A summary of my 4 years of A/B and Split testing, with case studies of work, photography guidelines, and key advice on which elements of the page to test for quick wins. I enjoyed giving this talk at the Online Retailer Conference in Sydney, which is a fine place to visit. The presentation c.overs a really good 'pizza' analogy for explaining testing to senior management and budget holders. Then covering how you go about discovering good places to test on your site, and what tools will help you get that data. Lastly, I explore what worked for me in testing, show some examples of how similar our winners are across the globe and then cover some cross channel testing. The last one here is a big growth area and involves optimising contact centres and channels, using the web as a tool. Some interesting work going on here and I show some of ours, as well as new things in the pipeline. There are some great resources attached, including a list of remote user testing services and the best 'guides' I could find on 'Conversion Rate Optimisation'. Hope you enjoyed the talk and thank you Sydney.

1. Craig Sullivan Belron A year in testing @OptimiseOrDie

3. A/B and Multi-variate testing

4. Cross channel optimisation

5. User CenteredDesign

6. Usability testing

7. Customer Research & Insight

8. Web Analytics

9. Browser and email compatibility

10. Contact deflection and online self service

11. Site search analytics

12. Site, Page and Campaign optimisation

13. Test design and execution

14. A long usable site portfolio

15. ROI on UX improvements

16. Over 18 years of boring meetingsGroup CX Manager for Belron® (O’Brien ®) I get to do it with crowds

17. Outline What is A/B and Multi Variate testing? What is optimisation? How does it all work? What tools do I need? Where do I start testing? What results should I expect? Case studies

18. "If you go to the men's washrooms at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, you may notice there's a fly in the urinals. It’s screen printed . So what do you think most men do? That's right, they aim at the fly when they urinate. They don't even think about it, and they don't need to read a user's manual; it's just an instinctive reaction that means 85% less spillage! The interesting feature of these urinals is that they're deliberately designed to take advantage of this inherent human male tendency.“ This is my job.

19. Testing Primer @OptimiseOrDie

20. Who designs it?s it? Web/Online Pesky Meddling Kids? Marketing Who designs and optimises this page? Brand IT THE CUSTOMER CEO Legal

21. Primer on testing =

22. A/B test Control Version A Version B +2% +9%

23. Multi variate Pizza Experiment Recipes Ingredients =

24. Month 1 - results

25. So what about ingredients?

26. Weed out some losers…

27. The final…

28. What’s optimisation? @OptimiseOrDie

29. What is optimisation? We’re a customer experience team, but focused on how we can influence customer behaviour in nice ways! So, our definition of Optimization: “A set of techniques, implemented in order to influence customer behaviour towards these outcomes:” Increased revenue or profit Removing cost from the business or contact center Increasing productivity or labor flexibility Increasing NPS (Customer Sat) scores Simply delighting customers All work is challenged on this basis!

30. Small team, big challenge Team of 3 – 2 x optimisers, 1 x part time designer Higher ROI without spending more (or lower costs) Stuff that doesn’t hinder SEO or PPC Measurable ROI on changes, not ego or opinion Tools with low or zero IT footprint, easy to deploy Low cost or fast return techniques Specialised tools for specific optimisation work Optimisation is a culture, not a tool though Stop guessing and start testing No IT department! MVT and A/B testing has the fastest ROI of *any* technique

31. How does it all work? @OptimiseOrDie

32. Insight - Inputs

33. Insight - Inputs

34. Killer idea generation sources Analytics data Customer insight – contact, customer feedback, research Usability testing Diary studies Clicktale recordings Business owners – market data, customer mix, local knowledge Customer contact centre immersion (listening) Books, Websites, Tips Other optimisers Test data – variables plotted on axis Making lots of mistakes – Fail faster

35. Typical test lifecycle

36. What’s our testing mix – The traffic picture Hub and Spoke model – homepage traffic

37. What’s our testing mix? A/B testing – Homepage, Landing pages, Funnels MVT testing – high traffic landing or home pages Mini (less than 8 variables) Midi (8-32) Maxi (>32 variables) And 5 types of specialised testing: Funnel testing – bedding in new funnels Landing page optimisation Cross channel testing (e.g. Chat, Contact deflection) New Feature testing Telephony MVT

38. What tools do I need? @OptimiseOrDie

39. Low cost of entry tools: Visual Website Optimizer www.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com Google Website Optimizer www.google.com/websiteoptimizer Optimizely www.optimizely.com If you want to move up from here, try Autonomy Optimost or Webtrends Optimize.

40. Is a testing tool all you need? Analytics Talent Session recording : Clicktale/Tealeaf Performance optimisation : Google/Strangeloop Feedback : 4Q/Kampyle Usability testing : See resources Remote testing : See resources Forms and search analytics : Custom or Bought Testing tools : Browsercam Deviceanywhere Google speed test : Cool stuff! Survey tools : See resources Multi-variate and A/B testing : Free, Paid or Both

41. Where do I start? @OptimiseOrDie

42. How do you find your test areas? Analytics talent, tools and instrumentation Develop a leak model Identify key loss or influence pages Session recording tools Usability testing & UCD Contact centre feedback vital Traffic * opportunity is the key Grade targets by impact, time, resource, difficulty Free evaluation for 2 people – be the first to ask me!

