What is a Control Group?

In order to conduct a scientific test, you need an experimental group and a control group.

In this type of experiment, the control group is used to eliminate variables except for the impact of the independent variable in the treatment. The control group does not receive the tested subject, instead, they serve as a reference point to be compared with the new results.

How are control groups used in A/B testing?

Website A/B/n tests are used to test variations of an experience among a website’s traffic. In these cases, researchers can quickly discover which variation drove the best results and determine which other drivers it is up against.

To measure whether any change at all is better than the status quo, it is required to measure the performance of no-change in the experience, and hence setting up a control group is required.

The control group contains visitors that the researchers will not be offering any material adjustment. The experiment’s goal is to determine whether or not their needs differ from the original and, if so, which change performs best.