The Founder of Split Hero: The Simplest A/B Testing Platform for WordPress Adam Lacey

hi everybody John here from in kamesh

comm and today I have a special guest

with me here on the YouTube channel on

Facebook elaborate where wherever you're

listening to this content and so just a

quick background here you know that I'm

all about data-driven marketing you know

if you can't put a number to it if you

can't analyze understand what you're

doing you're just throwing spaghetti

against the wall and my friend here Adam

lacy he is the founder and one of the

main ideas and brains behind a new

software coming out called split hero

which I'll let him introduce to you guys

but essentially this is one of the

things that so many markers have been

waiting for and praying for word to come

to WordPress and I'm just so kind of

excited and honored to have him here on

the channel so Adam thank you for

joining us today hey John I think about

me I really appreciate it and so yeah my

name's Adam I'm the founder of split

hero we launched early 2019

and we are a be split testing platform

for WordPress fantastic now that makes a

ton of sense to me but there's some out

there that might not even know what an

a/b split test is so can you explain

just the 30,000 foot view of what that

is and kind of why it's important yeah

for sure so a be testing or you know

there's a people versions but no maybe

testing or split testing is the common

ones so it's basically having a more

than one version of a page so you have

your standard page which we don't we

could put all the control page and then

you have a variation and basically it's

comparing those to your audience and

seeing which one your audience prefers

which leads more conversions for your

business or that's emails to announce

you know inquiries anything like that

so really it's comparing two variations

of something and seeing which one

performs better that's awesome and like

I said I've done split testing anything

that I want to test I want to make sure

I get the most out of it so that's one

of those fundamental habits that I think

is important for marketers to take on

however it can be really complicated to

do a split test I know there's tools out

there you can run them but you know I

think I'm a pretty bright guy but

sometimes I'll be kind of crossing my

my thing yours like I hope I said

everything up so is there a problem in

the market right now with how like that

landscape was split testing with

WordPress and where do you kind of come

in where does the hero fit in that

puzzle yeah for sure so for me I was you

know I was exactly like you I've done it

I've used Google rocks and ice which is

free which you know this great being

free on the flip flip flip so that it's

really complex to set up and there's a

lot of fiddly bits to do by supposed to

there's some really really great

software out there bases are very

expensive as well so you kind of have

the free option which is really complex

or you go the expensive option which can

still be complex so there's nothing

we're really in the middle allows that

whole point of going to be here I

wouldn't think it'd be dead easy to use

and dead quick as well because times

money you don't want to spend like half

a day saying campaign you want to get it

set up and just be done with it

and that's what we're all about

fantastic now why did you choose

WordPress as the place to kind of launch

split here because I know that you know

there are the clickfunnels out there and

other software as a service that have

kind of functionality built in why did

you pick the WordPress user base as the

place to launch your product yeah sure I

mean WordPress is obviously as we we'll

know massive now is trying to get bigger

and bigger and the biggest issue has

always been some of these more advanced

things like split testing is obviously

just not building there's some plugins

that do it kind of but I've been a

wordpress agency for about seven years

now and it's a need I don't have it to

me though I knew or my friends in the

industry needed as well so it kind of

went hand-in-hand with that I think

that's really where come from we saw the

gap in the markets or the need in

WordPress and went Forenza by what we

were looking to do is we're looking to

actually take people away from

clickfunnels because we found a lot of

people at WordPress shires and then

they'll still go sign up for instapage

clickfunnels all this kind of stuff why

not ask them why like there's always

obviously Dan for the marketing hype

again Henry speaking they wanted you

like split testing and a few of the

other more advanced things but then they

get stuck with the other ugly look of

clickfunnels so we're like if you're

using page

or whatever you like in WordPress anyway

we're saying fine stick to what you know

you build it however you want to build

it and loves it WordPress will take care

of the complicated bit for you so that

was kind of the idea around it so you

don't have to worry about Pam so much

party stuff and kind of you can stick to

what you know yeah I love that because I

when I go and I set up clients I often I

want to make sure I set them up for

success and so sometimes you feel like

you're pigeon holed into choosing

certain tools amongst a very small sub

there's so many tools in WordPress but

they don't all offer the functionality

you need and sometimes you know if I

really want to focus on conversion

optimization if I'm working in WordPress

I'm leaning towards thrive themes and