43. Analytics / Insight – where to test? It depends on your site... High traffic entry pages High dropout or bail pages Key value pages (credit card) High cost pages (PPC) Conversion tipping points Persuasion points Anywhere there is traffic and CTA! USE A LEAK MODEL!

44. How a leak model helps How many people continue? How many leave? How many channel switch? Tip! Dynamic site numbering! Where do they go? Are there influence pages? Any error clusters? What are my pain points?

45. Leak Model Detail

46. Pipe diagram

47. Leak surprises! Confirmation page loses 8% visitors One small change reduced this by 75% to 2% 1 page drives 60% traffic flow to phone Quote page has low switch – big test opportunity Bugs in address lookup, branch finder Forms errors contribute hugely to ‘leavers’ Losses aren’t always big – they’re just switching In most cases, over 50% of funnel ‘losses’ are switch Phone tracking!

48. Session recording Vital for optimizers Fills in a ‘missing link’ for insight Rich source of data Segment by attribute/source/behavior Can be used to optimise in real time! Tealeaf www.tealeaf.com Clicktale www.clicktale.com Clixpy www.clixpy.com

49. Usability Testing and UCD Lab based testing Remote testing tools (see resources) Eye tracking Prototype testing Low budget testing Not what they say, watch what they do Hurdles to conversion, comprehension, action Excellent for ‘black box’ forms/funnels Fills a serious gap in your knowledge

50. Performance? Huge impact on conversion and bailout Enable Google site speed – get customer KPIs Read anything by Steve Souders Read Joshua Bixby (ace!) : bit.ly/8YB3ET Use Keynote, Gomez for site monitoring Consider CDN acceleration (Akamai etc.) Who owns customer facing performance?

51. Forms and Search Analytics Ignore at your peril Forms are often seen as a ‘technical’ area What are the common errors? What errors precede abandonment? Validation improvements Form design – Luke Wroblewski Good example – Postcode Lookup CR0 1XA CRO lXA 2.5% loss due to strict validation Search analytics – Hurol Inan

52. Browser Compatibility “Anyone who slaps a ‘this page is best viewed with Browser X’ label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network.” Tim Berners-Lee My challenge to you! What browsers have problems? Who doorsteps you? The ‘Mac Users’ problem Measure entry point stats only Create a browser matrix Use a testing service, not simulators Test mobile devices too Try the ‘Checkout browser’ test

53. Where to test? High traffic, High impact areas High ‘bounce index’ landing pages Key conversion points or creatives Funnels / Forms Registration, Signup processes PPC/SEO high traffic landing Low hanging fruit first Micro testing

54. Micro testing

55. What about us? Easy wins? In priority order: Homepage Core funnel (common to all websites) High traffic landing pages (hero SEO and PPC terms) Local landing pages Influencing pages Lower traffic landing pages

57. Language differences

58. Different market conditions

59. Huge variations in traffic size

62. The Results!International Multi-Variate testing Tools & Techniques: ClicktaleGoogle AnalyticsAutonomy Optimost

63. UK Wave 2 – 21/9 to 26/10

64. +12.5%

65. +8.3%

66. +13.9%

67. +5.9%

68. What is the ROI then? +11.2%

69. Another example +1-2.5%

70. People images that suck…

71. Photo Guidelines Groups, vans, stores, corporate guff = NO Single person – not groups or even person + customer Open, Friendly, Natural, Smiling, Engaged = YES Uniform – has huge effect, even wearing branded ball cap improves conversion Look straight at viewer or slightly towards CTA Plain backgrounds only No folded arms, arms on hips, pointing, scowling, cheesy smiles, hands behind back, hanging useless by the side, clasped by groin, fiddling with hands Arms with prop instead – hold a clipboard, rag, tool – I’m working for *you* Female images work best in almost every country – they slay the guys Now we get slightly better images with the guidelines! We still got a genital framing one last week Photoshoots are now used to drive advertising strategy Video tests of potential ‘actors’ as a trial

72. Key learnings – on page elements Less is more – simplicity, comprehension, clarity in design Copy is king – not content, but key persuasive copy Large, prominent, visible, button like CTA CTA above fold, especially on landing page Do not split attention on CTA (Save, Cancel, Print, Back, Help) Use goal oriented keywords (Fix my glass!) Where is the core value proposition? Maintain a scent – PPC advert, Landing page, Funnel, Reflect the user CTA wording, headlines, copy, framing = 50%+ of uplift Think about emotional states and make use of them Use badging, testimonials, social proofing and trust symbols Run a betting game in the office – even UX experts little better than 60/40 Guidelines are good but every page and site will vary

