Create an A/B Testing Campaign

Each time you create an email, you may wonder whether your content is presented in the best way for your audience. Use an A/B testing campaign to test how small changes can impact your results.

In this article, you'll learn how to create and edit A/B testing campaigns.

Before you start

• Be sure you're familiar with how A/B testing campaigns work.
• Depending on your plan, you may not have access to A/B testing campaigns. To find out what features are included in each plan, check out our pricing page.
• If you have a Premium plan, you’ll have access to our more advanced Multivariate testing. To learn more, check out Create a Multivariate Campaign.
• We recommend you send each combination to at least 5,000 subscribed contacts to get the most useful data, but smaller tests can still help you learn about your audience’s preferences.
• Subscribers may not interact with your campaign right away, so test data may take some time to populate. We recommend you wait at least four hours after you send an A/B testing campaign to send the winning campaign. Winner notification emails are sent to any user on your account with a user level of Manager or higher.
• When you test content as the variable in an A/B testing campaign, choose the winner by click rate, as opposed to open rate, since opens occur before a subscriber views your content.
• If you change your mind during the test phase, you can convert to manual selection to choose the winner from the campaign report.

Create an A/B testing campaign

A/B testing campaigns are built in a series of steps. First you'll create and name your campaign, then you'll choose your recipients, decide which variable to test, choose your setup, and add your content. Last, you'll confirm that everything looks good and send.

To create a new A/B testing campaign, follow these steps.

1. Click the Create icon.
   
2. Click Email.
   
3. Click A/B test.
   
   If you have a Premium plan, you’ll see the more advanced Multivariate option instead. To learn how to create a Multivariate campaign, check out Create a Multivariate Campaign.
4. Enter a campaign name and click Begin.
   

Recipients step

On the Recipients step of the builder, choose the audience or segment you want to send your campaign to. You can configure a new segment on this screen, or choose a saved segment.

Variables step

On the Variables step, you'll choose whether to test your subject line, From name, content, or send time.

To choose the variable you want to test, follow these steps.

1. On the Variables step, click the variable you want to test.
   
2. Click the plus or minus icons to add or remove variations of the variable. You can test one variable with up to three variations.
   
   Each variation will generate a campaign combination as shown in the Summary. For example, to test three subject lines, we'll create three combinations of your campaign.
   
3. Under How should we split your recipients?, click and drag the slider to set the percentage of your recipients you want to receive your test combinations.
   
   Review the number of recipients who will receive each combination in the Summary. We require that you send to at least 10% of your recipients for any type of A/B test, so the slider will not go below 10%. If you're testing Send time, you'll always send to 100% of the subscribed contacts in your chosen audience or segment.
4. Choose whether to determine a winner based on open rate, click rate, total revenue, or manually. Then, choose how long you want the test to run.
   
   At the end of the test phase, we'll send the winning combination to your remaining recipients. If you choose to send test combinations to 100% of your recipients, you won't see this option.

Setup step

Depending on which variable you test, the Setup step will present multiple Email subject, From email address and name, and Subject line fields.

To choose your setup, follow these steps.

1. Type your Email subject, From email address, and From name in the fields provided. Send time variation settings also appear on this step.
   
2. Check the boxes next to your preferred settings or tracking options to include. Track opens and Track clicks can't be disabled, since they're used to determine the winner of the test.
   

Content step

The Content step is where you add content for your campaign. What you see on this step will vary if you choose to test content.

Test subject line, From name, or send time

To add content when your variable is subject line, From name, or send time, follow these steps.

1. On the Template step of the content builder, choose your layout.
2. On the Design step of the builder, design and test your content.
3. When everything is how you want, click Confirm Before Sending.

Test content

If your variable is content, the Content step shows a preview for each variation.

To add content to each variation, follow these steps.

1. Click Add Content for a variation of your campaign.
   
2. On the Template step of the content builder, choose your layout.
3. On the Design step of the content builder, design and test your content. When everything is how you want, click Next.
4. On the Description step of the Content Builder, type in text to describe the variation of the content. Your subscribers won't see this description, but it will help you remember the differences between each variation.
   
5. Click Continue to content to return to your content variations.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for each content variation. On the Template step, use a different template or select a variation you already designed in the Previous Variations tab.
   
7. When everything is how you want, click Next.

Confirm step

The Confirm step is where you'll review the combinations that make up your A/B testing campaign and send them when ready.

To confirm and send your A/B testing campaign, follow these steps.

1. Review the pre-delivery checklist. Click Resolve or Edit to make changes.
2. After you're finished, you can choose to Send your campaign now or Schedule it to go out later.
   

Account users with a Manager user level or higher will receive an email when a winner has been automatically chosen, or after four hours if you haven't yet picked a winner manually.

Manually choose a winner

If you chose Manual Selection from the drop-down menu on the Variables step of the builder, you'll be able to view the campaign report after tests are sent, and choose a winner.

To manually choose a winner, follow these steps.

1. Click the Campaigns icon.
   
2. Click Reports.
   
3. Click View report for the A/B testing campaign you want to work with.
4. An alert will tell you how long into the testing phase you are and recommend that you wait at least four hours.
   
5. Review the report for each combination. Under Finalize your test, click the radio button next to the combination you want to send to your remaining recipients.
   
6. Click Send To Remaining Recipients.
   
7. In the confirmation pop-up modal, click Send Now.

Convert to manual selection

After you send your test with the choice to have the winner chosen by open rate, click rate, or total revenue, you may decide that you want to manually choose the winning combination instead.

To convert to manual selection after you sent your campaign, follow these steps.

1. Click the Campaigns icon.
   
2. Click Reports.
   
3. Click View Report for the A/B testing campaign you want to work with.
4. Click Convert to manual selection.
   
5. In the pop-up modal, type CONVERT in all caps and click Convert.
   
6. When you're ready, choose a combination to immediately send to your remaining recipients.