It’s that time again. That time when those who lay quiet for 11 months out of the year awaken and show their true competitive colors. Like the brackets behind the NCAA Tournament, your marketing tactics can use a similar approach to introduce A/B testing to make for a winning strategy.

A/B testing is a common marketing tactic that allows companies to recognize best practices for their specific campaigns, and then optimize their deployments for maximum results. High performing results can be left on throughout the remainder of your testing, while you introduce different components as you continue to develop your approach.

What you might have assumed as a clear winner in your testing could surprise you, keep an eye out for those underdogs!

There is never going to be a wrong time to start testing your strategies.  61% of marketers use A/B testing to optimize their conversation rate, you never know what could make an impact on your approach until you test it.

Things to Test in Your Strategies

In 2017 we have multiple channels that function together to create the customer journey. This integrated approach to marketing makes it even more powerful when you can begin to understand your audience. Anything that can be changed in your tactics can be tried and tested. For example, in your Facebook strategy, you can test the following factors:

Audience

Create filtered audiences on Facebook that target different job titles, interests, incomes, and other factors. The insights you can gather from what works on Facebook will be valuable when you are optimizing other channels. Learn more about who interacts with your Facebook campaigns by exploring Audience Insights.

Language

In a recent test for a client, we compared two types of language in our ads: literal descriptions that get straight to the point of what the product was all about, and verbose language that used more romantic copy. Rather than the results indicating that the brand preferred one style over the other, it ended up providing valuable insights into the differences in preferences depending on their position in the customer funnel.

Landing Page

Similar to your March Madness bracket, you should only focus on one variable at a time. Try testing one of the following components of your landing page to optimize for conversions:

• Headline
• CTA
• Images
• Copy Length
• Colors
• Testimonials

Each win you see in your testing means you are one step closer to reaching your goal conversion rate. Use your bracket as a starting point to compare one factor versus another, then continue moving as you introduce one additional factor at each step forward. The results will take the guesswork out of your marketing decisions, and remember that each little optimization and experiment can mean big improvements long-term!