Optimisation Inspo — Generating A/B Test Ideas

Generating consistent test ideas is one of the most underrated skills of a conversion rate optimiser. Everyone in your company will, in all likelihood, have things about their website or app that they want to improve, but design is subjective which is why it is so important to A/B test first to validate these changes.

Coming up with these ideas in the first place can appear simple, especially when you colleagues have their own opinions, but sometimes the well runs dry, or perhaps you feel overwhelmed with where to start. These are some great places to look for test inspiration.

Funnel Analysis

One of the first places you should look for A/B testing ideas is to use your existing analytics software to pinpoint problem areas on your website. Are your customers failing to create accounts? Do you see a drop off at checkout? These are common areas where conversion rates fall and are prime pages for A/B testing.

Sometimes it might not be immediately obvious why your users are failing to convert. The numbers are dropping but neither you nor your team can figure out why. This is where visitor engagement tools can give you more insight. Using tools such as Hotjar, ClickTale or SessionCam you can reply real user sessions to observe real user behaviour and discover common sticking points. Heatmapping web pages can reveal popular areas of engagement, and on page surveys can collect qualitative feedback on why users are struggling to complete tasks on your website or what they want to see improved which can be developed into a test.

I have personally used funnel analysis alongside session recordings during a time when a company I worked for observed an unusually high number of users were landing on the account signup page, but less than 15% were converting and creating an account. When observing user behaviour on this page, I realised that a high percentage of users who landed on that page were actually trying to login with an existing account. So I built an A/B test to improve the language used both on that page, but also elsewhere on the website to ensure we were directing users where they wanted to go.

Workshopping

Having an executive in your business who champions CRO is one of the most effective ways to run a successful testing program. A great way to engage your colleagues and get them excited about optimisation is to run internal workshops; be sure to talk about results and what tests are upcoming, but ask for their input on what to test next.

Some workshop ideas:

• Pick a theme or page to focus on improving (mobile, payment forms, campaign landing pages etc.) and generate test ideas around that theme
• Personas — think about audience segments and how to improve the experience for individuals (females under 30, couples over the age of 50, etc.)
• Campaigns — If there are any marketing campaigns coming up, talk about how testing can be incorporated into landing pages or emails

Competition

Many companies will deny that they copy their competitors. It’s seen as bad practice or plagiarism. I will always advocate testing for your own customers first (rather than following trends) but more often than not, your competitors are developing for a similar customer base and testing for good reason, so why not take inspiration from them?

These three food delivery services have very similar homepage layouts with the logo and minimal navigation. The main focus is on customer functionality; notice the prominence of the postcode search. This is an important aspect of the business since restaurants have catchment areas, so collecting a users postcode is vital to the business. There are still plenty of differences between these three sites; use of language and imagery for example, which can be optimised for their own customer base.

You do not have to look at your direct competitors to discover ideas though. Common persuasion tricks such as social proofing (’30 people have looked at this item in the past hour’) and scarcity (‘only 2 left in stock’) are techniques which work for many different industries.

This history of copying is, unfortunately, the reason why many websites look similar today. Brands have their own unique colour schemes and brand guidelines, but website layouts have become similar. In a way this is not a bad thing as customers who are able to navigate your website with ease are more likely to convert. Familiarity builds trust, and trust increases revenue.

Conclusion

When you’ve been positioned in one company for a long time, it can be a concern that the A/B tests you’re running are less imaginative or beneficial than the quick wins you may have started out with. Generating these ideas can sometimes feel like a struggle. It’s important to remain open minded and look for inspiration in different places.

Finally, never stop A/B Testing and optimising. This article by WebTrends is a great example how you should push test ideas to the limit, even when you think you’re done — you won’t be.

Where do you find inspiration? What are your thoughts on the above? Let me know. And if you’re looking for someone to assist you in optimising your website, please get in touch.