A/B testing in marketing is research that determines the best option for interacting with your targeted audience. This experiment reveals the best solution for interacting with your target audience, which leads them to the desired action.

The purpose of such testing is to decide which version generates more results and which one gets less. The result is determined by comparing predetermined conversions.

Now, if we talk about Split delivery, it is somewhat similar to A/B testing, but the use case of split delivery is different. Split delivery comes into play when you have two or more sets of SMS content for a single campaign and wish to send them to different subsets of total subscribers. It doesn't wait for any result and can be analyzed based on stats of the different variations.

What is the difference between A/B Testing and Split Delivery?

In the A/B test, all variations, clicks, and opens are compared within a defined time, and the one with the most is chosen automatically to send to the remaining subscribers. In contrast, with split delivery, the comparison is made manually when the campaign is sent to whole subscribers.

Unlike A/B testing, Split delivery doesn't wait for any result of the initially sent SMS. It allows you to split the total subscribers into subsets and send them the desired content.

How do A/B testing and Split Delivery work in SMS?

With the A/B method, you can test text to determine a few things, such as

• SMS length - To understand the best length of the SMS perceived by your readers?

• Marketing techniques - What marketing technique would work best with your target audience?

• Time of the day - Does the time of day affect conversions?

• Using emojis - Do emojis impact how your audience perceives SMS?

• Slang - Is it good to use slang in SMS text?

• Holidays and Weekends - Do holidays and weekends impact the activity of your audience?

• Communication style - What style of communication is good for your audience?

How To Set up A/B Testing and Split Delivery In SMS Campaigns?

1. Navigate to NotifyVisitors dashboard> Campaigns. Select SMS, given in the 'Reach Users Via' category.

2. Now, there are 4 stages to creating an SMS campaign.

3. In the Recipients stage, fill in all the details like campaign information, recipients, and tracking rules. 

4. Next, in the content stage, you get an option to create a variation for your campaign.

5. Here, we have filled in all the information regarding the sender's Mobile, Message for the original campaign.

Here we have created a variation to check which works best for us.

6. Once you have created the Variation, the A/B testing and Split delivery option will start reflecting on the same page.

For split delivery, you must determine the audience size for both variations. Here C indicates the Control version, and V1 indicates the Variation. You can adjust the audience size.

For the A/B test, you will find 3 sections -
C indicates Control Version (original version)

V indicates Variation

R indicates the remaining who will receive the winning version.

Wait Time- Wait time plays a crucial role in determining the variation performance. It helps you understand which Variation is doing better. You can select the time interval to complete the process and get the best Variation to proceed with.

Also, wait time is applicable in the case of A/B testing only. Once you have done A/B testing, the winning version will be sent automatically to the selected audience percentage.

Note: A/B Testing is not possible with Recurring Campaigns. When you create a recurring campaign, the A/B testing option will get removed, and vice versa. That means you won't be able to do A/B testing for that recurring SMS campaign.

How to determine the audience for your campaigns?

To run an A/B test for the campaigns, ensure you send them to a segmented audience based on their past behavior on your apps or website.

 How to execute the process:

1. First of all, create the variants of the campaigns.

2. Determine the campaign reach. i.e., users, you want to engage with your campaigns.

3. Choose a testing percentage of users out of the total no. of users and send the campaigns to that percentage of users in a specific ratio. We will calculate the winning Variation and send the same to the rest of the audience.

As we have seen above, how A/B testing and Split delivery can help you generate better outcomes by optimizing the campaign. Therefore, it is recommended to use these tools to understand your audience's perspective and modify your campaigns accordingly. 

How To Analyse A/B Test SMS Statistics

A/B Test SMS Analytics Stats is a great way to keep track of your SMS marketing campaigns. This valuable can help you fine-tune your marketing strategies and make sure that you're reaching your target audience. NotifyVisitors provides analytics for SMS campaigns such as total deliveries, unique clicks, revenue generated per SMS campaign, winning SMS variant in case A/B test is performed on an SMS campaign etc. To learn how to review statistics for the dispatched SMS campaigns, check out our article titled Review SMS Campaign Stats.