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The Varieties Of Split Testing Software Experience

Split testing works. Use it well, and you will improve your conversion rates, and, thus, your profits. And, if you are advertising, or have significant product costs, raising your conversion rate just a little can raise your profits a lot. But there are many different kinds of split testing software out there.

There are many differences among the split testing software options on the market today. Let me give you a brief taxonomy of the subject matter.

The first main division is between simple split testing (single variable) and multivariate testing.

Simple split testing is easy. You're just "trying stuff" one thing at a time. You want to try a different headline? Split test it. When that test finishes, you want to "try" something else? Split test that. You can test one alternative version or many. As long as it's a single element of your page you're testing, that's simple split testing. All you need is a tool that rotates the different versions of the headline (or whatever) on your page, and keeps track of which one produces the most sales.

Google offers a single variable split testing tool, but you have to have an Adwords account to use it.

With multivariate testing, you can test many factors at the same time on your page. So, instead of just testing your headline, you can test your headline, your offer, the P.S. statement, and your lead image all at the same time. And with multivariate testing, if it's set up right, you can use the same amount of traffic testing many variables that you would use to test a single variable.

Among multiple variable software solutions, there are hosted plans and self-install plans. If you want to install software on your server (which can be faster and cheaper) you will have more control over your data. And you can usually find someone to install it for you (often the vendor provides this service for a nominal fee). If you want to go with a hosted plan expect to pay more.

Google Website Optimizer is a hosted plan. But it requires you to have an Adwords account and an analytics account. There is also a reporting delay. Other hosted plans include SiteSpect, and Offermatica. The Split Test Accelerator an MuVar are installed solutions.

Taguchi testing is only one kind of multivariate testing. There are also "full factorial" tools, and random independent rotators. When you run a Taguchi test, you run only a small fraction of the possible combinations of your factor levels. You might, for instance, run only 18 pages to test 4374 combinations. This is made possible by orthongonal arrays. This allows you to find the best combination with out running through all of them. You do have to be careful about your factors interacting negatively with each other, but if you take care as you design your test, you can avoid the bulk of the problem with these. The Split Test Accelerator, Vertster, and Kaizentrack are Taguchi testing tools.

Full factorial tools allow you to cycle through all the combinations for your factors. So if you have 3 headlines, 3 offers, 3 P.S. statements, and 3 images you're testing, you will cycle through 81 pages. One advantage of full factorial testing is that you don't have to worry as much about interaction effects. Good and bad interactions should show up in the data. However, if you want to receive this advantage, you have to run many times the traffic through your test as you would with a Taguchi test. You also can't run as many combinations. Google's website optimizer is a full factorial tool.

The Taguchi and full factorial tools both use arrays to maintain a relationship between the options being served for one factor, and the options being served for another. Some split testers don't do this, though. They simply treat each factor as independent from the other factors. This leads to more flexible test designs, but also to longer and less accurate tests.

Now that's just the overview. There are many other features to compare and questions to ask. Does a tester allow you to exclude bots and spiders? Does it allow real time access to data? What kind of reports does it show? What kind of information does it track for each visitor, and is the visitor-level data available for viewing. Etc.