A/B Testing vs MVT: How Should You Be Testing Your Marketing Campaigns?

A huge part of successful marketing is learning, adapting and growing. It’s figuring out what does well and what doesn’t, so that you can pivot your campaigns accordingly. To an extent, it’s all about (informed) trial and error.

However, this process of trial and error doesn’t need to be happening out there in the “real world”. Instead, we’d recommend learning the lessons that you need to behind the scenes. Through effective and strategic testing of all of your designs and marketing campaigns, you can optimise them before they are fully launched to ensure that they are reaching the goal they need to.

That way, instead of guessing what will work, you’ll have proof!

Not only will this mean that any budgets are being well-utilised, but it will save you wasted time and energy, too. Plus, the information that you will acquire can be used to feed into a powerful growth hacking strategy, to form a quicker route to business success.When it comes to testing as a marketer, there are two main options: A/B and Multivariate testing. In this post, we’re going to walk you through each one, which of the two is best for you and how to use them for marketing success and faster business growth.

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing, which is sometimes referred to as “split testing”, is essentially a way of comparing two versions of a design. That could include a web page, social media adverts, app or piece of brand collateral. The aim of the testing is to assess which does better or, more specifically, which achieves the goal you are aiming to achieve.As such, having a clear, in-depth understanding about what your marketing campaign is actually trying to do is absolutely crucial in order for A/B testing to be beneficial. For example, perhaps your conversion goal is to get more people to buy a product, or perhaps it is to get people to sign up to a mailing list.Using this information, an experiment is conducted where two versions of your design are shown to people at random. Then, statistical analysis is used to assess which of the two designs was better at achieving the defined goal.It’s important to remember that there is only one variable in A/B testing. As an example, you could simply change the colour of the text on a landing page, or the length of copy on your social media advert. By utilising the scientific method in this way, you can make sure that any information gathered is only based on these limited factors changing.

What is multivariate testing?

Multivariate testing is very similar to A/B testing in terms of testing designs. However, it is a little more complicated, since it is used to test the impact of changing multiple variants at once. Unlike A/B testing, this is done to assess which combination of variables is most successful, instead of which individual part of design.

For example, in A/B testing, the colour of a font may be changed. On the other hand, in a multivariate test, the font colour, copy length and what images are used could be changed to find the “winning formula”. These are then shown in different combinations to random visitors, to establish which elements of your page conert.

To find out which tools we recommend using for A/B and multivariate testing, check out this blog post.

Which is right for you? A/B testing or Multivariate testing?

Now that you understand the differences, it’s important to understand whether you need to be using A/B testing or multivariate testing for your marketing decisions.

The truth is, you will likely need to use both at some point! However, whilst A/B testing is ideal for when you are looking to make one big change, multivariate is better for when you are looking to optimise smaller, individual elements and bring your design together.

Where do user and market research come in?

Although A/B and multivariate testing are each founded in statistical analysis, it is important as a marketer to base your decisions on both breadth and depth of customer understanding. That means understanding both the “what?” and the “why?”.

As such, before any designs are created and tested, user and market research should be conducted so that you can truly know who you’re talking to. That way, the designs are as good as they can be, with any testing acting as the final step in ensuring that they communicate with your customers as effectively as possible. This is also true, of course, when it comes to creating and deploying a product!

This will also help to prevent wasted time and energy on testing designs which are heading in the wrong direction, as they are based on guesswork, as opposed to solid evidence.

Final Thoughts: How A/B and Multivariate testing can fast-track your growth

By looking at both in-depth information about your customers and the statistical impacts of your design decisions through A/B and multivariate testing, you can ensure that your marketing campaigns are each as successful as possible.

Feeding into the key principles of growth hacking — using “creative, low-cost strategies to help businesses acquire and retain customers” (source) — both of these forms of testing are based on curiosity. They are about remaining innovative and questioning whether the decisions you make will get you the most possible customers.