thrive optimize and throw it because

they have that ability that

functionality built in but sometimes

that page builder the tool set it just

isn't right for that client but I need

that piece so with split hero I

understand you can pick and choose so

how do you how do you do that if

somebody's using Elementor or Astra or

the different tool sets how can you kind

of agnostically work with anything on

WordPress how does that work yeah it's a

basically we just work on based off the

work best structure of URLs and stuff

for that so all the redirection of I

surround the URL so however the URL is

built doesn't really matter to us

all we're gonna do a dynamically serve

up the URLs in the campaign and split

the traffic evenly and Clayton beta from

those URL so it's really that simple

I'll make you sound simple

so yeah but that's the benefit of like I

said before I themes obviously later

because you might have a great client or

potential great client but they use an

elemental you know I really want to

change their whole site for the sake of

just this and that's where we're

stepping as well and that's been tested

and I know guys we're kind of diving

deep into URL splitting and some

technical details here but understand

like the fundamentals what we're talking

about we're able to take any two pages

and here's what was kind of beautiful

about this you could say hey you're

using it maybe let's say an older page

builder with a client and he came in and

the tool said he has isn't great you

don't have to try to sell him right off

the bat of hey I think shut up grade 2

elements or upgrade to this and these

are the benefits you can should take

what they already have

then you can create as the agent or as

the client server you can create

something in Elementor or thrive and you

can split test those two together and

actually show hey not only is it easier

and faster to build future content in

here but I can show you the data that

says this actually performs better and

you don't have to interrupt what the

client has already on there so it's a

it's a fantastic opportunity to be able

to offer services at kind of a lower

risk to the client because you don't

have to mess with what they already have

you can create split tests and kind of

do an a/b to see which is performing

better which i think is a fantastic

fantastic opportunity yeah I always

think it's a good way to gain trust with

the client as well you know I mean we

all have clients before that you know

they're a bit apprehensive they get

maybe their whole site done but we know

it kind of needs to be done so a good

way to sort of get your foot in the door

is to say ok hey you know you've got

your site you're not happy with there

why don't we create a landing page for

you and we'll run split tests between

your your homepage and our landing page

and then once you show them the results

and how much better yours performs it's

a no-brainer for the client you know it

straight away that barriers gone you got

your foot in the door the trust you

already built in you come to do a

proposal one speck amount in Discovery

the project that's it's a no-brainer

they already trust you you know that's a

beautiful thing right there because you

know oftentimes clients will be very

strong-willed you know they think they

will know what is right for them and

they just want to give you a list of

requirements and have you knock it out

but you as the agent you really should

be that thought leader and the

consultant not just you know arguing

with the client because if it's your gut

feel versus their gut feel that's a

useless argument to have but if you can

bring some data in and just ask them to

have their mind open and say hey this

will be a risk-free trial for you let me

run a split test I think I have a better

solution for you this is what you've

asked me to do maybe I'll do it for you

but I'll also do it I think is right and

let's compare them back and forth have

you had some conversations like that

with your clients absolutely like you

say the problem is if you're saying me

and I am fairly strong wielding some

ways if you say you're saying you're

both just gonna bar heads and say you

both think your ideas right and like

you show that day or just take that he

goes out of it completely it sitting

there and saying okay so in my way I

mean also be willing to concede those

their version for whatever reason does

do better you have to hold your hands up

okay okay no problem I move forward in

that direction it's all about you know

just agreeing with whatever the beta

says but if they come back in most cases

where you're voting better and you say

like hey you know because of this we've

got you ten times more leads what

patient you want to go with their arms

you're gonna want them more leads so as

simple as that

absolutely so for the beginners out

there they might not know even where to

get started when it comes to split

testing so I know you've mentioned

you've been an agency owner and operator

for several years before when you first

got started and can I help people if

they've never started a split testing

and they're considering hey this sounds

interesting but I wouldn't even know

where to get started what are some of

the key beginner tips you can give folks

when it comes to being successful with

split testing yeah I would say spend

some time and user on your website is

always my recommendation so try out your

insight and there are some great

