How landing page A/B testing guarantees you more conversions
Cesar (Customer Support team)
Your landing pages are performing well, right? How can you be sure? Would conversions improve if you change a headline or switch an image?
You can find out! Enter landing page A/B testing, where you compare multiple versions of your landing pages and identify a “winner” (the page with higher conversion rates).
Maybe you’re wondering if adding an embedded video will drive sign-ups, or whether using different landing page copy would be more persuasive. A/B testing will give you the answer.
Rather than taking wild guesses at what will get your audience clicking, launch the best landing pages based on what’s proven to work with your audience.
But first, let’s review the lingo!
There are a couple of different landing page testing techniques out there, namely:
A/B testing: Tests the performance of one variable at a time, with two versions compared against each other (e.g. a landing page with a video vs. a landing page without)
Split testing: Used interchangeably with ‘A/B testing’, ‘split testing’ refers to traffic being split equally between versions
Multivariate testing: Tests multiple things at the same time, which involves many more different versions to test each possible variant combination (e.g. new images vs. new copy vs. new button position)
In this article, we’ll focus on A/B split testing; testing one thing at a time with traffic equally split between versions. You might also hear these words bounced around a lot:
Variant: This simply refers to any new versions of a landing page
Champion: The winning landing page with the most conversions
Voila! Now that you’re fluent in A/B testing-speak, let’s find out what’s so great about it.
Why you should A/B test your landing pages
You might be wondering, Isn’t it enough to just track my landing page analytics? It’s a good starting point, but how do you know that the landing page is reaching its full potential? There might be some small changes that could help you hit your conversion goals, and the only way to know for sure is by A/B testing.
A/B testing your landing pages can…
A/B testing lets you find the most optimized version of your landing page to get maximum clicks and sales. For example, Bing boosted its annual revenue by 10-25%, thanks to A/B testing.
Over time, you can find out which landing page versions resonate the most with your visitors, leading to boosted engagement.
The takeaways you gain from each A/B test can be used to enhance the user experience across your whole site. For example, if an orange call to action (CTA) button got more clicks on the landing page, perhaps you should do the same on your homepage, as well!
How to A/B test your landing pages (with best practices)
1. Identify what you want to test
Look at your landing page conversions over the past month. If they’re lower than you’d like, take a look and think about what elements you could change to improve them (look at the upcoming list if you need some ideas)!
👉 Tip: Test one element at a time. That way, you can understand exactly how it’s influencing conversions, and then you can build on it with more variables afterward.
2. Write a metric hypothesis
Describe what you’re testing and how you’ll measure the results. For example, we could say, “By moving our customer testimonials higher up the landing page, we hope to increase conversions by 50% within 2 weeks.”
👉 Tip: If you’re unsure how to form your hypothesis, then make it ‘SMART’: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
3. Create the new landing page version
Create your new landing page with the adjusted element (did you know you can build your own landing pages with MailerLite?), and then publish it to get testing.
👉 Tip: Make sure your new landing page gets the same traffic from the same sources, so that other variables won’t influence the results.
4. Run the test
We’ll share some top A/B testing tools in an upcoming section. Once the trial is done, analyze the test results, adapt accordingly, and then test the next thing!
👉 Tip: Your audience is dynamic and constantly changing, so run regular A/B tests to make sure you’re consistently hitting the mark.
10 important elements to test in your landing pages
Here are some landing page A/B testing ideas to help you get started…
| Hero image | Which image generates the most conversions? |
| Headline | Which copy is most persuasive? |
| CTA button | Which positioning gets the most clicks? |
| Copy | Which voice/style resonates the most? |
| Forms and form fields | Do fewer fields generate more signups? |
| Social proof | Do testimonials with headshots get more engagement than those without? |
| Pricing | Does presentation affect conversions, such as $2 vs. $1.99? |
| Countdown timer | Does a countdown timer push more people to take action? |
| Layout | Is it better to embed a video above or below the fold? |
| Navigation | Should there be a menu at the top of the page, or is it too distracting? |
Are you looking for more A/B testing ideas? Take a look at this list of case studies, and try some of them for yourself…
A/B testing landing pages with MailerLite
MailerLite offers a simple, straightforward way to test your landing pages, without needing any third-party tools.
