The world of mobile applications is ever-expanding. With every second passing, 200 new applications are being launched on Android’s App Store. As a result, marketing is getting tougher and tougher regarding competition.
When launching an application, it is best to take a step back and thoroughly test it before making it available for the general public to download and use on their smartphones. even the slightest change that you have made in your mobile application can be a problem for your conversion rates. So it is always better to test everything on your own before launching the application.
One of the great examples of a company using A/B testing is the one done by WallMonkeys. The company was able to achieve an increase of 550% in conversion rates using the A/B testing tools. As a result, it is critical for both large corporations and small individual developers to use A/B testing before releasing their apps to the market. So they can find out the problems their app could face when it is being used by someone else.
Today, with this article’s help, we will find out different methods by which A/B testing helps companies create better app solutions and see how these testing methods differ from each other. Also, we aim to provide our readers with the benefits and things to know about A/B testing methodologies. So they know what needs to be done before and after the A/B testing, so let’s begin!
A/B Testing: What Does It Mean?
Before we move any further, let’s take pause and give a brief explanation as to what A/B testing is and why it is so helpful in the first place. A/B testing for mobile applications is the process by which a team of developers divides the audience into two or more groups. Once these groups are formed, the developer team will provide each group with the ability to download their application on their smartphones.
But one group will have a slight change or an update in the application they will download in comparison to the other group. This will provide developers with the best possible view of how the new changes deployed by them in the application are taken by the users who are using it. Along with this, the developers will have a baseline for the experience based on how the other group feels about the application with no update.
As an example
Let’s explain the above A/B testing methodology using an example. Suppose you have developed a smartphone-based video game. Now, after the launch, you want to increase the number of installs of your game. So when making a user acquisition strategy, you decided to target a male-based audience that ranges from 18 years to 24 years of age.
You can increase the number of installs by throwing lots of money into ads, but there is no sure way to find out whether your ads are going to work or not. So instead, you go with a much smaller group of people who are particularly familiar with your video game’s niche. You create two video ads and use them to find out which one does the best job and provides you with the best set of results. Video ad A gave you a 20% increase in conversion rates as it had smaller text than video ad B. Then it will make no sense for you to expose the larger group of your audience to the video ad B that did not perform well in the A/B testing.
A/B Testing Hypothesis
Before you take the A/B tests, no matter how big or small they are, you need to understand one thing. That is to create the A/B testing hypothesis before taking any tests. These hypotheses will help you improve your application in the long run, and you will get to learn a lot about user behavior towards your application. With the testing hypothesis, one gets actionable insights that will allow developers to achieve their goals.
For example, when Sony created a new ad for their new VAIO laptops, they tested out whether to use the text “Make It Personal” or “Customize Your VAIO.” With their A/B testing of ads, they were able to find out that the ads with “Customize Your VAIO” increased their Click Through Rate (CTR) by 6%, and there was a 21.3% increment in adding products to the shopping cart.
Best A/B Testing Methodology
Given below, we have presented our readers with the A/B testing methodology that will help you find the best solution for your apps. You can use this A/B testing practice to make your application work faster, make it more user-friendly, and tweak some other parts of your application that you didn’t know needed an upgrade. A/B testing has been in use for more than a decade now, and in most cases, it is performing quite well when it comes to showcasing the exact market value of an app or a website.
Perform Search
The very first thing you need to do is find what you want to test out. If you are not sure what you are looking for from the result, there is no need to perform A/B testing. Your objectives from A/B testing should be clear to you and the other people on your team. For example, with A/B testing, you might be checking the conversion rates, lead generation methods, the user interface of your application, and more.
Find out What are the Different Product Variants
You need to introduce the app variants that you will be using in the A/B testing. It is required that you know what makes each variant of your application different from the others. Also, these differences should not be let out by you to the group who are testing out your application. Create a document where you have listed specific problems that different variants are solving through the new upgrades.
In order to perform this step with utmost perfection, you need to think from the user’s point of view and what they are expecting from your application. You need to find which of the following app orientations will grab the user’s attention the most and give you the most satisfied customers in the long run.
