Implementing a website cookie banner, or consent management platform (CMP), is standard to most marketing and privacy operations today. According to recent global data privacy regulations, you have to make it clear to website visitors what technology you’re using to track them. You also have to provide a way for them to opt in or out of consent for these actions.
Privacy requirements along with consumer expectations provide an opportunity for companies to build trust with customers from the get-go using a consent management platform. This makes it even more important that your CMP resonates with your audience.
After all, every time a user abandons your website or mobile app without providing consent, it’s reflected in your opt-ins which can lead to a decrease in personalization, revenue and overall marketing KPIs.
Finding an A/B testing solution for optimizing the user experience, delivering personalized campaigns, and maximizing consent rates — all while respecting users’ privacy is a huge benefit.
When you use A/B testing on your cookie banner to optimize user privacy, personalize, and maximize consent, you’ll see that your marketing goals and compliance with data regulations don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Setting up your A/B testing
The goal with A/B testing your consent banners is to find the layout, amount of text, and placement on the website page that best converts your audience. The first step when setting up your A/B testing is to create variations.
Items to customize on a cookie banner include:
- Text and background colors
- CTA button colors, fonts, text, and placement in the cookie banner
- Banner placement on the page
Out-of-the-box templates can be a game-changer when running tests on your cookie banners. Instead of manually creating each variation from scratch, you can use these templates as a shortcut. Just remember to keep your variations within your jurisdiction’s guidelines.
Leverage interactive dashboards where you can visually monitor the consent rates for each of the A/B testing options. After the first round of testing, narrow the field to the top performing interactions. Run an additional round of testing to see which of these options performs the highest in terms of consent rates.
Iterate and improve based on A/B testing results
Once the testing is complete, reconfigure your cookie banner to replicate the winning variation to increase consent rates and continue the upward trend.
DHL recently partnered with OneTrust to run A/B testing on their website. The global market leader in logistics found through A/B testing that a left-justified cookie banner with full text display earned them the most opt-ins with website visitors. After implementing this change for all website visitors, DHL saw an incredible 40% opt-in rate increase.
You too can see these kinds of results by implementing A/B testing. To maximize opt-ins even more, make sure to follow consent rate optimization best practices.
A/B testing can seem like a one-time tactic. It’s the perfect marriage of marketing and data protection regulations. But like all relationships, it takes continuous work and iterations to make it a long-term success.
Run A/B tests consistently throughout the year. Your customers and how they react to your cookie banner will change. Regulators may also update existing guidance and release new data protection regulations.
You’ll want to make sure you’re iterating to keep up with new regulatory requirements and user experience changes.
Conclusion: improve ROI with A/B testing
Keeping in line with data protection regulations and advancing your marketing efforts don’t have to stand in opposition to each other. A/B testing your cookie consent banners maximizes your ROI and improves user experience, while maintaining user privacy and compliance.
A/B testing also offers marketers insights into customer preferences they can’t get anywhere else. Even small adjustments in text placement or size can improve opt-in rates significantly.
Gaining consent then opens up the door to all kinds of possibilities.
It’s all possible with a Consent Management Platform (CMP). This system is designed to handle every aspect of capturing, managing and optimizing consent rates.
