Overview
A/B testing for one-time email communications within the Campaigns module is a dynamic tool designed to boost your email strategies. Experiment with different email elements like subject lines, sender names, and content to discover which version engages your audience most effectively. This data-driven approach helps ensure that the optimal version of your message reaches the wider audience, potentially increasing engagement and improving overall campaign performance.
Accessing A/B Testing
Navigate to Engagement > Campaigns > A/B Testing.
How it Works + What to Test
A/B testing lets you send different email versions to a subset of your audience and automatically selects the best-performing version to send to the rest. Key details include:
Test Variability: Experiment with up to three versions of subject lines, sender names, or content.
Audience Selection: Choose a segment to receive these tests. The recipients will not know they’re participating in a test, ensuring natural behavior.
Distribution: Specify the percentage of your segment that will receive the test emails. The system divides this percentage equally among the versions you’re testing.
For instance, if you set 30% of your segment to participate in the A/B test and you have three versions, each will be sent to 10% of the segment. After determining the winning version based on your criteria, the remaining 70% of your segment will receive the winning email.
A/B testing is designed for one-time email campaigns. It is not compatible with ongoing or SMS campaigns.
How to Conduct an A/B Test
Step 1: Create Your Email
Navigate to Engagement > Campaigns > A/B Testing.
Click the + New Communication button.
Step 2: Configure Communication Settings
Communication Type: Select "A/B Testing"
Audience: Pick your test audience segment.
Step 3: Configure A/B Test Settings:
Variable to Test: Choose the aspect of the email to test (subject line, from name, or content).
Number of: Select two or three versions.
Percentage of audience receiving the test: Decide the portion of your audience that will participate in testing. For instance, if 30% is selected and you’re testing three variations, each will be sent to 10% of your selected audience.
Winning factor: Decide on the criteria (open rate or click to view) for choosing the best-performing email.
Duration of test: Set how long the test runs before determining the winner.
Step 4: Configure Email
Use this section to configure the rest of your email as usual, inputting multiple versions where applicable. For example, if you are testing subject lines, you would use the Version dropdown to configure the three different subject lines.
Step 5: Launch Your Test
Preview, test, and send your campaign as you would any regular email.
After the test concludes and the best-performing version is determined, it will automatically be sent to the remainder of your audience.
Important Notes
After the test concludes and the best-performing version is determined, your campaign will be automatically sent to the remainder of your audience based on the criteria you set.
A/B test results are used to determine and send the best-performing version of your campaign automatically. While individual A/B test analytics (such as CTR and open rates) are not provided, you can track overall campaign performance in your Campaign Analytics and the Campaigns Insights Dashboard.
The Campaigns Module is only available with the Element Ignite and Engage packages.