resources out there there's actually

some very technical resources which go a

bit too over the top into the technical

side which you don't really need to know

but nothing beats first-hand experience

there's some great beginner articles out

there you know read some blog post we

actually I try and publish every couple

of weeks if not once a month some key

information about statistics for

beginners I keep it really casual as

well so you can pick up some you know

useful tips like that if you're just

getting started as well so which one key

people slowly into don't be scared of it

you know everyone knows they should be

doing it don't shy away from it just you

know jumping and you never know really

go too far wrong there's nothing

Attis trophic is going to happen if you

do a test and manga version ends up

being quite bad so what you found out

that page forms a lot better and you

carry on but that's the worst that can

ever happen absolutely so and let me

attack on top of that so let's say you

launch a test on Monday and you come in

Tuesday one day later and you start to

see a version a has three conversions

but version B has zero conversions

should the beginner or should the agent

that test right then and say okay I

clearly have a winner it's performing

infinitely better than this other

version or I obvious kind of silly but

what are some of those pitfalls that you

see people fall into and it comes to

split testing yeah so it's things

exactly said people don't live in long

enough says ìhe like campaigns they at

least a minimum of a month ideally if

you have enough trouble it'll depend on

the mountain traffic as well to be

honest but if you maybe fool them alone

in the traffic then you want to run

about three months and we actually first

had the platform we had the results we

always showed the data but we had like a

winning formula we show at the end of a

campaign that showed all the time so

every day depending what was performing

better to show you the winning the wind

version a platform and we quickly

realized people get too far ahead of

themselves lakes just said and they're

like two days in they're like okay yeah

let's stop this innit you have to leave

it long though so we don't actually show

that winning formular until the end of

the campaign now for that exact reason

so it tends to be not literally run long

enough and not having enough traffic as

well probably two biggest pitfalls right

the world is so addicted to instant

gratification they want to go ahead and

see are things doing every second a day

and unfortunately split testing is one

of those things that you know what

you're seeking to get is statistical

significance you don't want to just see

that hey one is performing at 51% one is

performing at 49% you want to actually

let the the data speak and listen to it

to where you say okay I actually know

this is a better performing thing

because randomness if you only let it go

for one week maybe one of those days was

a holiday or there's something going on

that could drastically impact your

performance so you know the 14-day

minimum at least it shows some there's a

lot of ways you can spread that results

out to make sure you get some

significance in there so for beginners

who have little traffic is fuller

testing something that they shouldn't

even worry about at that point or what's

your advice to the beginners who don't

really have enough to be able to say hey

I can get a thousand page views in a day

easily let me run some split tests yeah

so I do recommend try to be in

500s to low thousands

on the quality of your drive it tends to

be require poly then you can afford to

go a little bit lower in your traffic

estimates and like I said but you might

have no traffic and you might say we're

going to split test because I'm gonna

run a Google pay-per-click campaign and

then obviously you're drawing that

traffic my ads or however you want drive

it so once you're driving it at some

point during its good something campaign

then it's absolutely fine but like say

if you just rely on it organically and

you know actually don't do anything

extra then you want to be in the sort of

eight hundred to a thousand remit

minimum seven hundred fifty around that

right and so you know I'm looking here

at the switching gears here a little bit

I'm looking at the interface of split

hero and you know for those of us who

have seen other interfaces and kind of

been like oh my gosh what the heck is

going on here

slit here is a breath of fresh air I

will you know put some screenshots and

things of that in in the show notes of

this video so you can kind of take a

look behind the scenes or you just go to

split here calm and and check it out

there so I can tell you've put a lot of

time and work and effort into just the

user experience of the software can you

kind of tell me what the inspiration was

kind of what drove you to go this route

because when you're dealing with data so

many people can get like they can want

together out of spreadsheets and charts

and graphs everywhere and data overwhelm

so what kind of led the inspiration for

how you present the data with split hero

so what I call it is a lot of your

platform struggle with analysis

paralysis so there's too much data you

don't really the problem of split

testing is also it's like some people do

it but then they do nothing with the

data or they didn't do anything about it

you need to take action if you don't

take action on the results then

obviously there was complete waste of

