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?
Providing email marketing to 150 different companies within a single industry across the US and in Canada must have different demographics. I'm not A/B testing one email to one set of recipients.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
I have performed A/B testing at work in hopes to get a better sense at the best way to approach people as a foreman standpoint. I first chose a freindly approach and worked alongside my crew. Then for the second I took role of charge and provided a task that was availible on the jobsite. After a week or so of trying each and seeing how my crew worked best I decided that working alongside my crew worked much better because when they had questions I was already there to answer them. I also learned fast that a few older men on my crew lacked appretiation for any type of authority and did not like being pushed in any direction. I found working as a team to get taskes done in order worked much better.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
In the past, I've A/B tested subject lines, however, our email product delivery is a tad more complicated since we provide email marketing (promotions and newsletters) to 150 different companies within a single industry across the US and in Canada with vastly different demographics. I'm not A/B testing one email to one set of recipients.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
An A/B test I've permormed that surprised me is changing the color of certain icons because it shows that little things like color change people's minds to click icons or not.
What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?
We have tested a subject line in an email that goes out weekly to clients in our travel club. One simple line that states the purpose of the email wins every time.....that is until we segmented the list for those who consistently opened it week after week and those we were not opening it. Then the test worked better with the disengaged that the entire list. We were able to engage some of the disengaged and move them back to engaged by identifying a benefit they wanted we didn't address in the main email.
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%
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