How I Use Landing Page Split Testing to Find Untapped Marketing Potential (+ 12 Starting Points)

I’m a hobbyist at heart. As a content marketer, I can’t help it – this is it perfect Word is hiding somewhere. I also bring this mentality to the landing pages I create for companies.

Maybe you like the first iteration of your site – just like I love the first draft. But you know a rewrite is due. Landing page split testing helps you perform an effective page rewrite by showing your page’s performance to your audience to improve conversions and user experience.

And while testing can bring a variety of benefits, only 17% of marketers currently use split testing to increase their benefits Landing page conversion rates. That’s a lot of wasted marketing potential.

So let’s start from the top. What goes into a split test and which elements should you prioritize in your testing?

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As you go through the process When designing your landing page, you obviously want to make the best decisions about what appears on the page, where it appears, and why you put it there. By conducting split tests with your audience, you gain a wealth of unique first-party data to support your argument.

Regular split testing and page iterations are one of several landing page best practices that are worthwhile.

Pro tip: If you don’t have a landing page to test yet, we can help you get started Our free landing page builder.

Why should you split test your landing pages?

There are many benefits to testing – let’s explore some of the most important of them. And to help us with that, I chatted Rachael PilcherB2B SaaS conversion copywriter A mighty beautiful copy. She has invested the last eight years in developing and testing landing pages.

Improve conversion rates.

The purpose of a landing page is conversion. In a typical user flow, prospects arrive at landing pages via ads, and the landing page should convince them to take the next best action on the marketing journey.

The main goal of your testing should be to increase the number of users taking the next action. From her experience, Pilcher says marketers can miss important opportunities to optimize conversion on their landing pages.

“Landing pages are often the forgotten child in marketing campaigns,” she says.

“While everything else around them is optimized (ads, emails, etc.), landing pages are often treated as a one-off asset – but even small changes to these pages can result in a significant increase in leads and sales. If you don’t test, you may be sitting on a gold mine.”

As a benchmark, our research shows that the average landing page conversion rate across all industries is 5.89%. Use this number as a starting point for evaluating your testing successes and failures.

Refresh your lead pool.

Over time, your qualified leads stagnate. People leave companies, say no or buy from the competition. In an ideal world, you regularly attract new leads and move them through the marketing funnel and the broader buyer’s journey.

A well-built landing page can help you not only get more leads, but also ones who are more willing to interact with your offer.

“I like to think of landing pages as a source of fresh water for your entire marketing ecosystem,” says Pilcher.

“You’re constantly replenishing new leads and driving growth for your entire business. Just as a clean water supply supports growth in nature, optimizing your key landing pages supports growth by ensuring a constant flow of good traffic and converting your best prospects into customers.”

Understand user behavior.

As your users interact with your landing page, you can gather valuable information about what motivates them. Instead of guessing what they want, the data they generate tells you. Through multiple test runs, you will learn which page elements appeal to you the most.

Metrics are your friends here:

• Bounce rates
• Time on the page
• Click rates
• And yes, conversion rates

More detailed research methods such as scroll depth analysis and recorded user sessions can provide additional insights into how users engage with you through your landing page.

Optimize your marketing resource spend.

As part of your marketing mix, landing pages consume marketing resources. You invest time, energy and money in creating and maintaining these sites.

A well-built landing page brings qualified leads and prepares them for conversion. A poorly designed landing page is not the case – and can have far-reaching consequences.

“If there’s a problem with your landing page, there’s a trickle-down effect that affects everything from that point forward, which can lead to wasted ad spend, unqualified leads, and frustrated sales teams,” warns Pilcher.

“Landing pages are always a little off, which is why it’s so important to strategically test and optimize them month after month.”

Pro tip: Based on our experience with thousands of marketers, we’ve put together a guide to optimization best practices. Download our guide for a detailed list of optimization tactics.

Refine your messaging and branding.

Personally, I find that the landing page testing experience forces me to better explain my brand and offerings.

It feels like it’s mimicking that Feynmann technique This will help you learn a topic more thoroughly and give you more opportunities to teach it to others. Testing, learning, and iterating helps me more effectively refine what I want to say to the market and how I go about doing it.

I believe this is particularly the case with complicated products and services. I’ve sold content team services that can get quite complex, requiring knowledge of multiple disciplines and critical thinking about organizational structures. Rewriting the copy on the landing page to explain such an offer helped me clarify my messages and make them meaningful to my audience.

