A/B testing is a crucial part of optimising your marketing strategies and improving customer experiences. Whether you are testing landing pages, email campaigns, or product features, A/B testing allows you to make data-driven decisions that lead to better results. However, even seasoned marketers can fall into common traps that can skew results or lead to misinterpretation. When using a robust platform like Soreto, it is essential to avoid these pitfalls to ensure your tests are both reliable and insightful. In this article, we will walk you through five critical errors to avoid when A/B testing with Soreto, helping you run more effective experiments and make smarter, more informed decisions for your brand.
Error 1: Not Allowing Enough Time for Your Experiment
It is essential to run your A/B Tests for at least two to three weeks to gather reliable results. Keep in mind the volume of traffic and orders your business receives- higher order volume will allow your tests to reach statistical significance faster.
The length of your purchase cycle is also a key factor. If you have a short purchase cycle and your customers are likely to make impulse buys, you will likely see quick results from a referral programme. If your purchase cycle is longer, we would recommend to A/B Test for a longer period of time, providing more time for results to appear. Referred customers tend to make a purchase quickly, and the Referrer may return to buy again soon, giving you faster insights into how your Refer-A-Friend strategy is impacting your funnel.
Error 2: Stopping After the First Test
It’s a common mistake to run a test, not see immediate results, and then conclude that referral marketing isn’t right for your customers. Many businesses make this assumption after their first test, but in our experience, it’s rarely the case.
Clients who use A/B Testing see a 4x increase in customer acquisition within just six months. And when appropriate, we see excellent results after testing for a second, third or fourth round of testing for a major performance boost.
Error 3: Avoiding Discounts
We’ve seen many clients, especially those in the luxury market, hesitate to test discounts. However, choosing not to evaluate discounts doesn’t mean you can’t test other incentives.
There are plenty of non-discount options to experiment with—free gifts, gift cards or other rewards. That said, testing is still crucial. A/B testing allows you to test small discounts or incentives without committing to a large-scale change.
While over-discounting can be risky, offering incentives for referrals is a different story. In fact, we’ve written about why referral discounting is so effective, you can read about it here.
Error 4: Reinventing the Wheel
We see businesses trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to A/B testing referral programmes. While A/B Testing is all about tailoring strategies to your brand’s unique needs, there’s no need to start from scratch each time.
We have simple Optimisation Plans for our clients to use to alter their campaign. We realise that slight changes can make a substantial difference in metrics, on average we see a 25% increase in Share Rate, CTR and Conversion Rate after A/B Testing.
Don’t hesitate to draw inspiration from proven strategies. Reviewing successful tests from other brands can help you design your own experiments and avoid common pitfalls.
Error 5: Making Decisions Based on Partial Data
Referral marketing is a funnel that spans multiple stages: your original customer, their referral activity, the friend they refer, and their eventual purchase. The entire process can involve touchpoints across email, mobile, social media, and even offline interactions.
This complexity means you need to look at the full funnel when evaluating the impact of your tests. Sometimes, a test might lead to fewer shares early in the funnel, but that drop could be offset by higher conversion rates at later stages, such as when the referred friend makes a purchase.
To make smart decisions, you need to understand the impact of changes at every step of the referral process, not just at one isolated point. Look at the data across the full funnel to see the bigger picture.
Top Tip: Test, Test, and Test Again
Launching your Refer-A-Friend campaign is just the beginning. By avoiding these common mistakes and committing to ongoing testing, you can significantly improve the performance of your referral programme over time. Many businesses see a 4x to 5x increase in referral performance in just six months.
A successful referral programme can drive a 10% to 25% boost in customer acquisition, but it takes time to perfect. The key to success is consistency. A/B testing doesn’t have to be complicated.
What to Look for When Setting Up an A/B Test for your Referral Programme:
By following these tips and avoiding common mistakes, you will be well on your way to running a successful A/B test campaign that drives meaningful results. Good luck and get referring!
If you have a campaign with us, contact your referral specialist to set up an A/B Test. If you are not already an existing client, click here to book a demo and ignite your referral marketing success!
