If you’re like most digital entrepreneurs, gaining more subscribers, customers and sales is certainly on your wish list. And one of the most effective ways for doing that is through testing and tracking.
Let me explain…
"Testing and tracking" is the process by which you optimize your conversions on your lead pages, sales pages, email campaigns, ad campaigns and anything else where you want to improve results.
It takes some time to set things upfront, but it's well worth the effort, and can result in significant increase in revenue for your business.
Here's a quick scenario.:
Let’s suppose you have a sales page where you sell a $50 offer. And let’s suppose this sales page currently converts at 1%, meaning you make one sale (and $50) for every 100 visitors to the page.
Now imagine if you could boost response to 3%. Instead of making $50 for every 100 visitors, you’d now make $150 on the frontend. And your customer list would grow more quickly, so you’d make more money on the backend too.
Imagine if you could boost conversion rates on your lead pages, your sales pages, and your email campaigns. You’d get a higher ROI on paid advertising, and you’d get better results without needing to get more traffic.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at how to do it…
3 Steps to Testing and Tracking
Let's begin by breaking down the process of "Testing and Tracking" into 3 simple steps:
STEP 1 - Decide What Tools to Use
Depending on what you’re going to be testing, you may be able to use a tool that's in-built into a platform that you're already using. If not, then you may need to acquire a separate tool.
For example:
- For email marketing, many major email marketing platforms such as MailerLite and GetResponse offer built-in tracking and testing tools.
- Many ad platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook ads provide tools.
- When you’re optimizing conversions on your own website – such as a sales letter – then you’ll need other tools. The easiest tools to use are A/B split testing tools (I use Thrive Optimize). You can also check out Google Analytics or the popular alternative, Matomo.
Note: Unless you already know a lot about tracking and testing, it's better you start with simple A/B tests (which I’ll explain in more detail below).
STEP 2 - Determine What to Test
Your next step is to determine what sort of test you’re going to set up first. Specifically, do you want to test:
- Your sales letter?
- Your lead page?
- Your email campaigns?
- Your ad campaigns?
Pick the item that you think could use the most improvement, or the one that currently has the biggest impact on your business.
For example, your lead page is the entry point to your sales funnel, so it has huge impact on your business. If you're not getting enough people to join your list, then you’re going to struggle at every point of the sales funnel thereafter. As such, you may decide that improving your lead page is the first logical place to start.
Once you decide where to start, then your next step is to decide what specific factor to test. For example, if you’re testing a lead page, then there are a variety of factors that you may be able to tweak in order to boost conversions, including:
- The lead page headline
- The opener (right below the headline)
- The bulleted list of benefits
- The call-to-action
- The overall design of the page
There are other factors you could test... actually, you can test just about anything, such as:
- The color of your headline
- The size of the headline
- The font you use
- The graphics
- Whether you have a call-to-action link or button
- ... and many other smaller factors
Keep in mind though, that when you start testing smaller factors, then you’re going to run into the law of diminishing returns. In other words, you may pour a lot of extra time and money (if you’re placing paid ads) into testing without getting a large return to show for it.
For example, maybe you tweak your font size to improve conversions by a quarter of a percent. Not really worth it, right?
That’s why I suggest you focus on the big factors. About 20% of your factors are going to create 80% of your results, so you need to identify and focus on that very lucrative 20%. In the case of a lead page, those factors include the ones in the first list above (such as the headline).
Here are the big factors for a sales page:
- Headline
- Opener
- Postscript (P.S.)
- Call to action
- Price
- Overall offer (bonuses, how it’s positioned, etc.)
- Overall design of the page
- Bulleted list of benefits
- VSL (video sales letter) via text-only via combination
If you’re doing an email campaign, then here are your big factors:
- Email subject line
- The preview (which people can see before clicking on the email)
- The P.S.
- The call to action
- The offer you’re promoting
- The day and time when you send emails
If you’re tracking and testing an ad campaign, such as a pay per click campaign, here are the big factors to test:
- The keywords (aim for longtail, targeted keywords)
- The ad headline
- The ad body copy
- The graphics, if any
- The call to action
Note: if you’re not sure where to start, then take note that the headline or subject line tends to have a huge impact on conversions, so that’s always a good starting point. Basically, if your headline or subject line doesn’t get the attention of your target audience, then they’re not even going to read the rest of your sales letter, lead page or email. That’s why a headline tweak can significantly affect conversions, sometimes doubling them, tripling them, or even more.
