What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
Tell us about an A/B test you've conducted in email marketing. Give us some context about your company and industry, then tell us about the parameters of your experiment. What were the results and why did they surprise you?
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
Certainly! Here are a few more examples of A/B tests that have produced surprising results:
1. Button Color: In an A/B test aimed at optimizing conversion rates, a company changed the color of their primary call-to-action button from green to red. Contrary to popular belief that red buttons are more attention-grabbing, the test revealed that the green button outperformed the red button in terms of conversions. This unexpected outcome challenged the assumption that red buttons always perform better.
2. Pricing Strategy: An e-commerce website conducted an A/B test to determine the most effective pricing strategy for a product. They tested two variations: a higher-priced version with a discount and a lower-priced version without a discount. Surprisingly, the higher-priced version with a discount received more purchases than the lower-priced version. This unexpected result indicated that perceived value and psychological pricing can have a significant impact on consumer behavior.
3. Headline Variation: A news website conducted an A/B test to compare two different headlines for the same article. One headline was straightforward and descriptive, while the other was more intriguing and clickbait-like. Surprisingly, the straightforward headline outperformed the clickbait headline in terms of click-through rates. This unexpected outcome demonstrated that users preferred clarity and transparency over sensationalized headlines.
4. Length of Video Advertisements: An advertising agency tested the effectiveness of video ads of different lengths—15 seconds versus 30 seconds. The expectation was that the longer 30-second ad would provide more time to convey the message and engage viewers. However, the surprising outcome was that the shorter 15-second ad performed better, capturing more attention and leading to higher engagement rates. This result challenged the assumption that longer ads are always more effective.
These examples highlight the importance of conducting A/B tests to challenge assumptions, validate hypotheses, and uncover unexpected insights. A/B testing allows businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their strategies based on actual user behavior and preferences.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
We performed an A/B test for our landing page, one with more information and copy, and one with significantly less. Surprisingly our rates of engagement were near identical. We learned that the amount of copy for this landing page did not affect our user's engagement.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
In my previous role we did A/B testing on the times we sent the emails and figured out the promo email we sent at 10 am got a CTR of 2.33% while the same email got CTR of 4.21%
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
In the last email I sent, I had to split test with the subject line.
Subject line 1: 10 ways to increase sales in 2024
Subject line 2: Check out these sales hack to increase conversion
After analysing the return on both, I discovered the using numbers as a hook as in subject line 1, made audience to dive directly into the email, and spent time sweep reading through each of the 10 ways I listed, gaining a higher CTR 3.5% compared to the subject line 1, 2.2%
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
Sure, let's say you work in the fashion retail industry and your company sells clothing online. You could conduct an A/B test on your email marketing campaign by testing two different subject lines:
Version A: "Exclusive Spring Collection Now Available!" Version B: "Shop Our New Spring Arrivals Today!"
After sending these emails to two equal segments of your subscriber list, you might find that Version B ("Shop Our New Spring Arrivals Today!") resulted in a higher open rate and click-through rate compared to Version A. This suggests that the more action-oriented subject line performed better in engaging subscribers. As a result, you might decide to use similar language in future email campaigns to optimize engagement and conversions.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
Engaging your email analytics can help you understand your audience better, improve contacts’ engagement, increase your revenue, and optimize to scale.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
I have not done it yet but I thought about a scenario where a clothing retailer, "FashionFusion," is conducting an email marketing campaign to promote their new summer collection. The company specializes in trendy, affordable clothing for young adults and operates primarily in the e-commerce sector.
A/B Test Parameters: FashionFusion decides to conduct an A/B test to determine the effectiveness of different subject lines in their promotional email. They send out two versions of the email to their subscriber list:
Version A: Subject Line - "Summer Style Essentials: Shop Now!" Version B: Subject Line - "Hot Deals Alert: Your Summer Wardrobe Must-Haves Inside!"
Both versions of the email contain similar content showcasing the new summer collection with vibrant images, clickable product thumbnails, and a prominent call-to-action button directing recipients to the online store.
Results and Surprise: After analyzing the results of the A/B test, FashionFusion is surprised to find that Version B with the subject line "Hot Deals Alert: Your Summer Wardrobe Must-Haves Inside!" significantly outperformed Version A. Despite initial assumptions that a straightforward subject line like Version A would be more effective, Version B resulted in a 25% increase in open rates and a 20% higher click-through rate.
The surprise stems from the realization that the more attention-grabbing and urgent language used in Version B resonated better with their audience, driving higher engagement and ultimately leading to more conversions. This unexpected outcome highlights the importance of testing different approaches and continuously refining email marketing strategies based on data-driven insights.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
I haven't done tests myself but have written email subject lines to be tested. I must say I was surprised by the insight from the lesson. The image with text got a higher CTR than an email with an Image and text. It shows the importance of A/B testing.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
To determine the optimal message for a live webinar on business forecasting, we ran an A/B test on landing page content and emails driving to them.
Variation A – Positive connotation message “Enhance your Business Forecasting with Automation”
Variation B – Negative connotation message “Is your Forecasting process manual and error prone?”
Goal: While our target audience was Business Analysts and Financial Controllers in mid-size companies (we were aware of the possibilities of technology available for large organizations), the goal was to capture the sentiments that most attracts this cohort. Are the really excited about enhancing or respond to actions of fear.
Test Metric – To estimate that these two mutually exclusive variations are statistically significant at 95% confidence interval i.e. >5% P Value
Duration – These tests were live with the landing page, email and social media banners promoting the webinar on the same date/time but with different messaging.
Final outcome – Variation A was the winner with the test hypothesis showing the results as statistically significant from the Variation B responses. This led us to the conclusion that the word Automation was a key driver into capturing our audience attention given all the focus around automating and digital transformation in the office of finance.
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