Updated January 13, 2023
Reading Time: 2 minutes3 Reasons Why It Makes Good Business Sense
Sometimes you just guess wrong. Despite deep knowledge of your industry, consumer behavior zigs when you think they’ll zag. That’s why we recommend Digital Analytics Content Experiments.
This cool feature of Google Analytics lets you test out website features and goals, like sign-ups for a newsletter, downloads of a white paper, forms completed, as well as blog comments. Digital Analytics allows you to test up to five variations of a webpage to see which version converts more visitors.
Experiments are a little different than A/B testing mainly because it lets you test more than two versions of a page. You’re testing multiple components on a page.
1. Random Samples
Experiments serve up webpage versions randomly. Then it compares how those different pages perform based upon visitor behavior. You’ll net data from a cr0ss section of visitors rather than a specific segment.
2. Flexible Percentages
Performing an experiment doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing venture. You can actually define what percentage of your visitors that are included in the experiment. The GA tool will let you dip your big toe before diving in head first.
3. Objectivity
Depending upon your goal, Google Analytics lets you choose which objective you want to test. And because you can have up to 5 versions, your test can be rigorous on many levels. At the end of the experiment you’ll know which version performed best based upon actual visitor preference rather than a subjective preference.
Real Digital Analytics Example
Managing your website is truly a labor of love. Neglect it and results suffer. Sometimes we get attached to a specific design or format. We commonly see it on home page design. Too many calls to action. Confusing copy. Critical items located below the fold. Recently we conducted a Digital Analytics Experiment on a contact form. The client was resistant to making changes at first. We convinced them to conduct an experiment of shortening the form and deleting some fields. During the 14-day experiment, the new shortened form had a 85+% conversion rate. The old form… zero, zip, nada.
There are endless ways to test a website in the quest to improve online sales conversions. What web design or landing pages could you test? Digital Analytics could give you some surprising and profitable insights.