Analyze the Test Data & Review Your Results
Mobile app A/B testing is all about testing and verifying how well the different versions of the app perform with the changes that you have installed in them. There could be tonnes of factors that you need to take into account when making the comparison between the advanced version of your app and the basic version. It could be the screen orientation, the user interface, the button layout, the sound your app makes when a user clicks on a button, the load time, and more. Apart from these, there could be other features that you can consider when performing the A/B test. But all of these factors might come as secondary for you; the main focus for you could be the tap count on the button “Install.”
When you are done with the A/B testing, you have to analyze and review these factors in order to single out the results and what makes your app stand out from the rest of the competition. There is no benefit to using A/B testing if you do not analyze the results. The difference in what users think about your apps after the test is the crucial factor in finding out whether the new changes that you have pushed in the app are beneficial for users or not.
Make Changes to your Application Based on the A/B Testing Results
Analyzing the result is one thing, but the real benefit of A/B testing is the implementation of the development you get as a result. At this stage, you will find the clear winner of your A/B testing. If it is the addition of new changes that your users like, then now is the time to push the update in your application and make the recent changes available for everyone to experience. On the other hand, if the test results show that the previous version of your app is more likable than the new one, then it will give you the lesson to start again and come up with a much better innovation that will be liked by users who have installed your app.
For example, if you did the A/B testing of your new logo and the results showed that people loved the new logo and couldn’t find anything offensive in it, Then it is time for you to upgrade the logo of your application and then push it to your live application via an update to those users who have installed your app in the first place.
One of the great examples of the implementation of A/B testing was done by Instagram when they released “Reels for Instagram.” At first, the ability to watch and make reels was only available to certain users who were located in specific regions such as Asia and South America. These regions have some of the highest numbers of TikTok viewers. Once they saw that people in those regions liked Reels, the company pushed the update in the other areas as well, and we can see how it increased the revenue of Instagram and made it more popular over time.
Prepare for Follow-Up Tests
Once you are done with the A/B testing, it doesn’t mean your app has no issues in it and will require no updates in the future. In order to meet the ever-so-changing and increasing demands of users, you need to keep on adding new things to your application. In addition to this, the constant updating and creation of new ways to attract users to your application will see a boost in conversion rates. Follow-ups are essential to know the demands of users, and working towards them will make you and your app relevant in the competitive market.
Mobile Application A/B Testing: Things to Keep in Mind
Given below are the things you should keep in mind before, during, and after performing the A/B testing of your mobile application. These will help you stay away from the pitfalls and keep on working to improve your mobile application.
1. Create a Mobile Specific A/B Testing Environment
Most developers, when creating a mobile application, don’t think about creating an exceptional A/B testing environment. They use the one that has previously been used in testing the website. They are not mindful of how diverse a mobile channel app is when we compare it with the web. As a result, they end up applying the same principles of experimentation for their mobile app experience optimization that have previously been used for testing out the website.
2. Not Following Proper Testing Methodology
Running A/B testing without having to pay close attention to some of the critical factors can quickly leave you with inaccurate results that are of no use at all. You have to run the A/B testing of mobile apps methodically to make sure your test runs are successfully completed and will have informative insights.
3. A/B Testing Without Enough Users
Well, if your app does not have a large amount of user traffic, then it is best to wait for some time or hire people to test out your application. Testing out a new update with a small group of users makes no sense, and it will not give you the results you want.
Thus, mobile A/B testing is only a viable option when you have a large enough audience that can actually see the change in your app and provide their inputs that will be reflected in the results. With the substantial number of results, you will be able to make better decisions in a short amount of time without spending too much money or the developer’s time.
Wrapping Up
Testing out your app with added updates is what mobile app A/B testing is all about, and you can do this using various tools. In the connected device age, where we live in the mobile-first era, users’ attention spans are ever decreasing. In order to stand out from your competitors, you need to offer an exceptional and distinctive app experience.
Your mobile app development strategy will be backed by actionable data if you adopt A/B testing. These metrics will outperform your app’s core metrics, such as user engagement, retention, and monetization. Our hope is that this article will help you develop a much better A/B testing roadmap for your mobile application. Are you ready to get started? Develop a compelling app and use A/B testing techniques to find the best solution for your users.
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Simran works as a technical writer. The graduate in MS Computer Science from the well known CS hub, aka Silicon Valley, is also an editor of the website. She enjoys writing about any tech topic, including programming, algorithms, cloud, data science, and AI. Traveling, sketching, and gardening are the hobbies that interest her.
