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Create an A/B test plan

Before deciding to conduct an A/B test, you should plan out what outcome you want to test.

By planning out the test parameters before you start configuring pages, you can ensure the test will give you the outcomes you need for your site.

Before you start

  • If this is your first exposure to how A/B testing works, you should first read the A/B testing service documentation. This documentation gives you foundational information about the A/B testing feature of Squiz Optimization and conceptually describes how A/B testing works.

  • Verify that the page to which you want to apply the A/B test is a content page asset.

Steps

To plan out an A/B test:

  1. Consider the hypothesis you want to test. It can help to write the hypothesis down in your plan so that you can align your A/B test goals.

    The scenario presented on Test the suitability of a call to action based on page views is a good example of a hypothesis.

  2. Consider the success metric you want to associate with a successful user journey:

    Page view

    A successful page view happens when your user visits a target page you have chosen after viewing the page on which the A/B test is running.

    If you need this metric, you should note the URL of the target page.

    Click event

    A successful click event happens when your user clicks on an element you have identified such as a Buy Now or Sign Up button.

    If you need this metric, identify the elements you wish to track and ensure each element has a unique and consistent class or ID applied. The JavaScript must have this precision to bind to the click events associated with each element.

  3. Consider how you want to name your tests:

    • The name you choose for your test appears as an option in a drop-down list.

    • Choose a name that is both short but informative for other content authors:

    • If your organization has its naming standards, use those guidelines to create a meaningful test name.

  4. Consider when you would like the A/B test to start running:

    Start date

    What date do you want the test to start?

    Start manually

    If you don’t want to automate the test start date, you can start a test manually.

  5. Consider how long you would like your A/B test to run:

    You can use the Metrics Calculator to calculate the best duration of your test if you can gather these facts about your site from your analytics tool:

    • Current conversion rate (%)

    • Desired conversion rate (%)

    • Number of daily visitors to your site.
    End date

    Do you want your test to end on a specific date, say two weeks from today?

    Visitors amount

    How many total visitors to the page do you want to be exposed to the test before it ends?

    Manually

    Do you want to keep the test running until you are happy with your analytics?