First, you can design custom landing pages with our drag & drop builder, and then monitor performance from your dashboard using click heatmaps, landing page conversion rates, SEO settings, and more.
Plus, the in-built A/B testing features let you split traffic between up to 5 versions of your landing page (hello, multivariate testing)!
So how does it work?
From your MailerLite dashboard, go to Sites, select Landing pages and click the Overview button of the landing page you want to test.
Select Create split test.
Click the Add more versions button. You will then have the option to either create a new landing page from scratch, copy the original landing page, or copy from another landing page.
Edit your new version and click Save as draft. You can repeat these steps to create up to 5 versions of your landing page.
To manage the split test settings, return to the landing page overview and switch the split test to ON. Testing will start instantly, and it will not end until you select a champion.
Click Manage split test, and publish all versions of the split test.
Under Distribute your visitor traffic, drag the slider to decide how to distribute traffic between versions, and then click Save.
To learn more about how it works, check out this step-by-step help article on how to use A/B split testing on your landing page.
Ready to A/B test your landing pages?
With MailerLite, you can build your own custom landing pages and test and optimize them to see what works.
There are also third-party conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools to help you further analyze, compare and optimize your MailerLite landing pages, including…
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free analytics software that you can connect with your MailerLite landing pages, allowing you to dig deeper into your metrics. You can follow core KPIs, including the average time spent on the page, the bounce rate and the number of transactions. Here’s how to get started with Google Analytics.
Hotjar
You can add Hotjar’s tracking code to your MailerLite landing page and access screen recordings. These are videos that show real actions taken by people who visit your landing page, including clicks, scrolls and other mouse movements, giving you a real-time view of how they interact with your site.
Landing page A/B testing success stories
Let’s take a look at some real examples from companies who got rid of the guesswork and tried A/B testing their landing pages (including us)!
1. MailerLite: To color, or not to color?
When we launched our annual NPS survey via a landing page, we decided to test whether the color of the rating scale could influence the number of clicks. We wanted to know whether more people would click a colorful scale or a neutral one.
Take a look at the GIF below and place your bets—which one do you think got the highest landing page conversions?
The colorful scale was the winner! It had a 12.9% conversion rate, compared to 10.45% for the neutral one.
From this landing page A/B test, we concluded that using colors added an extra visual element to the scale. It was easier to understand what each number signified (e.g. 1 was highlighted in red, 7 in orange, 9+ in green), and this may have motivated more page visitors to click.
Colors can play a powerful role in decision making! Test different call to action button colors on your landing page, and see if it makes a difference to your conversion rates.
2. Groove: New design, length and copy
Groove decided to completely change its landing page design, copy and length to see whether it would perform better than its original page. (Granted—this is more of a multivariate test, as several variants were being compared at once! But similar principles apply.)
The new long-form version increased conversions by 100%!
Notice how they switched from a stock-style image in their original version to an embedded video with a testimonial, making their brand much more personal and real. Also, the copy goes from listing features (‘SaaS and eCommerce Customer Support’) to real benefits (‘Everything you need to deliver awesome, personal support to every customer’).
The length of your landing page could also play a role in conversions. People who are genuinely interested in your business will be willing to read more to make an even more informed decision. Test a long-form landing page with embedded testimonial videos and FAQs, for example, and see what happens to your conversions.
On your marks… Get set… TEST!
Now that you’re all fired up and excited about landing page split tests, it’s time to get started. Remember to test one thing at a time, and test regularly to stay on top of your dynamic target audience. You’ll be well on your way to hitting your marketing campaign targets and ramping up conversions.
Have you tried A/B testing landing pages? What did you learn from it?