This is how landing page split testing works

Running a split test on your landing page is very similar to how you do it Conduct A/B testing on all other marketing materials. While conversions are likely your primary business goal, consider what other outcomes (e.g. user behavior and messaging refinement) you should measure.

Also, make sure you follow testing best practices such as:

• Define a clear hypothesis to test.
• Test one variable at a time to reveal the cause.
• Check the mobile version of your site for inconsistencies.
• Give yourself enough time to test – at least a two week testing window.

A/B testing software can help you put together useful tests and collect meaningful data to generate insights.

Around 44% of companies have provided a testing solution to help you. If you want to join their ranks, we recently compiled a list of the best A/B testing software.

Pro tip: Are you trying to set up your A/B test? Download our Complete A/B testing kitready for your first (or next) landing page.

Landing Page Split Testing Ideas: 12 Starting Points

The question now is: what should you test? Well, you have many options worth testing on your landing page. Pilcher shares that you should be thoughtful and methodical about whatever you decide to do.

“For landing page split testing to be an effective use of your time and money, it must be viewed as a methodical study of what works—and what doesn’t—for your specific customers and product,” she says.

Define your testing method and keep it in mind as you review these landing page elements for opportunities to improve your conversion rate and better tell your brand’s story.

1. Offer Type

What would you like to leave your prospective buyer with at the end? Knowing the destination will help you plan the trip better using your landing page.

Different Content marketing optionsE-books, templates, or strategy guides appeal to specific buyers at different stages of the marketing funnel. Or, if your user is closer to the purchasing stage, consider offering a 1:1 consultation or free trial.

Make sure you know your target audience and where they sit in the funnel. From there, you can A/B test offers and monitor conversion rates. Also try out guarantees, special discounts, or time-bound offers and see how they encourage (or discourage) conversion.

2. Call to action

How would you like to convince your buyer to accept your offer? Another important part of planning your landing page journey is setting up a call to action. Ideally, your CTA is a concrete, clear next step for your prospect:

• Download the e-book.
• Fill out a form.
• Book a demo.
• Read more.

The text you use is important – as is the structure of your CTA.

For example, using a clickable button for your CTA is a good practice Increase conversions by up to 28% (although the results are all contextual – that’s why we test). When testing CTAs, consider your copy, structure, and position on your landing page.

3. Title

Ideally, you want your prospects to spend several minutes reviewing your information, considering your offer, and then converting via your CTA. However, research shows that this is the case 10-20 seconds maximum to grab their attention and communicate a compelling value proposition. Or they jump off.

This makes your titles (everything in the hero text) incredibly important to the success of a landing page. Your largest, most visible copy should immediately connect to your offer, your CTA, and your value.

Users have little patience – don’t waste your first impression. Test titles extensively to see what resonates best with your prospects.

4. Length and structure of the body text

You have captivated your reader – great! What now? In your body copy, you explain your offer, why your user should care, and work to get them to take action.

While you’re testing the ideal length, aim for a rough target length 500-1,000 words on your landing page. Prospects need enough information to make informed decisions, but flooding them with content is a surefire way to convince them.

Also pay attention to how you structure your information. Endless paragraphs of blocky text will bore all but the most dedicated readers. You can use headings and subheadings to divide content into manageable sections.

Since most of the internet readers still follow this F-shaped pattern and skim content so they can understand your offer at a glance. Play with headings and subheadings to find what resonates best.

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5. Social proof

People want to belong. And they want to feel like they have chosen the groups they belong to carefully. This is the innate human desire that social proof taps into. It turns out there is social proof Increase landing page conversion rates by up to 34%.

Testimonials and (honest) reviews are a good starting point. Try experimenting with where you place them in the body copy and how many you use. Social proof should reinforce the value of your offer without distracting from your story by overwhelming prospects.

6. Images and videos

As a writer, I definitely enjoy when people read my words. But even I prefer a good picture from time to time. Images and videos can provide different perspectives on your brand and offering and lead to more user interaction. Additionally, video content can increase conversion rates by up to 86%.

However, videos are not equivalent. They depend heavily on the topic, industry and storytelling ability. For example, marketers often worry about video length.

Best practices indicate compliance with these Videos under two minuteswith the most important points covered in the first 60 seconds. Reconcile that with that four-minute Volvo commercial This beats most promotional videos – an ad that generated positive buzz on social media for days.

