If you are not familiar with split testing, it’s time you learned more about the technique. It will help you cut down on the time you waste as an affiliate marketer and turn your efforts into more revenue for you.
What is Split Testing?
According to Visual Website Optimizer:
“Split testing is a way of comparing multiple versions of a web page (homepage or landing page) to find out which one converts visitors best.”
So basically, you create two pages for which you plan to drive traffic. The pages should have the same objective, but different wording, images, and headlines. The test will be conducted to see which version of the page performs better.
How to Split Test
For affiliate marketers, the split test can be done on two landing pages, if you are building your list. It could also be two squeeze pages if you wish to warm up your traffic to your affiliate offer before sending them to the sales page.
The changes between the pages can be subtle and minute, such as the first headline being changed. Or, you may choose to alter multiple parts of the page when conducting your split test. The less you change, however, the more accurately you can test the differences.
When you split test the pages, you will send the same amount of traffic to each page. You then track the results from each set of traffic. How many clicks did each page receive? How many conversions?
The webpage that offers the best results is the winner.
Why is Split Testing Important for Affiliate Marketers?
Split testing is very useful for all marketers. For affiliates, it can help you determine the pages to send traffic to. If you are using paid traffic methods, this can help you save money and increase your ROI in the long run.
For list building, split testing two opt-in offers helps to determine which is one works better at helping you gain subscribers. Once you have tested them for a few days, you can get rid of the one that underperforms and only use the best one.
Over time, split testing will help you craft better webpages for your audience. You will notice patterns in your test results, and learning what works will increase your copywriting expertise. It will also show you what to offer your visitors to convert them into subscribers or buyers.
Split Testing Email Subject Lines
Split testing doesn’t just stop with webpages. You can also split test email subject lines, noting which one gets the most opens. Again, you will start to see what entices your readers to click, so you can write more effective headlines that get your emails seen and opened.
As you can see, split testing is a valuable tool for affiliate marketers. Testing multiple versions of the web pages you create helps strengthen your ability to make conversions. Over time, your split testing efforts will pay off, as you make more money and spend less time crafting pages that simply don’t work!