The second thing you need to know is that you should only test ONE factor at a time. And that’s what we’ll talk about in the next step…
STEP 3 - Develop Your Test
Now that you know what you’re going to test, it’s time to start developing your test.
For a simple A/B split test, you create two versions of whatever item you’re testing (Version A and Version B), with the ONLY difference between them being the single factor you’re testing.
Let me explain by using an example…
Let’s suppose you want to optimize an email, so you start by testing the most significant factor: the subject line.
What you’ll do is create two versions of the email (Version A and Version B), with the only difference between these two versions being the subject line. You’re going to hold ALL other factors constant, including:
- The rest of the email (the opener, body, call to action and everything else should be identical between the two emails).
- The layout/design of the emails should be exactly the same.
- The “From” field should be the same.
- The offer you’re promoting inside should be the same.
- You should send out the emails at the exact same day and time.
- Your list should be randomly split into two groups who’ll receive the two versions. (Your testing tool will do this for you.)
… And any other variable you can think of should be held constant between the two versions.
Here’s why: if you end up with a significant difference in conversion rates between the two emails (that’s the goal!), then you can confidently say this change occurred because of the differing headlines.
On the other hand, if you didn’t hold all variables constant, then how will you know what caused the difference in the conversion rate?
For example, if you send out two versions that not only have different subject lines but were also sent on two different days, then what caused the difference in conversion rates? You won’t know if it was the day of the week or the subject line.
NOTE: If you know a bit about statistics, then you know that you can test multiple factors at once using an advanced multivariate test. If you’re familiar with that type of test, then go ahead and use it. If this is the first you’re hearing about it, then I recommend you start testing and tracking using simple A/B tests, as they are easy to run and easy to interpret.
5 Tips for Effective and Profitable Testing and Tracking
Now that you have a better understand about the process of testing and tracking, let me share with you a few tips to help make your testing and tracking more enjoyable, effective and profitable.
Be Clear About Your Goal
In order to do any testing, you need to be clear about your goal. What, exactly, do you want to improve? For example, if you’re testing emails, are you looking to improve open rates, clickthrough rates or sales? You may need to work on these separately, as you’ll never get a big clickthrough rate or big sales conversions if your open rate is low.
Don’t Stop Testing Too Early
Most testing tools will tell you how many “actions” (such as how many sales) you need to record before you can declare one version of your test as the winner.
A good rule of thumb is that you need about 30 actions. While you may see your test leaning heavily one way or another early on, don’t stop testing early. Let the test run its full course so that you can declare with confidence which version works best.
Test Your Control (AKA Winner)
Once you have a winner – such as sales letter headline that converts better than the other version – then you can test this winner (also called a “control”) against another version of the headline.
Perhaps the same control wins, so you test it again against another version. Point is, you keep putting your winner up against other versions to see if you can further improve conversions.
Be Aware of Diminishing Returns
While it’s important to test your control and see if you can improve it, do keep an eye on the numbers to see when you start reaching the point of diminishing returns. This goes for any single factor (such as a headline), as well as any overall item (such as a sales letter).
For example, let’s suppose you’re testing headlines, and you keep testing the control (the current winner) against other headlines or even slightly tweaked versions of the control. Eventually the gains you make aren’t going to be significant, so at that point you stop running that particular test and start testing something else (such as a call to action).
When do you stop? When the gains are negligible. For example, maybe your headline tests are able to take an initial conversion rate from 1.2% to 3.1%. If further tweaks create tiny results (such as going from a 3.1% to 3.2% conversion), then it’s not worth testing any further.
Again, focus on those things that produce the biggest impact on conversion rates, and move on when a test isn’t making a big impact any longer.
Look at the Big Picture
While it’s easy to get hyper-focused on sales conversions, be sure you also look at the big picture too, meaning you look at refund rates and overall profitability.
For example, a really slick sales letter could have an amazing conversion rate of 5%. But maybe that’s because the sales letter is all hype and the product doesn’t match the hype, so you end up with a big refund rate too.
Point is, look at the overall picture… and don’t hype something just to boost a conversion rate, because it only hurts you in the long run.
Conclusion
Now it’s your turn to find out what’s really working in your business and what could use improvement. Here's what you should do next:
- Research and select a testing tool.
- Pick ONE thing to test.
- Create two versions of this item, while holding all other variables constant.
… And then start your testing.
Note: Paid advertising (if you have the budget for it) is a good way to drive traffic to a test, as you can send a lot of traffic in a short amount of time, which lets you complete your test sooner.
