Simple to implement and requires no technical expertise if you are comfortable with very basic HTML editing and can “copy and Paste.”
5. It is FREE
For the remainder of this e-Book I will discuss multi variate testing as this gives you more options for testing more conditions simultaneously.
This quickens your testing cycles and that must be good for your ability to “convert more sales.” After all, when you have a low visitor or traffic throughput to your new site, you cannot afford to lose those prospects because you have a disengaging creative. This was the problem with Splitter’s website.