Easy A|B email split testing in DemandCenter Campaigns

Wondering which email subject line or email treatment gets you the best response in your campaigns

Which subject line gets the most opens?

Which email gets the highest visit rate or drives the most visits to particular web pages?

DemandCenter A/B Email Test automatically finds your best performing email and then makes sure that the best email goes out for the rest of the campaign. The A/B Email Test can be used in campaigns that you run on a fixed timeline - or it can also be used in drip and nurture campaigns where prospects are automatically added in as a result of prospect actions.

How to Set Up a Simple A/B Email Testing Campaign

With A/B email testing you'll be able to automatically:

• Send and test two email treatments.
• Choose your Sample audience of up to 5,000 prospects.
• Set how many (by percentage) of the Sample audience is sent the emails between two groups of prospects.
• Set which condition will be used to determine the "winning" email template.
• Set how long to wait (duration or a fixed date and time) before choosing the winner.
• You are also able to set the "Default" behavior, just in case you don't get a clear winner (or if the sample audience size is not reached).

1. In a campaign, drag the A/B Email Action to your campaign. Next, double click to configure its settings.
   
   
   
2. Choose the Minimum Sample Audience Size.
   
   This refers to the number of Active prospects that must enter the action before the A|B Email Action starts its test.
   
   Choose from a sample audience size of as little as 100 to as many as 5000 prospects.
   
   Note: Prospects who have already been set to 'Bad Email', 'Inactive' or 'Opt-Out' status BEFORE entering this Action will not be included in the minimum sample audience as they are ineligible to receive any more emails. 
   
   
   
3. Choose the Sample Audience Distribution.
   
   The sliding percentage bar lets you choose how big your two testing groups are. Prospects will be randomly chosen to form the two groups (Email A and Email B). By sliding the handle in the bar left and right - the percentages moves accordingly.
   
   The most common and popular choice is an even split of 50% | 50%. This would
   
   
   
4. Next to Determine Winner By, click Add Condition to define the criteria that determines the "winning" email template. You have the flexibility to determine the winner based upon visits, asset downloads, event registrations, form fills, and email response status.
   
   Note: Once the A/B Email Action has determined the winning Email Template:
   
   
   • Prospects that had received test emails will proceed into the next Action in your campaign flow.
   • The remainder of your sample audience size AND any new prospects entering this A/B Email Action moving forward will be sent the winning email template.
     
     
     
5. Next to Time to Wait to Determine Winner, choose when you want the Email A/B Email Action to determine the "winner". The A/B Email Action will wait until the Period of Time or Until Date specified has elapsed and begin its evaluation based on your Determine Winner By setting.
   
   Note: The clock begins ticking the moment the campaign was STARTED and became Active.
   
   
   
6. Under Email A and Email B, choose the email templates that each group (i.e. Email A and Email B) will be receiving and the sender of each email template.
   
   For testing, you'll need two email templates. The two email templates can differ in whatever way you like (e.g. different subject lines, different color banners, or call-to-action texts), but it's usually suggested that you only change one or two things in order to get a valid test.
   
   
   

After a winning email has been determined, moving forward, all remaining prospects that were not put into the initial groups AND any prospects that enter your A/B Email Action henceforth, will be sent the winning email.

If after the test, there was not a clear "winner" or if the Action was not able to gather enough test participants, users can control the Default Behavior for the remaining prospects in your list and future prospects that enter this action.

Under Default Behavior, choose one of the following:

• Have remaining prospects proceed to next action without sending them either email: 
  For prospects that have already reached the action AND for prospects entering the action in the future, release them into the next adjacent campaign action. No emails are sent.
  
  
• Send half of remaining prospects Email A, the other half Email B:
  For prospects that have already reached the action AND for prospects entering the action in the future, send the two chosen email templates evenly.
  
  
• Send all remaining prospects Email A: 
  For prospects that have already reached the action AND for prospects entering the action in the future, send every prospect the template chosen under Email A.
  
  
• Send all remaining prospects Email B: 
  For prospects that have already reached the action AND for prospects entering the action in the future, send every prospect the template chosen under Email B.

Simple Example