27 A/B Testing & Optimization Posts You Shouldn’t Miss

Do you know NOTHING about A/B testing? Then there are plenty of introductory posts for you below.

Are you a SEASONED PRO? Then seek out the case studies and more advanced lessons. Personally, I believe you can learn at least one new idea to inspire you as to what you could test, from any good blog post.

I’ve tried to find some of the better recent posts on A/B testing and conversion rate optimization to see where people’s ideas are at right now. You never know when you’ll find that case study that’s just like your own problem, or an important concept you find hard to communicate to your boss or clients.

If you have any other recent and great posts on these subjects, I’d love if you would share them in the comments so our readers can get the most value from this post.

Now test on conversion soldier, test on.

Case Studies

1. What Spending $252,000 On Conversion Rate Optimization Taught Neil Patel

10 insights from an expensive lesson, including: Gathering qualitative and quantitative data before testing, do A/A tests before you do A/B tests (you’ll need to read about that one), don’t expect increases on a monthly basis and multivariate tests never work… or at least for me. Good read.

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2. How We Increased Landing Page Conversion from 5% to 55%

6 lessons explained in this case study, including large background photos convert really well, and this is a really interesting one, how adding an email and password option increased signups via Facebook and Twitter (which already existed on the page) by 7%.

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3. B2B Lead Gen: A/B Split Test Helps Increase Quote Requests 262%

Everyone loves a good case study, and this one from Marketing Experiments walks you through their whole process from start to finish to show an impressive conversion lift.

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4. A/B Testing Generates a 98+% Lift in Conversion Rate for DHL

Another case study, this time from Ion Interactive. Which walks through the target audience, the changes made to the pages, why they were made and what happened in the end. Stats and case studies FTW.

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5. Webinar Testing: Slight Title Change Produces 45% Increase in Clickthrough Rate

I love title tests – they are almost always surprising. This one is good because it’s focused on attracting people to a webinar, which a lot of marketing companies are doing now – so listen up and use this info to test your own webinar registration pages.

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6. How Changing a Single Word Increased Clickthrough Rate by 161%

I like this one because it starts properly with a hypothesis. Without one you might achieve success, but not know if it was based on your business goals (meaning that you’re still leaving money on the table). #ihatethatphraseftr

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7. How Server Density A/B Tested Pricing Plans and Increased Revenue by 114%

If you run a SaaS business then this will be interesting to you as it includes a pricing test. Which is the hardest thing to get right for your business. You have to be careful how you do it though as it’s illegal in some jurisdictions to offer different prices to different people. It’s safer to just play with layout and verbiage changes.

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8. Five Surprising Split Testing Tips

I’d say that nearly ALL A/B test results are surprising. But these five are a good set to add into your testing toolkit. Just remember, that what works for one page doesn’t necessarily work for your page – or customers.

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9. Split-Test Email Signups Doubled AND Bounces Reduced at the Same Time

A fun and simple test, where you get to guess the winner and it even gets into the details of measuring your results in Google Analytics and WordPress. (Plug, with Unbounce you can see live conversion results right in the app :)

For A/B Testing Beginners

10. An Introduction To A/B Testing

You might be sick of intro’s to A/B testing, but this one has a pretty sweet video if you’re someone that prefers to watch rather than read. Definitely one for the noobs though.

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11. The Web Developer’s Guide to A/B Testing

Don’t be fooled by the title, this post takes the small business angle for A/B testing. And talks about tools to use, what to test and the benefits of conversion rate optimization. More importantly it covers how to set up a proper test and how to interpret the data.

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12. An Introduction to Using A/B Testing for Marketing Optimization

An eBook from the eBook masters at Hubspot. To quote them directly: “A/B testing your landing pages can help you generate up to 40% more leads for your business. Add this result to the benefits you can get from split testing your calls-to-action and emails, and you’ll see some significant increases in lead generation.” It’s 50 pages and has case studies, guidelines, and what you should be testing.

