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ATN INTROEDUCTIOSN TO TESTTING FOIR HNIGHER COGNVERSIONS Guide to Online Testing
contents
Testing Basics 4
Landing Experience (LX) Types 4Landing Page 4Land & Jump 4Microsite 4Conversion Path 4
LX States 5Control 5Champion 5Challenger 5
Test Waves 5Types of Test Waves 5
Types of Testing 6A/B or A/B/n 6MVT or Multivariate Testing 6
Testing Math 6Statistical Con?dence 6How much time do I need to reach con?dence? 6
Understanding Testing Risk & Reward 7All Test Types are not Equal 7Comparing & Contrasting A/B and MVT 7The Risk of the Endless Test 7What kind of tester are you? 8
Test Planning 9
Deciding What to Test 9
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©2010 i-on interactive. All rights reserved. The ion spring and LiveBall are registered trademarks of i-on interactive, inc. 2 Guide to Online Testing
Deciding How Many Alternatives to Test 9
Anatomy of a Sample Test Wave Planning Template 10
Test Wave Decision Trees 10
Example A/B Innovation Wave & Decision Tree 11Innovation Wave: Basic LX Type Test 11
Example MVT Iteration Wave & Decision Tree 12Iteration Wave: Testing Content Combinations 12
Example Combination A/B + MVT Innovation Wave & Decision Tree 13Innovation Wave: Testing LX Types Against Control 13
Example A/B Iteration Wave & Decision Tree 14Iteration Wave: Testing Segmentation Alternatives 14
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©2010 i-on interactive. All rights reserved. The ion spring and LiveBall are registered trademarks of i-on interactive, inc. 3 Guide to Online Testing
Testing Basics
Let's start with the lay of the land. It can be challenging to understand testing without a grasp of the basics. Whether you prefer the analogy of giving the bunny the carrot or giving the gorilla the banana - the objective is the same - you're testing to ?nd the best way to give your user what they want. Bunnies want carrots. Gorillas want ba-nanas. It's simply your job to test alternative ways of giving them what they want. They tell you which alternative they prefer by taking more carrots or bananas. You're testing to provide the optimal user experience which translates - for you and your marketing - to the optimal conversion environment. Once we're all on that same pro-verbial page, the rest is easier.
Landing Experience (LX) Types
There are four main types of landing experiences. And since 'user experience' is often shortened to UX, we co-opt LX for 'landing experience' - just to keep things easy. Testing often begins with macro-level efforts aimed at identifying which type of LX works best in context. LiveBall lets non-technical people easily create any type of landing experience and test types against each other. Here are some of the most common types of landing experiences:TRAFFIC: 50% Landing PageLanding Page The good, old fashioned landing page is just that - a page. Typically, it includes the call-to-action and the method of conversion (a form). Lead-gen landing pages are typically two pages - the landing page and its post-conversion 'thank you' or con?rmation page.TRAFFIC: 50% Land & JumpLand & Jump A 'land & jump' is a truly single-page landing that matches the upstream call to action and acts as an interstitial page between the ad and the conversion. These are sometimes called warming pages as they warm the visitor prior to asking them for anything. E-commerce land & jumps often hand off visitors to either a product page or a transactional shopping cart.TRAFFIC: 50% MicrositeMicrositeMicrosites are little websites. That means they have navigation and a number of pages. Their navigation is what makes them different from conversion paths.
TRAFFIC: 50% Conversion PathConversion Path Conversion paths are multi-page experiences (like microsites, but without navigation). They typically begin with a segmentation page that encourages visitors to group themselves by intent, sub-target, product, price, etc. Early segmentation lets a conversion path target more speci?cally to visitor needs and ask for conversion later in a more speci?c way.
A note about home pages and deep links: Testi... [download for more]