time so for us it's all about we give

you the data we need without

overwhelming you so you're going you've

got your basics of data

we're always polishing the UI adding a

few little tweaks here and there but

generally speaking like you say we've

tried to keep it simple and as clean as

possible and personally I'm a sucker for

a good UI on the software I buy so like

this thing great software for example an

active campaigner but if you let

yourself it's super powerful UI is

horrible

bacon men bored me as a client because I

just look at and go man I don't even

know where to start so yeah like for me

I'm a sucker for a nice UI everything

good is important to me but it's all

about being simple and tiny Southwest

for you have just given you enough

control of what you need showing you

what you need and that's it and then

letting you take action on the results

that's fantastic in you know I've done

some videos that they'll be publishing

around the time of this episode here

where I walk through that step by step

of creating a split test in split hero

and what I love about it is you're

clicking a couple buttons to get your

test started you're syncing up your

pages you're selecting your pages you're

selecting your goal it's really a nice

experience so I mean just in that

simplicity I can only imagine how much

complexity it took on your side to make

it this easy so as a SAS founder that

that's an area that I am interested to

get into at some point in the future

what's it been like being a SAS founder

building this up kind of having that

that cohort of initial users to kind of

drive the experience and tell us about

the experience of being a SAS under yeah

it's been a total worry screen in some

ways is similar to agency work in some

ways that's really not like I'm slowly

transitioning from agency work and don't

do half as much as I used to and purely

because I'm trained as much time as

possible in great split hero so it's I

always fought the hard bit was building

software and getting a stage when it's

ready for the public but that was the a

really the struggle comes out Lord and

your wife huh I've really got Marcus now

and get it out there and and that's

that's been the mountain to climb and

that's what we're doing now but it's a

hell of a very coach that I picked me

recommend and for people that like I'll

be opal I didn't invent this myself I

work with another UK developer huge

fantastic spawn team it's just us two

and honestly without him obviously we'll

make it happen like I must annoy him

every day because every week we click up

for our project management and I just

throwing ideas and I'm just like we

should do this he's just like really I'm

like yeah yes just before I had he's

like do not have taken an hour before so

I track all the idea that

to happen so you know you don't

necessarily have to be developing

yourself to be a founder I mean one have

you had a better proposals that's all

there's a sax platform called better

propose yeah definitely yeah I'll bet

pros customer Adam green ice guys friend

of mine who is the founder of bozos he's

not a developer either again he's

someone does it for him and that's a

very some business so I'd say if anyone

still kind of taking this journey it's a

roller coaster but don't shy away if you

can't build it yourself

absolutely oftentimes as the divisionary

is the idea is the ability to take what

the market is telling you and synthesize

into what the platform would look like

that's where the foundation of a

platform comes and then if you can

clarify if you have that clear vision

you know people can develop software so

I think it's a great future obviously

it's a wonderful business model if you

can get that recurring revenue and we'll

talk about the actual business model of

split here in a second but just you know

it my hat's off to you for seeing a need

because it truly is a need if you have

you know thirty percent plus of the

world who runs their websites on

WordPress

but then when it comes time to actually

let's start making money with our

website now they're abandoning it for

other software platforms to be able to

do some of the analytics this there's

definitely a disconnect so I know you

mentioned that you would like to be able

to bring people back into WordPress as

kind of their their full marketing and

business solution there that that's a

it's a tall mountain to climb with some

of the competitors that are out there so

tell us about kind of the the business I

just look here how do you like when

customers come in Oh what do they get

when they come in to split 0 like a

important affection or not yeah so if I

guess let me ask this way your avatar

are you looking to bring on agencies to

kind of get multiple clients into split

here as it's designed for the individual

business under who using your your

perfect customer closely a perfect

customer is you know savvy business

owner themselves it's more than easy

enough to use I'm test yourself then to

do themselves and primarily we do target

small agencies freelancers people just

get started spit

then people don't want to spend a

fortune on the more complex options and

people doing sort of lots of time on the

elections as well so yeah mainly

freelancers small marketing companies in

small agencies are that type of the

audience that's a great sweet spot -

sorry I know that that area is where

there's you know you have to look at

your budget and yet to find the

effective solutions but you also need to

