Multivariate Testing

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What is Website Multivariate Testing?

Multivariate Testing Definition:

Multivariate testing is a statistical experimentation approach in marketing that evaluates multiple combinations of creative elements at once within the promo material or website to maximize a metric like conversions, sign-ups, click-throughs, etc. A variety of creative variables are tested at once and the multivariate experiment will determine which combination of variables delivers the best results among the tested group. This differs from A/B testing, where a single variation is tested alongside the original.

What Are the Benefits of Multivariate Testing?

Multivariate testing offers several benefits in the context of conversion rate optimization:

  1. Improved UX: Multivariate testing allows marketers to test and optimize various elements on a website or landing page, resulting in an improved user experience by reducing friction points. This can lead to increased engagement and a higher likelihood of users moving down the path to conversion and retention

  2. Data-Driven Decisions: Multivariate testing provides marketers with valuable data and insights about what works and what doesn't work on their website. When running experiments on your site, both the positive and negative insights can be useful to document! Multivariate testing helps marketing teams make informed decisions about how to optimize their marketing assets for maximum impact.

  3. Increased Conversion Rates: By testing and optimizing various elements on a website, multivariate testing can lead to increased conversion rates by finding the best “mix” of creative variables. i.e. is your best performing CTA button blue with text reading “Start Now” or green with text reading “Get Started”.

  4. Better Budget Allocation: By identifying the most effective elements of a campaign, multivariate testing helps marketers focus their efforts and resources in the right direction by maximizing the value of their ad spend or website / landing page. This leads to a more efficient use of resources and a better return on investment within the marketing programs using multivariate testing.

  5. Faster Optimization: Multivariate testing allows marketers to test multiple elements simultaneously, resulting in faster optimization when compared to standard A/B testing methods.

Overall, multivariate testing is an effective tool for marketers looking to optimize their website and improve conversion rates. By providing data-driven insights and helping marketers make informed decisions, multivariate testing can help maximize the impact of marketing campaigns.

When Should I Use Multivariate Testing?

While multivariate testing might sound like a go-to for marketers, it’s important to understand that multivariate testing requires a very high population size or traffic level to reach statistical significance. This is because you are isolating multiple variables at once in the experiment and reducing the exposure to any given variant and audience cohort.

Most web owners and marketers simply don’t have enough an audience size to pull off multivariate testing on a regular basis, which is why traditional A/B testing is still the most common experimentation approach in conversion rate optimization.

Need Help with Your CRO Strategy?

We can help. Surf CRO specializes in marketing analytics and conversion rate optimization services, including research, hypothesis development, and set-up of a/b tests. Let’s get to work!

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Steven Howsley

Steven Howsley is a marketing analytics and conversion rate optimization specialist and owner of Surf CRO.

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