A/B Testing
What is A/B testing?
You can easily derive meaning from its name: you test two designs simultaneously – version A (usually an existing design) against version B (new design) to measure which one is more successful according to metric you apply (it can be conversion rate, bounce rate or sales, etc.).
A/B Testing systems are of two types – open source and commercial:
Open source tools
- Google Analytics Content Experiments (former Google Website Optimizer)
- easywebsiteoptimizer.com
- github.com/Tradeshift/abinator
Commercial A/B testing systems
- These A/B Testing systems can be oriented on small business or big business
- Price for A/B Testing varies. Small and medium business solutions are simple but full-scale. Much attention is paid to WYSIWYG system, as here no-coding is required for building test variations. Such solutions offer possibility to Drag & Drop test pages, Form building and other options ideal for those who don’t have technical knowledge.
Small and Medium Business Solutions
Unbounce.com is one of the leaders in the industry. It offers the following services: A/B testing; ROI increase; building, publishing and testing landing pages (price range – $49-$199). The service is user-friendly, it takes about half an hour to create a page and it doesn’t require special knowledge, but if you have any there are such options as inserting css script, etc.)
Additional options are available upon subscription
100,000 Unique Visitors per Month
Unlimited Pages & A/B Split Tests
1 Custom Domain
Core Integrations (Mailchimp, Aweber, Web Analytics, etc.)
Multi User Features
Add Admins, Authors and Viewers
Unlimited Read-Only Users
Client Management
Add & manage multiple Sub-accounts
2 Sub-accounts (Clients)
Professional Integrations
Brandable Email Notifications
optimizely.com – A/B testing – $17-359;
visualwebsiteoptimizer.com – A/B testing, Heatmaps and Clickmaps – $49-249;
mynaweb.com – a platform for collecting and analyzing A/B testing results – $49-329/mo;
convert.com – A/B and Multivariate Testing for Experts – $139-1499; integration with Google Analytics™ Goals, E-Commerce Revenue and Conversion Tracking
Big Business Solutions
adobe.com “test and target” tools for:
A/B and multivariate testing
Visual application management
Effective targeting
Automated predictive learning
Automated campaign management
Price – unknown
sitespect.com – ~$2500/Mo:
A/B and multivariate testing
Targeting and personalization
Landing page optimization
Mobile optimization
Webperformanceoptimization, etc.
monetate.com – a/b testing offers:
Personalization
Visual Search
Recommendations
Badging
Mobile/Tablet
Analytics
useartisan.com – mobile experiment tool – Quickly test and adapt multiple versions of your app in minutes, ensuring greater impact and bottom-line success. – $1-10k/mo
Conclusions
- In A/B testing niche, platforms offer templates, consulting, demonstration of successful cases, etc. Some consulting agencies offer complex services oriented on conversion boost that know their clients, offer profound researches, analyze them, offer effective solutions and are ready to implement them. This business model can be profitable for big business as small and medium businesses are unlikely to spend $4,000 for auditing site conversion. Medium and big businesses are more oriented on choosing complex solutions, i.e. companies that will do all the work from A to Z.
- Small business is more likely to look for freelance services and custom tasks.
- The market is flooded with A/B testing service offers (most of the services almost don’t have traffic at all). The competition is high and there are a lot of strong brands and methodologies.