delight your customer you know as much

as the largest agencies you can have the

all the bells and whistles out there you

know they might have the funds to make

all these fancy things but to be able to

bring something that's simple effective

and they can you know chop down on those

arguments with your clients I here here

are the results and that's a that's a

great a great Nair market to target

there so you have something kind of

special to share right so this is in the

middle of kind of a special week for you

or at the beginning of this new deal do

you want to tell the audience a little

about what's going on from the marketing

side and what you're offering with let's

split here here yeah absolutely so this

is there was not gonna be available on

the website it's only gonna be available

through people like John and our lovely

affiliates and basically we're offering

our public plan which is currently

priced at $27 a month for $97 a lifetime

so that includes unlimited size only

made pageviews and limit visitors you're

going to get all current features

including new features we're not going

to lock you out of any new features and

you can rub three active campaigns only

one time and that's not look to a domain

so if you're working in one point are

you doing your own site and you run free

campaigns as soon as I complete it or as

soon as you've done with them

if you create free campaigns on another

domain or one on one domain one or

another it's totally flexible to your

needs so this bill is only gonna be

waiting for seven days only and it's

really I expected sell out quick because

we have only one limiting their own

licenses at 7 days we're going to be

hitting on 97 bones lifetime you won't

get you like that again I actually can

promise you that because it's crazy and

the facts are the more affiliates I

speak to and I'm gonna like stony some

doors are like you sure do add a bit

more time no no no I said we do it with

our service spoke up really from the

influx of users

anything I'd say it's it's only to us on

support I want UK time so any of us

people bear with us if it's late or

early in the morning I hadn't but

generally speaking we're ready to go and

we're just looking for yeah we're

looking to take although offering you a

good price and I'm sure you'll get a

value out of it you know what you should

spread the word and that'll help us grow

our monthly revenue afterwards that's

the whole plan

absolutely yeah you guys are in their

growth phase you're getting the word out

there you're seeing the the platform

develop you have the vision for it

you just need to get that critical mass

of the buzz the talk that discussion and

this fact this opportunity here is one

where and you guys are you're not

founding members because you get the

platform is already up and running but

to be able to get in at the earliest age

you can also kind of help direct the the

direction of this platform and how how

it develops what features come in I know

you guys have a public road map on your

on your website here so yeah this is a

great time to get into the platform even

if you're not if you're not running any

split test right now if you hear the

word Google optimized or a Google tag

manager and your eyes glaze over you're

like I don't you want to touch with that

that's because of how it has been to

launch these in the past you know what

you guys are offering is basically if

you can write a wordpress page if you

can even download a plug-in and install

it you pretty much have what it takes to

be able to use data in your marketing

efforts on WordPress so I think it's an

awesome thing I didn't know there's a

limited number of spots so I'll make

sure that I purchased my my license as

well to get in there at that deal so

thank you for doing that I think it's a

great strategy yeah absolutely

like I said we're very passionate about

probably roadmap as well as the first

screen we're totally transparent what

we're doing was a transparent boat in my

bunk we'll put it out there and say

we're going to fix it generally speaking

we've only had a couple of major bugs

they've all been squirrely about two

major updates in the last two months

including rubra and the whole platform

twice so we've really really hard work

behind the scenes and now it's trying to

do that front end a little bit more

polish and integrations and stuff like

that so anyone does when I look at the

road my crews on the website but we've

got stuff like WooCommerce integration

coming in carp flows integration and

people can literally just you know you

don't have to be a customer you can

click the road

have a look you can upvote creatures you

think sound like a good idea so you can

put your comments and thoughts into it

you can suggest new ideas and I

personally review every single idea and

I'll tell you if it's rubbish or it's

good

that's fantastic

Adam I mean what an amazing amazing

launch plan great software a great

vision on this you know one question I

want to ask you this kind of has been

bugging you the back of my head and some

of the more advanced folks out in the

audience might be doing this as well so

one of the considerations when you're

running split test is how do you handle

any potential impact on the website

speed on SEO you help allay some of the

fears that might be out there in terms

of some of the common concerns that come

in with split testing does this load on

your site is there anything we should be

aware of when launching a split test on

