How to use A/B tests in marketing automation

A/B tests can be immensely helpful when it comes to verifying and increasing the effectiveness of your campaigns. If you use our marketing automation platform, you can use A/B tests in at least four areas: Email marketing, retargeting, website content, and push notifications. In this post, we will show you what to consider when creating A/B tests and how to put them to work.

The idea behind running A/B tests is relatively straightforward. People resonate (or don’t) with your messaging for different reasons. Sometimes, they don’t respond because the offer they receive doesn’t interest them or isn’t attractive. But in other instances, they don’t respond because there was something off about your design or content that discouraged them from taking action.

It can be something as small as a CTA button. If it’s too small or not visible enough, some of the customers may struggle with locating it. In such a situation, the majority of people will just decide to move on, and you’re left with a lost sales opportunity.

Running A/B tests allows you to gradually test different aspects of your ads, emails, notifications, or website design in order to find the perfect combination that resonates with your audience. Typically, A/B tests refer to the design (colors, fonts, buttons, images, etc.) or the content (ad copy, texts, and their order on your website/landing page).

Image source: https://smartpuffin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/a_b_red_vs_green.jpg

If you want to know more about A/B tests themselves, take a look at this article on our blog: Test, test, and then test some more. How to conduct effective A/B tests.

As we’ve mentioned in the introduction, there are at least four areas of your marketing automation work that can be optimized with A/B tests. Let’s have a look at them!

Email marketing

Even in 2024 and beyond, email marketing remains one of the most effective digital marketing strategies, especially when it comes to people who are already in your contact database. A/B testing can help you find the “perfect email” that resonates with a large portion of your target audience.

And when it comes to emails, there are a few things to test:

• Subject lines: Test at least three different subject lines. You can compare formal vs. casual subjects or play with personalization. For instance, if you want to send out a message with a special offer, you could test these two subject lines:

Personalized: “Mark, we have a special offer for you!”

Vs. 

General: “Special offer is waiting, claim it today!”

• Email text: The content of the email is also important to test. Prepare two versions of the same email and send them to 50% of your recipients each, and you’ll see which version resonates better with your audience.
• Email layout: In our repository, you will find hundreds of nicely designed templates that you can use in your campaigns. Test different templates to see which one is more effective.
• CTA buttons: They are also very important. Test different CTA buttons to see which one gets a higher conversion rate.
• Timing: Lastly, it’s a good idea to test different times and dates to send out your email. It may turn out that emails sent on Monday morning are more effective vs. emails sent on Friday afternoon.

Retargeting

Retargeting is a vital element in your marketing strategy, especially if you run an e-commerce business. Reaching out to people who are potentially interested in your products can increase both AOV (average order value) and the number of orders you get. However, you need to test which retargeting strategy is the most effective. In order to do so, test the following elements:

• Ad design: Test different images, headlines, and ad formats. For example, you can try product photos vs. lifestyle photos.
• Offers: Typically, a retargeting message should contain some encouragement to buy, e.g., a discount or free shipping. Test different offers to see what your customers expect.
• Frequency: How often (and when) should you send a retargeting message? Shout it be ten minutes after viewing the product, one hour, or one day? It’s an excellent question that requires A/B testing. Run retargeting campaigns with different frequencies to see when such a message is most effective.
• Customer segments: Lastly, you can test different customer segments. Retargeting can be different depending on whether you want to reach people who just viewed the product or people who put the product in their cart but never finished the order. Ideally, you should test both groups.

Website content

Our content automation feature enables you to test different content ideas that are placed on your website or landing pages. For example, you can test different headlines for the blog posts or service descriptions that show up on your webpage. Test variations in tone, length, and emphasis. For example, you can compare the headline saying “Grow your plumbing business with us” with “10x the number of calls you receive each month” to see which will be more effective.

You can also test different content order on your website as well as different types of content (e.g., blog posts vs. product pages).

With this feature, you can also use your website audience data to create personalized content. Automation allows you to adapt content to individual preferences, which is yet another thing worth testing. You can find out whether personalized content works better than the laser-focused but general one.

Push notifications

Lastly, it’s a good idea to run A/B tests with your push notifications. These little messages can be extremely useful and effective, but you first need to find the ideal version that’s tailored to your customers’ preferences.

Here, also, there are four different areas to test:

• Messaging: Push notifications should be short and to the point. Test different descriptions and CTAs.
• Timing: When and how often you send notifications can significantly affect user response. For example, you can test weekday mornings against evenings or daily notifications against weekly ones.
• Links and CTAs: Push notifications almost always include a CTA with a link to your website. Test different phrasings (e.g., “Shop Now” vs. “Get Your Bonus Today”) and linking strategies, such as sending users to a specific product page versus a general category page.
• Design: It’s also a good idea to test different templates with different colors and fonts to see which designs catch your target audience’s eyes.

Wrapping up

Undoubtedly, A/B testing can take some time, but it’s definitely worth it. You end up with a confirmed version of your marketing messaging that you know is effective because you tested it against other versions. As a result, your marketing metrics go up and you can close more deals. 

A/B testing is a standard element of our marketing automation platform. If you’re not using it yet, we have great news for you! You can test iPresso for free (no commitment is necessary, we don’t take your credit card details) for the whole month. You can start even today by sending us this short form.

Let’s upgrade your marketing together!