Seven steps to landing page testing success! This infographic takes you through seven best practices for testing and optimizing your landing pages for higher conversions. 1. Traffic — how to find your biggest testing opportunities 2. Message — where to test your various messages 3. Pages — what and where to test 4. Test planning & documentation — how to create a manageable test plan 5. Statistical significance — tips for running A/B & MVT tests 6. Analysis — how to analyze your tests to maximize learning 7. And scale —steps for maintaining a methodical & effective program These simple principles will lead you to success and great results!

1. HOW TEST
to
interactive.com
YOUR LANDING PAGES
The Basics
A
B
What’s a landing page?
It’s anywhere a web visitor lands after they click one of your ads,
messages or links.
An SEO landing page is one that a visitor lands on after clicking
an organic search result.
A campaign landing page is created specifically for advertising
for the purpose of getting a visitor to take a specific action.
[Example: filling out a form, downloading a white paper, signing
up for a free trial or making a purchase.]
Step 1: Traffic
Where should you test?
First, start by evaluating the scope of traffic to your pages:
Where are you getting the most traffic?
Where is your highest cost per click?
Where is your lowest conversion rate?
What is strategically, or even
tactically, important to you?
Where is your highest cost per conversion,
or cost per lead?
Decide what type of traffic allows for the biggest testing opportunity.
PAID SEARCH TRAFFIC
DISPLAY TRAFFIC
LOW TRAFFIC
• Audience lacks
immediate intent
• Audience searching for
immediate solution and
answers
• Slow & steady testing
• Great opportunity for
conversion testing
• Testing geared towards
improvement and learning
• Easiest place to start
• Rapid and iterative
testing approach
• Designed for big
innovative conversion
improvements
• Can take several test
waves to gain learning
and momentum
• Steady & predictable
incoming traffic
HIGH TRAFFIC
• May take several weeks
(or months) to reach 80%
statistical confidence
• Continuously launch
tests and apply learnings
• Fastest results
• Set at 99% statistical
confidence
Step 2: Message
Okay, but where specifically should you test?
With each type of traffic, there are any number of unique messages and traffic sources.
PPC
EMAIL
For every email you drop,
run a unique landing page
test. Structure these tests
to learn something new
from each email drop.
Keywords & ads in the ad group
should maintain a high degree
of relevancy on your pages. If
they differ greatly, get granular
and run several tests at once
within a high volume ad group.
DISPLAY
The display landing page should
mirror copy and use visuals from
the ad. Visitors need to instantly
recognize that they landed in the
right place after they clicked on
your ad.
Think about your
messages leading
to your pages to
determine exactly
where you will
test first.
Step 3: Pages
What in the heck should you test?
Evaluate the pages you are currently sending traffic to on your selected
traffic source and determine:
What is the bounce rate?
What is the offer, or the reason to convert?
What is the conversion rate?
Is the page using common landing page
best practices?
What is the conversion point?
A. Decide what category of test you will run:
DESIGN
CONTENT
• Change page layout
• Test form length or
form style
• Test images & icons
• Add visual emphasis
or directional cues
EXPERIENCE
• Improve value
proposition
• Reduce content or
simplify with icons
• Make scannable
• Try accordions or
tabbed content
• Microsite vs. landing
page
• Conversion path vs.
landing page
• Conversion path vs.
Conversion path (mix
up segmentation )
RELEVANCY
OFFER
• Highlight incentive
• Make value of offer
exceed value of
conversion
• Make offer more
relevant
• Improve ad copy
message match
• Improve the visual
match to the ad
B. Is this test wave innovative or iterative?
OR
INNOVATION
ITERATION
An innovative test wave tests two very different
things against each other.
In an iterative test wave you are testing elements in the
champion to try to lift conversions further.
C. Will you be conducting an A/B or multivariate test?
A/B
MVT
OR
TRAFFIC
............
............
A
............
.......... TRAFFIC ...........
B
5 Form
Buttons
5 Images
5 Headlines
A/B testing is when you test an entire landing experience against at least
one other landing experience.
MVT or Multivariate Testing is when you test many
combinations of elements within a single page.
Step 4: Create your test plan
Now the easiest step—document your test plans.
Documenting is a powerful way to help you ensure your testing approach is sound
and keeps track of all your tests over time. Here’s what’s included in the test plan:
WHAT? Describe the test in plain language.
WHO? Identify the target audience
and their behavior or context
leading to the page(s).
WHEN? When is the test going to launch,
how long do you anticipate it will run for, and
to what level of statistical confidence are you testing?
WHERE? List the traffic source(s)
you are running the test on.
WHAT HAPPENED? When the test concludes at statistical
significance, document what happened. Don’t skip this step!
It’s an important part of your record keeping.
WHY? Describe your hypothesis
for why you are running this test.
What level of statistical confidence is right for you?
Select 80% to 90% confidence level:
For shorter test waves. Use for lower
traffic levels. Less confident results. Use for
innovation waves where results are likely
to be different between A&B.
80
%
99
%
Select 90% to 99% confidence level:
For longer test waves. Use for high traffic and
ecommerce. More confident results.
Step 5: Run your test
Use your landing page platform and launch your test.
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
DO’S
DON’TS
{
{
Be ready to be wrong and be ready to be right - Avoid
getting dogmatic about what will and won’t work. Test it.
Learn - Test to lift conversions, be methodical and test to
yield learning.
Don’t call the test too soon - Don’t declare a winner until statistical confidence
is reached.
Don’t despair - Is your test a loser? No worries. Dig into the analysis to uncover
some learning to help feed into your next test. Keep testing to get results.
Step 6: Analyze your test
Bring an investigative mindset to maximize your learning.
When your test reaches statistical confidence, start analyzing the pages to see what
you can learn and apply that learning to the next test wave. Consider the following:
BOUNCE RATE
USER BEHAVIOR
CONVERSION RATE
TRAFFIC SEGMENT VARIANCE
A high bounce rate (75% or higher)
indicates visitors aren’t finding what
they expect on your page. Consider
testing content and seek to increase
relevancy on your next test wave.
Compare & contrast the conversion
rate between the control and the
challenger. Inspect the pages to
make inferences about why one
outperformed the other.
Review the page elements that are
being clicked on, and determine
which behaviors you want to increase,
and which you want to try to minimize
through layout.
Consider the role the traffic source may play in
delivering the audience you want to your pages.
Determine if you want to shift media allocation,
or the page layout to optimize for the audience
that is most desirable.
Step 7: Keep going
Keep testing to scale your program methodically
and effectively. Follow these steps:
✓
Start with traffic sources.
✓
Move on to type of test, using sound testing tactics.
✓
Document each and every test wave using the who/what/where/
when/why/what happened format.
✓
Use smart analysis to help you uncover your next steps and areas
of opportunities when the test wave concludes.
These simple principles will lead you to success and great results!
Turn your click throughs into
business breakthroughs with ion.
73% of our customers achieve 100%+ improvement in
their digital marketing results, and more than half of them
report 300-500% improvement.
Call 888.466.4332 or +1.561.394.9484
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