Multivariate Testing Services
Testing different versions of web pages with your actual visitors in real time let’s them vote with their clicks but, how do you know what specifically drove your visitors to take action in order to produce repeatable results?
In a multivariate test there are several versions of one or more elements on a single page. Allowing you to test many changes simultaneously. The combinations of theses elements are being tested without having to increase your total sample size. An element can be anything, an image, a headline, the words on the page, a call to action button, etc. This type of test is more flexible than an A/B test because it will allow you to identify the impact of each element in the test.
For example let’s say you have 3 different headlines you thought might increase the conversion rate of the page along with 2 different images and 4 different call-to-action buttons. So you have 3 different elements in this multivariate test, the headline, the image and the call-to-action button. Your testing tool such as Google Website Optimizer would pull in each individual element to make up every combination. In this example there would be 24 different combinations or versions of this test page. 3 x 2 x 4 = 24 (3 headlines x 2 images x 4 buttons) With each different version a visitor would see only one combination of elements. This is what’s known as a full factorial test.
The advantages of a multivariate test is that it’s much more granular with different combinations of elements you can really get specific, not only with each element but also the combination of elements. The disadvantage is that it requires more traffic to achieve statistically valid results since there are more than 2 versions and it can easily get out of hand with the amount of versions as in the example we had 24 different versions of one single page.
A proper testing strategy is critical to the success of any test but more so in a multivariate test, which is include in all of our conversion rate optimization services.
Contact a conversion rate specialist to learn about what type of test is right for you.
