Chris Goward's Blog, page 18

A/B testing during the holidays: risks and rewards

Are you considering running A/B tests this holiday season?

Testing during the holidays may seem like a good idea — after all, the spike in traffic can help complete a test quickly — but it’s important to understand how the results might be skewed.

Consumer behavior is different during the holidays: their sense of urgency is higher, or they may be more concerned with factors like delivery time than with good deals. In addition, any change you’ve made in advertising spend may bring in an audien...

Research shows secrets of the top landing page optimizers

WiderFunnel has just released a new research report showing the habits of companies that get the best landing page optimization results.

Download the Free Landing Page Optimization Research Report 2015For high traffic websites, LPOis often cited as the most profitable area to invest marketing funds. But whichmetrics should drive this type of optimization?

We tapped intoAscend2‘s database of over 50,000 U.S. and international marketing, sales and business professionals, andsurveyed respondents...

Adopt framework thinking to be a marketing optimization leader

So, the other day, my 10-year-old daughter says to me, “Daddy, why do all the books you read say ‘Leadership’ on the front? Why is that all you read about?”

“Well,” I say, “leadership is one of the topics I’m learning more about this year.”

“But, why do you need to read books about it?” she continues, “Shouldn’t you be your own kind of leader? Why do you need to copy what other people say?”

My first thought: Who has been sneaking into the house and teaching this kid to be so smart?

My second...

Kill your best-loved marketing ideas

Are you a dogmatic, zombie business leader?

Or are you willing to massacre your best-loved ideas?

I usually avoid writing about conversion optimization tactics. I know there’s a large demand for those kinds of blog posts, but I find many people misunderstand them.

No matter the pains I go through to explain that a particular tactic may work in a particular situation and your mileage may vary, inevitably I’m labeled a “carousel hater” or “orange button lover” or “A/B testing fanatic.” (Ok, tha...

11 ways to stop FOOC’ing your A/B tests

Work long enough in Conversion Optimization and you will hear this phrase:

“We tried [insert popular a/b testing tool], but there was a latency issue so we stopped testing.”

In 95% of cases, by “latency issue” they’re referring to the noticeable flicker or flash of the original version of a website before test changes are seen. It even has its own acronym: FOOC (Flash of Original Content)*. Here’s a beautiful example I created on the WiderFunnel home page:

An example of FOOC I created. This...

Goodbye, t-test: new stats models for A/B testing boost accuracy, effectiveness

The t-test has served as a workhorse for conversion optimization teams for many years — though there’s always been confusion about what the results really mean.

This statistical method that has driven A/B testing analyses has served us well, but it’s clear that the t-test is now outdated. With websites receiving and harvesting data constantly, the t-test is simply too slow and isn’t able to give teams the updated results they need to make fast business decisions.

Plus, typical t-test result...

The psychological persuasiveness of Aylan Kurdi’s tragic story

The world didn’t make much sense to me as a young boy.

I remember sitting in my grandparents’ backyard on Fraser Street in Vancouver one summer day. I was probably seven or eight years old. Wondering why people were asking others for money to support research for cancer, or kidney disease, or tapeworms, or whatever.

It didn’t make sense.

If a thousand people become ill and die from Disease A and ten thousand are affected by Disease B, shouldn’t the money and effort distribution be based on...

Ask your questions here for the optimization Ask Me Anything

Do you have a question about conversion or experience optimization?

This week, for the first time ever, WiderFunnel’s entire optimization team will answer your questions on this ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) thread. You have access to the most experienced conversion optimization and A/B testing team on the planet.

So, what do you want to know? Add your comment at the bottom of this post, to ask us anything about:

conversion optimization experience optimization landing page design lead generatio...

Design your A/B Tests to get consistently better results

Conversion Optimization using A/B testing has become standard practice at virtually every high-traffic online business today. But, not every company is achieving the best results. Most are far from reaching the 8-times ROI that the average WiderFunnel client experiences.

So, why do some companies get great A/B test results while others end up disappointed?

If your results are disappointing, it may not only be what you are testing – it is definitely how you are testing. While there are several...

Design your tests to get consistently better results

Conversion Optimization using A/B testing has become standard practice at virtually every high-traffic online business today. But, not every company is achieving the best results. Most are far from reaching the 8-times ROI that the average WiderFunnel client experiences.

So, why do some companies get great A/B test results while others end up disappointed?

If your results are disappointing, it may not only be what you are testing – it is definitely how you are testing. While there are several f...