Going, an online travel company with over 50 employees, specialises in helping people save money while exploring the world. They have realised that saving money on air travel not only reduces the burden on one’s wallet but also allows people to explore wider travel possibilities. Their subscription-based model offers various plans, ranging from a free option to a premium plan priced at $16.58 per month. Going distinguishes itself by providing timely notifications to customers about flight deals from nearby airports, enabling travellers to seize affordable travel opportunities.
To enhance their understanding of potential customers and to help personalise their services, Forrest Schaffer, senior manager of growth at Going, partnered with Unbounce because the company’s conversion optimisation platform offers a landing page builder and A/B testing tool. Forrest emphasises the importance of landing pages in Going’s marketing strategy, noting that they enable the testing of different service packaging approaches. “You need to use a landing page to ultimately win customers over,” says Forrest.
The problem:
Before working with Unbounce, Going faced two primary challenges in their marketing efforts. Firstly, they were encountering scalability issues around testing. They needed to create multiple landing pages for testing various elements, but this manual process, combined with the tracking of numerous URLs, led to inefficiencies, errors, and difficulties in gathering actionable data.
Secondly, they struggled with accuracy of measurement within their testing, particularly in being able to track essential metrics through a 50-50 split using different URLs. A complex setup resulted in wasted time and compromised accuracy, hindering their ability to properly hone their marketing approach.
These challenges were impeding Forrest’s team from effectively collecting data needed to personalise their approach moving forward. Going needed a deeper understanding of their audience so that they could segment potential customers into distinct cohorts, and tailor content that genuinely resonated with each group.
The solution:
To address these challenges, Going turned to Unbounce’s no-code A/B testing tool, leveraging its capabilities to streamline testing and optimisation without the need for multiple URLs. The Unbounce platform’s next level A/B testing capabilities showed value almost immediately as they enabled Going to ensure an even number of users were seeing each variant of a landing page. They could split traffic to each version while using just one URL to avoid previous issues with mismatched sample ratios. “It relieved a lot of stress and reduced costs” says Forrest, “so it’s the go-to solution, in my opinion.”
Going also benefited from Unbounce’s professional services (Concierge) team which offers personalised assistance tailored for larger marketing teams and agencies. With the Concierge plan, Going had access to personalised support and resources from a team of CRO experts. This helped them launch, scale, and optimise their campaigns for better ROI.
Unbounce enabled the Going team to build landing pages without developers or custom code, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives instead of technical challenges.
The challenges:
Based on previous experiences, the Going team foresaw multiple challenges with implementation, especially given the scale at which they were looking to test, and the numerous integrations that were required. However, they found that many of these challenges were quickly resolved with Unbounce. For example, during the setup phase, the Going team required a conversion script to accurately transmit and track data. While they anticipated complex issues as they had experienced in the past, the script provided by Unbounce’s services team functioned effortlessly right from the start, showcasing the Concierge team’s extensive knowledge and technical expertise.
With the support of Unbounce, Going efficiently executed multiple A/B tests, testing various elements on their landing pages, such as headlines and call-to-action (CTA) buttons, all without the need to engage extensive development resources. In one particular test, Going were seeking to increase signups for their paid premium subscription. Part of their business model was to give people a taste of this enhanced subscription via a limited free trial which a portion would later subscribe to and pay for. Using the A/B testing tool, Going were able to trial two different CTAs on their homepage: “Sign up for free” and “Trial for free”. The tool facilitated efficient testing by ensuring a 50/50 split of traffic and consolidating all data on a single URL.
The result:
The results of this single A/B test were profound.
“This experiment, as small as it was, legitimately changed the way that we’re able to spend on media,” says Schaffer. “Our conversion rate through paid channels is now higher than organic for the first time ever, so this was a massive win for our company.”
By leveraging the power of A/B testing using Unbounce, Going was able to increase trial start rates by a staggering 104% month-over-month, exceeding all expectations and driving tangible business growth.
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