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13. Conversion Rate Optimization eBook Listed for Free on Amazon Kindle

I don’t own a Kindle, but if I did, then I’d probably give this free download a go. Nothing to lose right? It seems to be a lead in to a series that you would need to pay for, but if it’s good then why not? It’s like giving a free preview of an upcoming larger book. So in terms of a sales strategy, it’s a good one.

Expert Opinion

14. 13 Experts on the Single Best Piece of Advice for Improving Conversion

Insight from thirteen conversion experts and veterans to see what single best lesson they’ve learned when it came to improving online conversions. Often just a three or four percent jump can lead to significant increases in traffic, leads and of course, sales. Furthermore, the changes you need to make often can be accomplished in under 45 minutes.

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15. 24 Marketing Experts on Their Most Surprising A/B Test

Like I said above, A/B testing usually provides really surprising results. So listen to 24 of the industries foremost experts talk about their most surprising outcome. Oh, and I’m in there, so if you need a reason to read it – that’s a pretty good one ;)

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16. Mastering Conversion Rate Optimization?

This is an entertaining read from one of the forefathers of conversion rate optimization, Bryan Eisenberg. Best quote: “Optimizing conversion rates is not exciting; it’s boring, repetitive, detailed, but necessary work, much like general management.” << Read this now

What To Test

17. 3 Obvious but Overlooked Elements to Test on Your Landing Pages

Deciding what to test on your landing page can be difficult – especially if you’re new to landing page optimization. This post looks at 3 simple things you can test to get you started. And once you start seeing results you’ll be hooked, guaranteed. But remember, if your first few tests don’t work out how you wished, keep trying. As the saying goes, ABT – Always Be Testing.

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18. What’s the BEST Color for High Conversions?

Oh no! The dreaded color question. Well in this video Derek Halpern says he’s figured it out, based on some old psychological experiments, so go watch and let us know what you think in the comments.

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19. What’s The BEST Call-To-Action Button Copy?

Good examples in this one that talk about CTA copywriting – something I think is well due for more exploration and testing. I’d even go so far as to say that copywriting for landing pages in general is the least written about subject, so I like this one.

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20. How to Wireframe a Well-Converting Landing Page

In this post Marcin Treder has a viscous plan to show you the reality of conversion optimization and teach you methods of documenting design that will help you methodically change your design into a well-converting machine. An exhaustive and detailed read. Definitely a break from the norm.

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21. Five A/B Tests You Should Use

I’m including this example only because it annoyed me. I get the need to do lead gen and collect email addresses etc. But in order to do a blog post? That’s too much for me to bear. Click on it and see how long it takes to be annoyed by all the barriers in your way to the content. “Back Button Please“.

Different Types of Testing

22. To A/B or Not To A/B? That Is The Question

Slightly misnamed, this is a classic A/B vs. Multivariate post. What methodology do you use?

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23. When to Move from A/B Split to Multivariate Testing

A simple post comparing when you should use each methodology. The interesting part is actually the other blog posts below this one, when you get to the site, where the author explains how Multivariate testing (MVT) can be used for email and landing page optimization.

Miscellaneous

24. Increase Mobile App Sales with A/B Testing

This is a sweet (and timely) post about testing your mobile app icon. With over 600,000 apps competing for sales in each app store, an app’s icon acts like a mini banner ad, so choosing the right one can mean the difference between success and failure.

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25. The Famous Monty Hall Problem and What it has to do with A/B Testing

Weird name, great analogy and a great post. Nuff said. Nice one VWO.

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26. Why You Rarely See That Amazing Conversion Lift Your Testing Tool Promised

An interesting quote from Nail Patel in this one “Even with statistically significant tests, those 30% revenue lifts tend to be 15% lifts in the long run. My best guess is that there are other variables that come into play, such as the quality or volume of your traffic changing over time.”. In essence this tells me that you really need to focus on continuous testing, it’s never a one shot deal.

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Aaaaaaaand finally…

27. The Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing (PDF)

This guide will teach you everything you need to know about A/B testing, including the all important “What to Test”. And guess what? We (Unbounce wrote it!) You can get the 85-page PDF for an email or a Tweet. And I have to say (completely unbiased of course) that it’s awesome.

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– Oli Gardner

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