I’m a huge fan of companies and websites that use A/B and MVT (Multi-Variate Testing). It’s a great way to learn more about your customers, and a critical part of conversion optimization.
One tool I always recommend using is Google Website Optimizer – it’s 100% free and fairly robust. However, I would never recommend using the tool by itself without integrating it with some sort of Web Analytics tool. Why?
GWO Reporting is fairly basic – it lists your versions, conversion rates, and total goal completions. While this is very important information it may in itself not be actionable.
Consider this – what if your goal completion is an eCommerce purchase. At first glance, this reporting might suggest that a specific version is winning. However, what if a certain version caused fewer purchases, but higher value purchases. In other words, what if a specific version generated more revenue but less overall sales?
A question like this can never be answered with the standard Google Website Optimizer reporting, but if you pass data into your analytics tool of choice, your analysis options explode and your potential insights significantly more actionable.
Below is the standard GWO Reporting:
The below screen shows an example MVT test passed into GA.
Look at all the yummy data available now:
• Multiple Goals Counts (Up to 20 in GA)
• Multiple Conversion Rates
• Engagement Metrics – Pages per Visit, Time on Site, Bounce Rates
• Total Revenue Generated
• Total Transactions
• Average Order Value
• Ecommerce Conversion Rate
That’s just in one report. Given the segmentation features you can even identify click paths, conversion funnels, keywords, campaigns and repeat visits by variation.
Which one would you choose?