73. Key learnings – test approach Stop testing rubbish subtleties (e.g. Button colour) Cultural factors are minimal Market and traffic composition are much larger drivers Techniques work well, regardless of market or language Huge similarities in testing, but not identical results Hub and spoke works, but only at a traffic level Faster cycles of smaller tests = better (fail faster) A fast test that fails is better than a slow test You must not test inside a bubble – keep challenging Use A/B to test radical approaches/disruptive change

74. Summary Don’t overcook tests with too many variables Don’t test things very similar (blue vs. green button?) Don’t be timid – fail faster, be bolder International tests show little cultural differences Market conditions & traffic mix are more important Biggest drivers on page = Copy, CTA and CTA copy, Images, Badging, Nav/Layout Biggest external factors = Page and site performance, Browser compatibility We are now doing up to 7M page tests per month

75. What’s the ROI like on this work? 12.4% from funnel work, 12.5% from MVT 3.5% increase in downstream conversion rate 30 seconds reduction in call time (1 sec = $20k p.a.) Faster booking time (< 8%) Greater customer delight – feedback. Less questions and worries 5.5% increase in NPS (Customer sat) score 4% increase from mobile optimised site Total increase in conversion (measured) = 32% Actual increase in conversion = 41% NO additional marketing spend needed Web Channel : ROI positive within 2 weeks

76. Cross channel optimisation Call centre optimisation Phone tracking Emergency phone switchoff Telephony MVT Chat testing Usability testing of internal apps Simple no training overspill systems Contact deflection systems and self servicing Scripting MVT Customer reminders Safelite – Technician profile and ‘on their way’ notice

77. Chat testing What happened? Ran a trial for 1 month A/B split test – very detailed One week – 17 calls avoided But swapped that for 139 chats As these were 8.25 minutes, much longer than phone No impact on conversion Assumption was big impact Customers happy, yes, but not in a productive way Like putting your customer service desk into the street You must measure phone volumes if testing chat Be very careful – prove your ROI on any pilot.

78. What’s next Segmentation, Segmentation, Segmentation E.g. - screen size work on Mobile site, iPads Better testing tools, self administered A/B More funnel optimisation, increased volumes of page tests Move from 8 tests -> 20+ tests per month International MVT – now onto landing pages #1, homepage #3 Telephony and Email MVT Hero term PPC, SEO + Local landing pages a priority Dynamic Landing Page generation – human and rules based The perfect clothes store journey

79. My advice You’re crazy if you’re not testing So easy to do A/B tests Invest in optimisation tools and talent Tools may be low cost – expertise is worth paying for Biggest ROI is high traffic landing page optimisation Funnel is good but page is quicker (weeks vs 6 mth) Work on images, copy, call-to-action, layout, hurry up messages, scarcity calls, badging, value proposition Stop thinking about testing and doing it instead Micro test, if you can’t do big stuff Start a gambling club at work – have fun!

80. EFFORT--> (Size of bubble = ROI COST -->

81. Further reading… Questions? And some reading... Email Twitter Slideshare : sullivac@gmail.com : @OptimiseOrDie : linkd.in/pvrg14 : slidesha.re/nlCDm6

82. Resources…

83. CRO and Testing resources 101 Landing page tips : slidesha.re/8OnBRh 544 Optimisation tips : bit.ly/8mkWOB 108 Optimisation tips : bit.ly/3Z6GrP 32 CRO tips : bit.ly/4BZjcW 57 CRO books : bit.ly/dDjDRJ CRO article list :bit.ly/nEUgui Smashing Mag article : bit.ly/8X2fLk

84. Feedback tools Simplest example – 4q – bail from site Deeper sampling: Light touch – micro conversion (social, newsletter) Starts key process – registration/purchase Gets to tipping point – payment page Get feedback at different funnel points Review the user session if captured Like 4Q but think of an onion

85. Onsite feedback tools Onsite feedback, always available, immediate, contextual Feedback tools: Kampyle Opinionlab Foresee Polldaddy Crowdsourcing: Uservoice Ideascale Google moderator Kampyle has excellent international support – trial in 2012.

86. Testing tools Browser testing www.browsercam.com Mobile devices www.perfectomobile.com www.deviceanywhere.com Performance testing www.keynote.com www.gomez.com New on the block strangeloopnetworks.com End browser and device discrimination!

87. Survey tools Dust off those survey tools and ask stuff: My personal rating: Surveymonkey www.surveymonkey.com Zoomerang www.zoomerang.com Surveygizmo www.surveygizmo.com

88. Remote testing, usability, feedback Userzoom www.userzoom.com Usabilla www.usabilla.com Chalkmark www.chalkmark.com Userfly www.userfly.com Silverback www.silverbackapp.com Usertesting www.usertesting.com Loop11 www.loop11.com Pidoco www.pidoco.com Uservue www.techsmith.com Ethnio www.ethnio.com Feedback army www.feedbackarmy.com Five second test www.fivesecondtest.com Mechanical turk www.mechanicalturk.com Open Hallway www.openhallway.com