How to Use A/B Testing to Optimize Your Law Firm’s Social Media
When done correctly, A/B testing can be a powerful tool for improving your law firm’s social media strategy. But what is A/B testing exactly, and how can it help you strengthen your brand online? Here’s what you need to know.
What Is A/B Testing?
A/B testing (also known as split testing) means creating two versions of something, then gauging which version performs better—A or B.
For example, when A/B testing on social media, you could write two variations of the same post to see which one attracts more engagement from your followers. You can then use this insight to inform your future posts.
Why Should You A/B Test Your Law Firm’s Social Media Strategies?
A/B testing will help you understand your target audience and make it easier to optimize your efforts to reach them. General “best practices” for social media marketing aren’t always what’s best for your firm. A one-size-fits-all approach will only get you so far.
By A/B testing, you can learn what works for your specific niche and adapt your brand to capture every opportunity.
What Metrics Should You Measure While A/B Testing?
The metrics you use to gauge your A/B tests will depend on your goals. What are you hoping to achieve? You might be aiming for:
- Some text will be here
- More views for your profile or channel
- More engagement on your posts
- More click-throughs to your website or a certain landing page
- Longer watch time for your videos
- More (and better) leads
Once you know what you’re trying to do, you can decide which metrics best demonstrate your progress.
What Can You A/B Test on Social Media?
You can A/B test a wide variety of elements on social media. Let’s take a look at some of the most common examples.
Text Posts
Text posts have several variables you can A/B test, such as:
- Shorter vs. longer posts
- Post types (a quote vs. a key statistic from a linked article, for example)
- Emojis vs. plain text
- Brand voice (casual vs. professional, joking vs. serious, etc.)
- Different calls to actions
Visual Content
Visual content consistently performs better than text-only posts on every social media platform. With visual content, you could A/B test:
- Videos vs. images and text
- Graphics vs. photos
- Static images vs. animated GIFs
- Shorter videos vs. longer videos
Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to expand your reach on social media. However, some audiences don’t respond as well to them—especially if you use them excessively. To find the right solution for your audience, try A/B testing:
- Hashtags vs. no hashtags
- Different hashtags related to a certain topic
- Multiple hashtags in a single post vs. only one hashtag per post
- Hashtag placement (e.g., at the start of the post vs. at the end—or incorporated into the content itself)
Profile Features
A/B testing isn’t just for social media posts. You can also A/B test your profiles. Change one part of your profile every so often and see if it improves or hurts your metrics. You might tweak your:
- Profile image
- Banner image
- Bio/About
- Title/headline (especially on LinkedIn)
- Pinned post
Ads
Paid social media ads are perhaps the most common example of A/B testing. Every paid ad is an investment, and you want to make sure you’re getting the maximum return. Running multiple variants will reveal which approach gives you the most bang for your buck.
When setting up paid ads, consider A/B testing:
- Ad formats (e.g., single image ad vs. carousel ad)
- Ad copy
- Images, videos, or other visual content
- Headlines/titles
- Calls to action
Landing Pages
Not all social media A/B testing has to involve content on the social media platform itself. You can also A/B test different versions of any landing pages you link to from your social media profiles. This might involve setting up landing pages that are different lengths or with variations of:
- Headings and subheadings
- Images
- Copy
- Calls to action
Social Media Platforms
Rather than creating multiple versions of a post, you can also publish the same post on multiple social media platforms. Which one gets the best results?
This will tell you which types of content perform better on different platforms, making it easier to optimize your content strategy for each.
Posting Times
On social media, when you post can be just as important as what you post. While there are broad rules for the best times to post on every platform, every target demographic has its own ideal schedule.
Try posting content at different times of the day (and week) to see when your audience is most active. When patterns start to appear, adjust your posting schedule to target the peaks.
Get Expert Help with Your Social Media Marketing
Armed with these tips, you can use A/B tests to enhance your social media presence and reach your target audience. However, as with all forms of social media marketing, A/B testing takes time, effort, and plenty of trial and error.
If you’d rather let someone else do the work, we can help.
At Let America Know, we give trial attorneys across the nation the support they need to hone their social media marketing campaigns. Just contact us, and we’ll be happy to help you promote your brand, reach your target audience, and grow your law firm.
Click here to learn more about our done-for-you social media marketing program designed exclusively for trial attorneys.