Split Testing Tips

Some days my inbox gets flooded with cool updates from one of the two “google group split testing masterminds” that I am in.

Each group has about 10 mega-successful internet marketers in it (from all different types of industries) and we share split-testing data.

You might go weeks without hearing from anyone, and then suddenly, BOOM, the emails will start flying fast and furious because of something like this…a new PRO Level Split test.

Aside from the conclusion at the bottom, there are a lot of lessons to be learned looking at all of the numbers and the seriousness by which these guys take the split testing.

The Professional Approach to Split Testing & Affiliate Support

“Hey guys, I just ran a pricing split test:

$7.00 vs $7.99

and $7.99 won!

$7.00  = 272 sales, $1319 rev.
$7.99  = 265 sales, $1472 rev.

So basically same amount of sales, but $1 more per sale.

I’m testing $7.99 vs $9.00 now to see how that works out.

On the upsell flow, I’m more than doubling the initial customer value.

For $2800 in front end revenue, we have $3500 in upsell revenue, which I’m very happy with, as I thought it would be hard to double front end revenue with such a low price point.

Once I get this all fine tuned and email creatives tested, I’ll let you guys know about affiliate opportunities on this.

I’ll be doing very high payouts, such as 90% comms across the board, even on higher priced upsells.  Plus, my plan is to do a 30-day Autoresponder sequence with nothing but more offers for my products so that you can get back-end commissions as well.  And zero outside affiliate offers for at least 30 days.

48 hours later…Just to update on all these split tests:

So, 7.99 beat 7.00

Then, 9.00 beat 7.99

Then, oddly enough, 9.95 lost to 9.00 (by 20%)

Now, testing 9.50 vs 9.00 and 9.50 is winning.

Question from another Smart Dude in the group:

“Out of curiosity, how many sales did you split test $9.95 to $9.00? I’d also like to see you run the same exact test on another mailing to your list later.  It would be interesting data. We’ve seen identical tests, run to identical traffic (same list), perform completely different over 500 sale tests (one won one time and the other one the next time). Just had this happen again last week in fact.”

Reply from the Original Split Tester

We’re running 9.00 vs 9.50 right now… after 100 sales, 9.50 was up slightly, but now after 320 sales, 9.00 is crushing 9.50 by 18%.  Weird, because it’s only 50 cents more.  Maybe 9.50 and 9.95 just seem too much like 10, whereas 9.00 is mentally single digits.

The 9.00 vs 9.95 split test was somewhere around 300 sales I believe.  Considering that 9.95 was losing by 20%, there was no point running it any further… I couldn’t imagine it ever catching up.

BOTTOM LINE: One thing I learned from these tests was that $9.00 can easily do the same volume of sales as $7.00, and still get $2 more per sale.

*****

So that’s how the pro’s think about split-testing and creating back-end offers.

Hopefully I’ll have some split test data of my own to share in-person this  September at the next 7-Figure Mastermind in Las Vegas.

Pumped for San Diego this weekend,

Craig Ballantyne

“You must have the ability to turn on a dime when confronted with the evidence.” – Jim Chanos