Recently, I spoke to a group of statisticians at the Joint Research Conference in Seattle about website testing. During the presentation, I explained the complex technology that underpins Optimize, our testing solution, but also highlighted the fact that we developed it to be used by marketers, not statisticians. It’s designed to let marketers run tests to determine which content works best on a website to increase conversions without the need to be a statistician. The discussion that followed proved what I already knew: merging complex technology with ease of use is an incredibly difficult task, but we believe that Optimize successfully does just that. Let’s walk through the below example and I can explain further:
The above images show two different versions of a website. We tested eight different combinations that included everything from the banner to the website copy to lower left image. By testing those factors, we were able to determine which combination made visitors more likely to fill out the form. With an optimal combination (on the right) producing 22.41 percent lift, it was immediately obvious that our test was a success – and that small changes were integral to providing the right customer experience and driving visitors to take action. For marketers, that information is invaluable to driving conversions.
That being said, testing can be intimidating for people who aren’t statisticians, but through research and expertise, we’ve streamlined the complex process so marketers can reap the benefits of robust data to get the results they need. Marketers must make adjustments quickly to continually better site performance. Given this challenge, we knew that it was imperative for the system to be user friendly but also have the right technology to work with large amounts of data to deliver accurate results quickly.
During the development process, our team made strategic decisions on how to provide marketers with the most robust technology possible to meet the challenges they face. Using a distributed, high-performance architecture with a Flash and HTML5-based user interface, we designed Optimize to run on complex, high-volume websites. In addition, although Optimize offers A/B and full-factorial testing methods, we developed a best-of-breed fractional factorial test methodology, which we determined to be the best methodology since it provides accurate results in a short period of time. Designs are pre-computed and stored, so marketers can choose the designs they want. They just need to decide the number of factors and levels for each of those designs.
As you can see, we’ve created a solution that caters to marketers while using the expertise of statisticians. We believe that the Webtrends team has built the most comprehensive testing platform in the market. It was recently listed as a “strong performer” in a Forrester Wave report, indicating the expertise of both our product roadmap and development team. Optimize is key in helping marketers not only understand their audience, but also make the necessary changes to increase conversions.
Have questions about some of our success stories or want to know about the technology that drives Optimize? Contact a member of our team to learn about the benefits of implementing a strong testing program with Optimize.
