Every online marketer loves a good A/B test. It’s almost fun to tweak a call to action, video, or a chunk of copy and meticulously study the results. 

The keyword that we always throw around is “optimize.” You want to optimize your traffic, your open rates, your clicks, and your purchases.

So, think about standing in a retail store for a moment. When you’re in the aisle, the packaging draws you in, the copy on the box starts the sale, but what do you glance at next? If you guessed the price, you’d be right.

We use pricing as a major factor in almost every purchase. Even if the pricing is relatively negligible, we’re wired to want the best bang for our buck. So, if you’re spending all this time A/B testing every element of your website, don’t you think you should do the same with your pricing?

It sounds a little unethical, but when performed carefully, you can get some fantastic insights into your pricing schemes and how to set them to maximize profits.

1. Get a More Precise Price-Demand Curve

In economics, we learned about the price-demand curve. Basically, if you set your price too low, you won’t have any profits; but if you price it too high, no one will buy it. You’re looking for that sweet spot where you can make the most money per item sold without cutting into your demand. A/B testing your pricing can be a great way of determining this.

2. You Could Find More Profitable Add-Ons

One of the biggest concerns with A/B testing your pricing is, “What if the customer finds out?” It could be bad if they view your site on a different browser and see radically different pricing. 

Luckily, there’s an easy way around this. Instead of merely slapping a different price onto your product, try adding a small addition to the one that is slightly more expensive. So, for example, if you sell an online course, maybe add a bonus video on the variation price point. This allows you to test the prices, keeps customers from feeling deceived, and can let you test out some new offerings.

3. You’ll Know if Your Pricing is Causing Hesitation

After testing your sales page time and time again, you think that the page is performing optimally. But what if your pricing causes a kink in the funnel? With every other aspect tested, it only makes sense to test the pricing, too.

With A/B testing software like Tasty, you can even go beyond simple analytics and watch user reactions through recordings and heatmaps.  This allows you to see subtly in the test, like if their cursor hesitates on the pages with higher pricing or if they’re quick to click when it’s less expensive. The ability to go beyond numerical metrics is an incredibly insightful feature, just remember to figure them into your A/B test plans.

4. Insight Builds Better Pricing Structures

Especially if you sell packages or subscriptions, A/B testing pricing can help you understand if your offerings are appealing. Some companies choose to A/B test entirely restructured packages. While this can help you better understand your clients, it is also important to proceed with caution. In these types of instances, it’s better to run page A for a while, then separately run page B, so no one accidentally gets both pricing pages.

5. Google Encourages it, so Your SEO is Safe

Google not only recognizes that A/B testing is a part of digital marketing life, they openly encourage it. Some marketers may be afraid of changing up their sales page too much, out of fear of losing their Google rank. Well, fear not. They’re cool with it. In fact, Google AdWords has a built-in A/B testing feature that is worth a try.

So, if you want the final piece of your sales insights puzzle, give pricing A/B testing a try. 

To get started, you’ll want to first think about your company’s sales goals. What are you trying to achieve with this test? Then, define your hypothesis. Ask yourself, “If [variable] then [result] due to [rationale].” Finally, sit down and think about what you think the outcome will be. 

It’s important to spend some time planning before you launch into any A/B test, not just pricing. In the end, A/B testing is a scientific experiment. Any test that you see as conclusive should be repeatable with similar results.

So, with a scientific mind and a business outlook, get out there and test your pricing schema. You could be well on the path to discovering the ideal pricing you never thought was possible.

Or, you could just find that your pricing was spot-on—but at least now you know.