So embrace the ongoing theme and A/B test video lengths, formats, placement, and subject matter to find what’s right for your audience.

The same applies to images. Unique images, user-generated content, or infographics provide opportunities to grab users’ attention and highlight your offering. Such as videos, test location, formats and topics.

7. Form fields

I’ll avoid getting into the “protected or non-protected content” debate for now so we can talk about forms. As a lead generation tool, information collection forms are crucial. But how much information you collect can impact your users’ experience and eventual conversion.

Depending on your industry and the nature of your offering, the numbers will vary within a reasonable range, but the best practices remain 3-5 fields in your form before there are too many and users drop out. Bring the number of your fields to four or fewer, and Formstack Research shows that you could increase conversions by 160%.

I would start with your name, email address and job title. Other fields can be your A/B testing variables. When adding and removing fields, be sure to keep your user data clean. Also test different form designs and page positions to improve conversion.

8. Button attributes

Buttons are useful tools for highlighting specific next steps or linking to compelling social proof. And you have to adjust a lot of attributes to create the right button:

• How big is it?
• Do you match brand colors or use more contrast?
• What text are you entering?
• Where on the page do you place it?

The placement of buttons on a page is a particularly fascinating subtopic. Similar to the F-shaped pattern mentioned above, UX designers could also think about it the Gutenberg principle when designing the page layout.

This principle refers to how users’ eyes scan and track information on a webpage. Research shows that primary CTA buttons often work well in the terminal area (or bottom right of the page), while secondary CTAs thrive in the strong fallow area (or top right).

I say try the positioning yourself and see.

9. Page navigation

Your various text, image, and design choices all impact how your user navigates the landing page. Are they doing it properly? Or are they distracted by occasional external links or video reviews that turn them away from your site?

Test guiding potential customers through your story on your landing page. A table of contents could be useful navigation links or slow down your users. Play around with adding and removing navigation links, customizing link text, and placing them on the webpage.

User heatmaps (and corresponding tracking software) are great tools for evaluating navigation and identifying where you can better support the user experience.

10. Color schemes and typography

You’re probably already working with tried-and-true brand colors and fonts. However, landing pages offer the opportunity to tweak these colors and fonts to increase their appeal.

Many resources (particularly in consumer packaged goods) have been invested in understanding color psychology and its influence on purchasing. For example, red and orange are action-oriented colors and are typically best for increasing conversion rates on CTAs.

When testing different colors and fonts, also consider usability. W3Cs Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide a common framework for making content accessible and easy to view and keep accessible.

For example, WCAG notes the importance of ensuring sufficient color contrast between text and background elements. Follow WCAG to ensure your A/B test results are easily applicable after testing.

11. Trust signals

Why should users trust you and your offer? While social proof provides compelling emotional appeal, trust signals help convey more logical reasons for choosing you.

In the age of GDPR Privacy Policy and clear explanations of data usage are very important to users.

Depending on your product or service, you may have industry certifications. For example, a SaaS product might display badges SOC2 or ISO 27001 compliance for information security management.

Logos from partner organizations and companies can also strengthen social proof and show that you are a trustworthy partner in your ecosystem.

Test the number, type, and placement of these elements. Pay particular attention to what your industry expects – and where you can bring unique or very special advantages.

12. Ask your sales team

So many elements to consider – where should you start? Pilcher shares an overlooked source of wisdom when testing landing pages: your sales team.

“Do you need ideas on what you would like to test? Be sure to look at on-page analytics and user behavior, but my best tip is to talk to your sales team,” she says. “Companies often work in silos, but marketers should talk to sales to get insights for testing, especially if the landing page is aimed at booking a demo.

“As your frontline contact, talking to sales is like talking to 100 customers. “You have a deep understanding of your customers’ pain points, objections, frequently asked questions and purchase triggers,” she continues.

“These insights can help marketers develop hypotheses about which elements to test, create clear and specific messaging, and align landing pages with customers’ true interests – ultimately leading to more qualified leads and sales for the company.”

Test your way to the best landing page in a split test

Conducting landing page split tests requires discipline and dedication to get the best results for each element. Sometimes this contradicts expectations. It’s okay to admit that your site has made a mistake before. Use these tests as an opportunity to repeat, improve and grow.

Many marketers have not yet taken advantage of the power of split testing. Create your tests, use software if necessary, and gain an excellent strategic advantage.