3 A/B tests to boost your performance in Marketo Engage

Marketers need to be creating content with powerful imagery or videos and a CTA that resonates with the audience, especially in a fast-moving, competitive online environment

That’s where A/B testing comes in – or ‘Champion Challenger’ as it’s called in the Marketo world.

In short, A/B testing is a tried and tested method based on data that allows you to compare two versions of something to determine which one is performing better. It can be used to evaluate everything – right from website design to headline titles and even font type. 

Here are three of our go-to A/B test examples to boost your marketing performance on Marketo Engage – as in our training program. 

1. Mail A/B Testing

With nearly 800 billion emails being sent every day – inbox competition is real. 

Changing something simple such as the subject line, call to action button or length of the email, can improve open rates, click-throughs or conversions. 

2. Landing page A/B testing

Landing pages are often the first impression of a company after clicking through on a link and well, first impressions count.

Altering the layout, text length or CTA can make a big difference on the onward journey the customer decides to take. 

3. A/B testing on program types

You may also choose to A/B test the different program types against each other i.e. a live event versus an on-demand event, to see what gets the most traction with your audience.

Top tips for successful A/B testing

• Always test – with a clear question or hypothesis in mind. Why are you testing?
  
• Be patient – don’t be too eager to act on the first results you get. The data could change dramatically once the testing has run its course – lots of variants will be involved in the process, after all. 
  
• Test one element at a time – otherwise, you won’t know which element was responsible for the success 
  
• Keep it simple – Don’t try to look at too many metrics all at once. Trying to analyse too much data will only make things more confusing.
  
• Send to a big enough audience – large enough to see a clear difference in performance.
  
• Repeat tests – keeping the test conditions consistent. Don’t start changing the day and time of tests as this could affect results.

Remember – the online world moves fast. 

Don’t get too hung up on results – if something didn’t work so well, revert to the previous version or try something new next time. Try to make A/B testing a regular part of your marketing strategy to continue an improved performance level.