The Daily Feed Issue #38: What we've discovered using AB testing

Welcome to Issue #38 of The Daily Feed. If this email was forwarded to you by a friend, you can subscribe on this page. You can read previous editions of The Daily Feed on our blog but note that posts to our blog are delayed 24 hours or more. 

Yesterday I introduced you to what AB testing is with a very basic example. We are constantly AB testing on Feedjit. Some days we'll be testing two versions of a headline, other days we'll vary the body text of a particular page. In all cases we are measuring wether it causes more people to take the action we want them to take. That might be to sign up for a free product, to buy a paid product or to take some other action like clicking a button. Today I'm going to share a few of the things we've learned.

Firstly, the word "Free" is incredibly seductive for most people. It instantly grabs their attention. We discovered this about 2 years ago when we launched a paid product but had a link with the word "free" on one of our menus. People would land on the paid product page and instantly click the thing that said "Free". That was a negative side-effect of using the word.

A positive effect of using the word "Free" is to include it in the pitch for a paid product. For example, "Free 10 day trial" is very effective as a headline. Notice that I've put the word at the front of the sentence. If you can incorporate a free offering in your product or service, I recommend you do it and include it in the headline of your pitch. 

Another thing we learned is that big buttons with a large surface area will lead to many more people clicking through to the next page and taking the desired action. Most people scan web pages, absorb small chunks of information and then rapidly scan for the next action they're going to take. If your buttons aren't huge, people don't notice them. 

Think about when you move your mouse to click a button. As your mouse approaches the button you need to decelerate and stop exactly on that button or link. If the link is small, it takes a lot more effort to move your mouse to that link, position it exactly and click it. People are inherently lazy when they're online. If they see a tiny link they may not even start to move their mouse because it will take too much effort to position and click. Large buttons take very little effort so they encourage people to move, position and click on them. 

The text on the button that takes your users further down your sales funnel matters a lot. It needs to be non-threatening. "Buy this now" makes the user hesitate because they think you're going to drop them straight into a secure checkout page and before clicking the button they decide whether they're ready to buy.  "See plans and pricing" makes it sound like it's safe to browse through to the next page. It's non-threatening and will get more clicks. 

Putting text under a button that gives an extra reason to click is a strategy that has worked well for us. You could reinforce a message like "10 day free trial" or let them know about an amazing feature that will ensure they buy.

Tomorrow I'm going to tell you about a few pearls of wisdom I learned from a very old book that is now out of print.

ps: We're still running our special that gives you an additional 2 Million free impressions with any Feedjit Rush Global Ad. 

Regards,

Mark Maunder

Feedjit Founder & CEO

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