our website yeah we should show that's

country where nothing too complex or

major abscess from the speed point of

view I believe everyone so it should be

fast anyway and as long as you are

half-decent hosting without plugging and

everywhere that we don't say we actually

have a lot of high usage servers

available we use mulch on high capacity

servers which fairly new and the

absolute blame boss so the impact we've

seen is literally 50 to 100 milliseconds

so it's a very very very small footprint

look like you won't even notice for the

benefit of being able to actually know

what's working better there's this tiny

hit to take in speed yeah and then for

when I see a point of view obviously the

one thing to be wary of is duplicate

content so if you do have C pages with

pretty much the same content and you're

going to change the headline or

something like that we just recommend

whatever that second version is just to

know index that with your SEO clogging

of choice actually we're using Yoast SEO

or ranked math or any of the others out

there it's lit for you normally recycle

just to click a button to click it to no

index and that's about it there's no

real web of downsides that's fantastic

let me ask you is there anything else

that we didn't talk about today that we

probably should have to kind of make

sure people understand the the vision

the functionality some of the features a

split here anything that we didn't cover

it but yeah I mean our whole idea is

around simplicity so and

documentation so pissed I mean we got

lunch at school like to say in UK hours

if you start more than have some also if

you want help insane you know hey Adam I

don't know can you give me a

recommendation on what to do on this

site for example I'm happy to jump on

live chat and give people

recommendations on what they should

spirit test I love to geek out on this

stuff so yeah we're no problem is still

helping people what I would say like I

say because we're running it's such a

short period of time and it won't be

offered again grab your license now if

you even if you're thinking six months

you're gonna be ready in 12 months

you're going to be ready get it now your

account is going to be lifetime so

you're gonna not be privy to any price

increases or anything like that and it's

really waiting for you then I can

honestly agree with that statement I

mean it's one of those things where

you're not gonna notice a hundred

dollars out of your pocket a month from

now but if you come down the road a

couple months and you ate you don't take

the deal up you'll realize at some point

I really do need to be offering this

either to my own website or to my

clients and if your option is you know

even at the current price point of

twenty seven dollars per month that is

an easy thing to pay and that's an easy

for the ROI there's ROI if you miss this

deal it still makes sense to purchase so

here obviously but if you can get in at

one lifetime deal that's only going to

serve you you know month over month over

month and I can tell you there have been

lifetime deals I was on the fence on and

I didn't click the Buy button like

founding ideas where I saw similar

vision in software and I didn't make the

purchase and right now I'm kicking

myself on some of them because I'm

paying a fair amount month over month

for certain things that I I knew I

needed but I just wasn't ready for at

the time so if you're on the fence I

think it does make a ton of sense to go

ahead and get split here and also I have

a ton of resources on my website and in

some courses I have in in Commission

University about split testing and I'll

make sure that I add some additional

content in for split here if you guys go

through my link which is in kamesh comm

slash split hero and there will be links

in the description below as well if you

want to take me up on this a lifetime

deal I think it makes a ton a ton of

sense and I guess Adam you know just

thank you so much for for coming on the

channel this has been great I've enjoyed

this conversation I enjoy your software

the data you can get from it with the

minimal amount of complexity and the

ease of use I think you found a sweet

spot here I'm looking at the dashboard

just the gradients the colors that the

design I can tell you put a lot of

effort in this and that just only says

that the future is really bright for a

split hero so great job building it man

I'm really really appreciate it now I'm

just gonna touch very briefly on your

own point of view

we actually have a classroom and sign up

for one month $27 and he sold one split

just one still testing campaign to

customers for $300 there you go you've

made your money back so this is like

no-brainer but yeah thank you so much

for having me on our media appreciate

you and like SEP anyone else do we tell

any questions or they can obviously

speak to you in person a lot more

likewise hello actually here I come they

can get me now and then perfect and if

you guys have any questions as well go

ahead and leave them in the comments

below whether you're on Facebook whether

in YouTube wherever you're listening or

watching this on the internet and we'll

be sure that if I can't answer

personally I'm sure Adam will pop in and

answer some questions as well it's a big

week for Adam so definitely uh pay

attention and go ahead and pick up your

copy of slid here it'll be a fantastic

investment for you so thanks gonna Adam

and I'll see you guys all in the next

episode take care