A/B Testing With Unbounce and Mailchimp
Unbounce (The DIY Landing Page Platform) let's you easily and quickly build, publish and A/B test landing pages without the need to have extensive programming knowledge. Let look at how to create your landing pages, set up your A/B variants and integrate your leads directly into Mailchimp.
What you'll need:
- A Website
- An Unbounce account
- A Mailchimp account (optional, for lead integration)
- Control over your Website DNS settings
- A little patience :)
Wait! What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing, also known as "split" testing, is a way to test changes to your page against the current design and determine which ones produce positive results. By testing your changes before implementing them you get quantitative answers about what modifications create positive results. By constantly testing and optimizing your page you can increase revenue, donations, leads, sign-ups, downloads, or whatever else your goal may be.
It is recommended that you keep the differences between your pages minimal so you can identify the impact of each change. For example, if you change the colour of your ads in mid-December, it'll be difficult to tell whether an increase in clicks is due to the new colours, a new relevant ad campaign, or simply users shopping for Christmas.
Getting Started
Unbounce DNS
Once you have created your Unbounce account, its time to get your DNS set up to work with Unbounce (full instructions here).
- Log into your DNS control panel and create a CNAME for unbounce to use. For example mypage.yourdomain.com.
- Point the CNAME to unbounce.com.
- Log into your Unbounce account and click the Domains button in the left menu.
- Follow on-page instructions to add your domain
Create a Page
Now it's time to create your first page(s). From the left menu choose Pages and then click the Create a New Page button. From here you may select from one of Unbounce's many prebuilt template (which look great by the way) or you can build your own page from scratch. Many of the prebuild templates are highly stylish and follow landing page best practices.
The first page you create will be known as your Champion Variant (more information about page variants). Once your page is designed and your happy with it, you can now create additional page variants. Finish creating your pages and save your changes
Integrate With Mailchimp (optional)
If your Unbounce pages contain a form, you can integrate that form with Mailchimp for future correspondence with that lead. Mailchimp can be configured to send our autoresponders to that lead ensuring timely and regular communications.
Generate An API Key
From with your Mailchimp control panel, go to Account, and then click on API Keys and Authorized Apps. If you have already create an API key in the past you can continue using it. If this is not the case, simply click the Add A Key button. Copy the API key to your clipboard.
Enable Mailchimp in Unbounce
Back to your Unbounce control panel. Navigate to the Pages section and click on your newly created page. In the right hand sidebar, you'll see the different services you can integrate your page with.
- Click on Mailchimp
- Enter your API key
- Unbounce will begin communications with Mailchimp at this point
- When complete, click the Configure Field Mapping button. It is important to correctly map your Unbounce from fields to those you have set up in Mailchimp.
Set Up Your Autoresponders
By setting up autoresponders, your new leads with, at intervals of your choosing, receive communications from you about the services and/or product they signed up for. Learn how to set up autoresponders here.
Do You Use Landing Pages?
We are now set up to build landing pages on-the-fly for all sorts of our clients' campaigns including pay-per-click, email marketing, social media marketing and more.
Do you use custom landing pages for your business? If you do, have they been effective? Please feel free to leave your comments below!