New Feature Alert! Start A/B Testing Your Videos in Wistia

We’re super passionate about creating tools that can help you overcome video marketing challenges, and that’s why we’re pumped to announce the release of A/B testing — available on the Wistia Advanced Plan. You can now test any two videos in your account, or any element of your videos (not just their thumbnails), to see which one resonates most with your audience.

As video marketers, you know that creating a video, embedding it on your website, and crossing your fingers isn’t always the best or most effective marketing strategy. But, how do you know which videos are actually working for your business?

Good news! You can rely on more than a hunch thanks to A/B testing — a definitive, data-driven method for answering this question. When you A/B test your videos, you’re able to compare two videos at once to determine which is best at driving conversions and engagement. Our hope is that this new functionality will help you make more informed decisions, and also make it easier to experiment with your videos!

How it works behind-the-scenes

With our new A/B testing feature, you can easily test any aspect of your video, like player color, button copy, email gates, video thumbnails, and even variations of the video content itself!

Sounds cool, but how does it all work? Well, after selecting two videos in your account and starting your A/B test, Wistia will generate an embed code for you to copy and paste onto your website. This A/B test embed will randomly show viewers one of the two videos selected. Viewers will continue to see the same version on subsequent views of the page while the test is in progress.

While the test is in progress, you’ll be able to see a side-by-side comparison of the videos’ performance, thanks to the help of our super-powerful analytics. Once your A/B test has accumulated enough data, you’ll select which video performed best, and that video will automatically show for all views going forward — no need to replace the embed! Better yet, completed A/B Tests will be archived, so you’ll be able to review your stats and outcomes in the future.

“Test any aspect of the video like player color, button copy, email gates, video thumbnails, and even variations of the video content itself!”

Ideas for your experiments

Here at Wistia, our marketing team has been experimenting with this new A/B testing feature on some of our own videos, and all that testing has really helped us learn even more about video performance. So far, our favorite things to test are:

Engagement

• Which video gets played longer — a 30-second cut or a 1-minute cut?
• What type of video best captures viewers’ attention — one that has a humorous or serious tone?

Play Rate

• Which video thumbnail gets clicked more — one with a screenshot of the product or one with a face of a Wistian? Or what about one with a looping video and text overlay or one without?

Lead Generation

• Does placing a Turnstile at the beginning or end of a video bring in more leads?
• Do Annotation links receive more clicks when they’re displayed throughout the video or just at one point in time?
• Will changing the color or size of our CTA button affect the Action rate?

Whether you’re a content marketer focused on showcasing your brand, or a funnel marketer focused on driving conversions, A/B testing is an essential tool for driving success. Now, if you’re looking for some high-impact videos that could really benefit from an A/B test, we recommend examining the following:

• Your site’s homepage video: Your homepage is the star of your website’s show and is likely your page with the heaviest traffic. This offers a great opportunity to test different elements of your video and see what causes higher play rates and engagement.
• Videos with an important CTA: Looking for viewers to sign up for an event, or subscribe to your mailing list? Test out the point in the video where you place your Turnstile to see which location drives a higher Action-rate.
• Videos with low engagement rates: Test different elements of your video to find out why your content isn’t performing. Thanks to the A/B testing feature, you can get as granular as you’d like to see how to best engage your audience!

Getting started with A/B testing in Wistia

If you’ve never tried A/B testing before, don’t sweat it! We’ve got some helpful posts on the blog that you can check out to further explore everything from why you should be A/B testing in the first place, to getting comfortable with iteration.

Ready to get started today? If you’re on the Advanced plan, just jump into your Wistia account and follow these simple steps:

1. Head to the Stats menu and select A/B tests
2. Click Create Test
3. Choose two videos from your account to test
4. Wistia will automatically generate an embed code
5. Paste the embed code onto your site
6. Wistia will randomly display one of the two videos with a 50/50 split to your viewers
7. Get side-by-side comparisons of metrics like Unique Views, Play Rate, Play Count, Engagement and Actions
8. Choose a winning video, and (like magic!) the winner will automatically show to all viewers going forward

Put your videos to the test

There you have it, folks! Our brand new A/B testing feature in a nutshell. We’re super excited about this new feature and believe it will provide a ton of value to our customers, helping them refine, tweak, and better understand what makes their viewer’s tick.

If you’re on the Advanced Plan, you can start your first test right now by following the steps we outlined above. We’ll be testing our videos right there with you, and look forward to hearing all about your successes and lessons learned from running these tests! If you’re a Free or Pro user, and want to learn more, click here. Happy testing!