A/B Testing batch campaigns in the email editor
To A/B Test an ad hoc, batch campaign in the email editor, proceed as follows:
1. Create your versions
On the Content Creation page, open the Versions tab. Your email will be shown as Version #a.
On the Versions tab, copy the email and create a second version.
Make your changes to the new version and save them. You can change anything you like in the version, but the version name (Version #b) is internal and cannot be changed.
Repeat this for every version you want to create.
You can edit, copy and delete versions on the Versions tab. The original version (Version #a) cannot be deleted.
2. Launch the test versions
When you are finished with your versions, open the Scheduling page and click Generate Launch List, if the launch list has not been generated yet.
Under Select launch type, add the percentage of contacts who will receive the first version, and give that version a name. This name will be added to the campaign name to differentiate between the versions.
Select the version you want to send for this test.
You can Check Personalization for the version by clicking the button in the upper-right corner. The availability for emails with versions applies to the entire launch list, not just the sample selected for the version test.
Set the launch date. You can choose to Launch Now or Launch later at a specified date. You can launch on selected day/time, if launch is not right now.
If you choose to Launch Now, the campaign will be launched when you have activated the Final mailing option.
As you schedule versions for launch, they are listed in the Scheduling page:
There is no limit to the number of versions you can create and test but you cannot send tests to more than 90% of the launch list. If you simply want to send different versions of the same email without waiting to see which performs better, see Sending different versions to fixed percentages of the launch list below.
When you have launched all your versions, select the criteria for the Final mailing. You can set the toggle to Manually and decide which version to send yourself, or set it to Automatically and let Emarsys choose the version based on these possible criteria:
If you choose the automated version, after collecting some sample responses (it takes approximately one hour but it may vary from account to account), Emarsys will decide which is the best-performing version. When you are ready to launch this version, choose from the following options:
- To send it now, select Launch now.
- To send it later, select Launch later and set the launch date.
Launch is not a single event in case of A/B testing batch email campaigns. Launching A/B test mails means that the different email versions are partially launched. Only one version is launched at a time.