Multivariate landing page optimization (MVLPO) is a specific form of

landing page optimization In online marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a "lead capture page", "single property page", "static page", "squeeze page" or a "destination page", is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized s ...

where multiple variations of visual elements (e.g., graphics, text) on a webpage are evaluated. For example, a given page may have ''k'' choices for the title, ''m'' choices for the featured image or graphic, and ''n'' choices for the company logo. This example yields ''k×m×n'' landing page configurations. The first application of an experimental design for MVLPO was performed by Moskowitz Jacobs Inc. in 1998 as a simulation/demonstration project for

LEGO Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlockin ...

. MVLPO did not become a mainstream approach until 2003 or 2004. Multivariate landing page optimization can be executed in a live (production) environment, or through simulations and

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Ma ...

surveys.

Overview

Multivariate landing page optimization is based on

experimental design The design of experiments (DOE, DOX, or experimental design) is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. The term is generally associ ...

(e.g.,

discrete choice In economics, discrete choice models, or qualitative choice models, describe, explain, and predict choices between two or more discrete alternatives, such as entering or not entering the labor market, or choosing between modes of transport. Su ...

conjoint analysis Conjoint analysis is a survey-based statistical technique used in market research that helps determine how people value different attributes (feature, function, benefits) that make up an individual product or service. The objective of conjoint an ...

Taguchi methods Taguchi methods ( ja, タグチメソッド) are statistical methods, sometimes called robust design methods, developed by Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured goods, and more recently also applied to engineering, biotechnology, ...

, IDDEA, etc.), which tests a structured combination of webpage elements. Some vendors (e.g., Memetrics.com) use a "full factorial" approach, which tests all possible combinations of elements. This approach requires a smaller sample size—typically, many thousands—than traditional fractional Taguchi designs to achieve

statistical significance In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the p ...

. This quality is one reason that

choice modeling Choice modelling attempts to model the decision process of an individual or segment via revealed preferences or stated preferences made in a particular context or contexts. Typically, it attempts to use discrete choices (A over B; B over A, B & C) i ...

won the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

in 2000. Fractional designs typically used in simulation environments require the testing of small subsets of possible combinations, and have a higher

margin of error The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of a census of the en ...

. Some critics of the approach question the possible interactions between the elements of the webpages, and the inability of most fractional designs to address this issue. To resolve the limitations of fractional designs, an advanced simulation method based on the

Rule Developing Experimentation Rule-developing experimentation or RDE is a systematized solution-oriented business process of experimentation that designs, tests, and modifies alternative ideas, packages, products, or services in a disciplined way using experimental design, so t ...

(RDE) paradigm was introduced. RDE creates individual models for each respondent, discovers any and all

synergies Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. The term ''synergy'' comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία ' from ', , meaning "working together". History In Christi ...

and suppressions among the elements, uncovers attitudinal segmentation, and allows for databasing across tests and over time.

Live environment execution

In live environment MVLPO execution, a special tool makes dynamic changes to a page so that visitors are directed to different executions of landing pages created according to an experimental design. The system keeps track of the visitors and their behavior—including their

conversion rate In electronic commerce, conversion marketing is marketing with the intention of increasing ''conversions—''that is, site visitors who are paying customers. Measures Conversion marketing attempts to solve low online conversions through optimi ...

, time spent on the page, etc. Once sufficient data has accumulated, the system estimates the impact of individual components on the target measurement (e.g., conversion rate). Live environment execution has the following advantages: * Capable of testing the effect of variations as a real-life experience * Generally transparent to visitors * Relatively simple and inexpensive to execute Live environment execution has the following disadvantages: * High cost * Increased complexity involved in modifying a production-level website * Long period of time required to achieve statistically reliable data. This situation is due to variations in the amount of traffic that generates the data necessary for a decision. * Likely inappropriate for low-traffic, high-importance websites when the site administrators do not want to lose any potential customers

Simulation (survey) execution

In simulation (survey) MVLPO execution, the foundation consists of advanced

techniques. In the research phase, the respondents are directed to a survey that presents them with a set of experimentally designed combinations of a landing page. The respondents rate each version based on some factor (e.g., purchase intent). At the end of the research phase,

regression analysis In statistical modeling, regression analysis is a set of statistical processes for estimating the relationships between a dependent variable (often called the 'outcome' or 'response' variable, or a 'label' in machine learning parlance) and one ...

models are created either for individual pages or for the entire panel of pages. The outcome relates the presence or absence of page elements on the different landing page executions to the respondents’ ratings. These results can be used to synthesize new landing pages as combinations of the top-scoring elements optimized for subgroups or

market segments In marketing, market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as ''segments'') based on some type of shared charact ...

, with or without interactions.Alex Gofman, Howard Moskowitz, and Tonis Mets. 2009. Integrating Science into Web Design: Consumer Driven Website Optimization. The Journal of Consumer Marketing, 26(4): 286-298. {{doi, 10.1108/07363760910965882. Simulation execution has the following advantages: * Faster and easier to prepare and execute in many cases, as compared to live environment execution * Applicable to low-traffic websites * Capable of producing more robust and rich data because of increased control over the page design Simulation execution has the following disadvantages: * Possible bias because of a simulated environment rather than a live environment. * Necessity to recruit and optionally incentivize the respondents

References

Search engine optimization Market research