Continuously optimising with A/B testing in HubSpot

Which call to action (CTA) button works best? Which title appeals most? Per company, sector or target audience, what works best and how you should address that group can differ.

To find out, you can use A/B testing. Here you test 2 different versions of a CTA button, title, an email or part of a landing page against each other. By analysing these results afterwards, you can see what works best for your company.

What is an A/B test?

An A/B test is a form of split testing in which 2 different variants are tested against each other. This can, for example, be a CTA button, headings on a page, a subject line in an email or other elements in your marketing. The aim of this is, of course, to increase engagement, website traffic and conversion rate.

The two variants, A or B, are shown alternately to visitors or recipients. This is divided evenly, so 50% see variant A and 50% see variant B. In both cases, the same measurement standard is used so that the results can be properly compared.

What are the advantages of A/B testing?

With an A/B test, you find out which variant of your CTA button, a heading on a page or another piece of marketing resonates best with the target audience you want to reach. To make a difference, it is important to test the smallest details so that you keep optimising your content.

A/B testing therefore brings several advantages:

• You are testing live with real users who are unaware of it
• Visitors are not aware of the test, so the data is objective
• You can implement the optimisations quickly
• You can keep testing and optimising step by step

What can you test in HubSpot?

Setting up an A/B test easily and quickly can be done from HubSpot. You have many options to test and so keep optimising your content a bit further. We have listed all the options for you:

• The different headings
  The headings on your website page are good to test with an A/B test. When someone scans your website, they will always scan the headings first before looking deeper into the information. A heading that resonates well with the target audience is therefore certainly important.

• Images on a page
  A certain atmosphere on a page determines for a visitor whether they will keep browsing the website. Compare two images to see which gives the best feeling to your target audience.
  
  
• CTA buttons
  Your website has a certain style. The CTA buttons are often designed in that same style. But do they stand out? Test your CTA buttons in different colours and see what stands out best.

The positions of blocks on your website

A CTA button at the top of the page or at the bottom? What works best for your target audience? With an A/B test you can test elements in different places on the page.

• Length of your forms
  With forms, you can make a difference with the amount of information you request. Do people drop off when you use multiple fields in your forms?

• The length of your texts
  A landing page with a lot or a little information can make the difference between visitors reading on or dropping off. Test what works best with your target audience.

What should you pay attention to when getting started with A/B testing?

When you start with conversion optimisation, in other words improving your content, you naturally want to achieve the best result as quickly as possible. Because of this, you might think: I will test as much as possible at the same time so that my website performs optimally as soon as possible. However, this does not work that way.

With A/B testing, it is very important that you only test one element at a time. You can, of course, test two separate landing pages. But on a single page you need to keep in mind that only one element is being tested.

It is also important that the test runs long enough for you to gather enough information to draw a proper conclusion from it. Once you have done this, you can choose a winner and finally implement that optimisation.

Continuously keep optimising

Once you have tested a particular element on your website, a winner ultimately emerges and is implemented. However, the optimisation process for your content and website never stops. That is why it is important to keep testing and optimising. After all, it is never certain that your visitors’ behaviour will remain the same forever.

Need help with A/B testing in HubSpot? Book a no-obligation meeting to discuss the possibilities.