Delivering continuous improvement
A/B testing should be part and parcel of every brand’s continuous improvement approach to website management. Comparing two different versions of a web page – or app – is a simple, yet highly effective, way of discovering which one performs better in the field.
It’s particularly useful for analysing how planned changes will impact the user experience (UX), providing genuine data points which can be used to measure and benchmark performance. It also creates a limited testing environment, allowing developers and designers to review and refine new features before they’re released to a wider audience.
Importantly, A/B testing is the ultimate low-risk method of optimising conversion rates and presents a powerful tool for web managers looking to deliver the best experience to everyone, all of the time, without jeopardising performance or negatively impacting brand reputation along the way.
Why monitor your A/B tests?
While A/B testing is a reliable bellwether for trialling new web pages, it’s a process that still needs handling with care if you want to return results you can trust.
Fact is that, however meticulous your planning and prep, there’s always the risk that a potentially high conversion path could be scuppered by an unseen fail point. A/B variations have a lot of moving parts and it’s crucial to ensure they are all working as anticipated.
thinkTRIBE’s performance monitoring service is designed to help mitigate the risk of customer-impacting issues/bugs in your split tests. Whether changes are minor (buttons or bullet points) or major – a complete page redesign, for instance – employing real user journeys as an integral element of the A/B testing sequence ensures that any new options are delivering a smooth UX before they go wide.
A/B test monitoring will:
Pinpoint any and all potential fail points
Ensure A/B paths are valid and ready for testing
Check the quality of the test from a user’s perspective
Think of it as a secondary QA for your split tests. By releasing the variants to thinkTRIBE before trialling them in the field, we can check that all paths are working as expected and not causing issues for real site users. Flagging errors before they compromise the validity of your testing process will save time, money and resources in the long run.
Cover all your bases with thinkTRIBE
Using thinkTRIBE’s synthetic monitoring journeys gives you unrivalled visibility of the quality of the test from end to end. Our cloud-based services are fully compliant with Google’s A/B protocols. Get in touch to discover more about how realistic monitoring can transform your UX for good