Erika crafted the perfect landing page for her pay-per-click ad. She launches her ad campaign and is excited to see how much revenue she’ll drive from her landing page. After a few months, though, she doesn’t see the results she was hoping for with her ads.

What can she do?

If you’re like Erika, you may be looking for solutions too. Well, we’ve got the perfect one: A/B landing page testing.

In this guide, we’ll answer questions like:

• What is A/B landing page testing?
• What’s the difference between A/B testing and split testing?
• Why should I do A/B landing page testing?
• What elements can I A/B test on my page?

What is A/B landing page testing?

A/B landing page testing compares two versions of the same landing page with one item changed on one version. This testing strategy allows you to set a control version and a variable version to determine which elements reap which results.

A/B testing vs. split testing: What’s the difference?

When you learn about A/B landing page testing, you’ll also hear people use the term split testing. Split testing landing pages, though, is not the same as A/B testing — A/B testing is simply one version of split testing.

A/B landing page testing focuses on changing one element on your landing page to see how it impacts your ad’s performance.

On the other hand, split testing landing pages involves comparing two different versions of a landing page to see which performs better. These landing pages can have multiple differences, or they can only have one difference.

Here’s an example of an A/B test. In this example, the only change between the two is the heading for each ad.

In split testing, the ad’s content is nearly the same, but the design and style are entirely different.

So, A/B testing and split testing landing pages are not the same process. While they both test your landing page performance, they test elements at a different level.

Basically, when you split test your landing pages, you’re testing more significant changes on your page — A/B testing, on the other hand, focuses on small, singular changes.

Why you should use A/B landing page testing

Now that you know about landing page A/B testing and the difference between A/B and split testing your landing pages, you may wonder why you even need to use A/B landing page testing.

Here’s when you should use landing page A/B testing for your business:

You want to increase engagement

Landing page testing is fundamental to increasing engagement.

If you don’t publish the best possible version of your landing page, your audience may not engage with it — decreasing your chance for conversions.

By optimizing and improving your landing page, you can put out a better version of your landing page. You can see an increase in your clickthrough rate (CTR) and conversion rate, which will help you drive more success with your ad campaign.

You want to understand your audience better

Landing page A/B testing helps you understand your audience better.

When you test elements and determine what your audience likes, it provides you with valuable insight for understanding what gets your audience to engage. When you know your audience better, you can create more impactful ad experiences in the future.

You want higher conversion rates

One of the biggest reasons to conduct A/B testing on landing pages is to improve conversion rates.

When you provide a more optimal experience on your landing pages, you can keep more leads engaged, leading to an increase in how many people take another step through the marketing funnel.

7 elements to test with A/B landing page testing

To get started with landing page A/B testing, here are seven elements you can test to improve your landing pages.

1. The heading

Your headline is the first thing your audience sees when they visit your landing page. You want to grab their attention and entice them to keep engaging on your landing page.

You can test your headlines by:

• Changing the wording
• Adding more exciting verbs
• Changing the font of your headline
• Changing the size of your headline

2. Your landing page layout

One of the first things you can test with your landing page is the layout. Your structure determines where elements appear on your landing page.

When you conduct A/B testing on your landing pages, you can move around elements on your landing page to see if a different location helps the page perform better.

You can move around elements like:

• Your body text
• Visual elements
• Directional cues
• Call to action (CTA) button
• Forms

3. The offer

When you’re conducting landing page testing, consider reevaluating your offer. You may have an excellent design for your landing page, but the offer may not be enticing enough to get your audience to convert.

You want to ensure you’re offering your audience something they want — whether you’re trying to get them to buy a product, get a discount, or download content.

For example, let’s say you’re running an ad to get your audience to download your gated content on how to write a book. You find, though, that not many people opt to download the guide.

Now, this outcome doesn’t mean that people don’t want your guide. It may just mean they don’t want to sift through pages of content to get the information they need.

Instead, you may try to offer them the same content, but through a video series. You can ask prospects to sign up for your email list so you can send them a video each week that covers one section of your guide.

In this case, it might be a more enticing offer to your audience because they prefer video content over reading guides.

By A/B testing your offer on your landing page, you can ensure that you deliver what your audience wants so that you can drive more success with your campaign.

4. Visuals

Visuals are a vital element for A/B testing landing pages. Landing pages often have less text and more visuals to keep leads engaged with the content, making visuals crucial to test.

You can use numerous types of visuals on your landing page, including:

• Photos
• Videos
• Graphics

There are two ways you can test visuals. The first way is to text the number of visuals on your page. You can see if reducing or increasing the number of photos or videos improves your landing page performance.

The second way to test graphics is to change the content of them. If you’re using a photo of a woman pointing on your landing page, you may try changing it to a man or a child to see how it impacts your page’s performance.

If you use directional cues, like arrows, on your page, you’ll want to test those too. You can test things like the placement, the size of the cue, and the color choice.

5. Body text

As crucial as visuals are to your landing page, body text still plays a fundamental role in helping you build a landing page that converts.

When you’re conducting landing page A/B testing, consider analyzing your body text to see if you can create something more engaging.

When you conduct A/B testing, you can test:

• How you phrase your content
• What you say in your content
• Keywords used in your content

This test is particularly great for helping you create body text that is more succinct and avoids including fluff your audience doesn’t need.

To help you get the most from your ad content, consider auditing your content. A content audit will help you determine if your information resonates with your audience. It will also help you verify that your content emulates the tone and style of your business.

6. CTA button

When you’re A/B testing landing pages, make sure you test your CTA button.

Your CTA button is one of the most crucial elements on your landing page, as it guides users to the next step, which is often conversion.

With your CTA button, you can test numerous components, including:

• Button color
• Font color
• Font style and size
• Text of CTA button
• Size of button
• Location on the page

7. Forms

Last on our list of A/B landing page testing elements is forms. Many landing pages often include forms that ask users to submit information, whether to access exclusive content, get deals, or sign-up for an event.

The problem with landing page forms is that they often are what cause users to bounce from the page. If a form is too long or asks for irrelevant information, leads may leave your page before submitting it.

To ensure you capture your audiences’ information, test these elements of your form:

• The information you ask for
• The length of the form
• The size of the boxes
• The size of the text
• The font of the text

WebFX can help you do A/B landing page testing

Landing page A/B testing can be a daunting task — after all, you can only test one element at a time to ensure you get clear results. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to doing that, WebFX can help.

We’ve been in the digital marketing industry for over 20 years, so we know how to craft landing pages that drive results. In the past five years alone, we’ve driven over $2.4 billion in sales and over 6.3 million leads for our clients.

We’ll test and adjust your landing pages for you, so you can focus on handling the influx of new customers.

Ready to increase your conversions with better landing pages? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our landing page design services!