The Advanced Settings area of the Site and Campaign Variations pages allows you to specify a number of advanced features including:
- Evaluation Sequence
- Required Visit Rating
- New Visit Rating
- Sampling Rate
- Disable When Search Text Fails
- Apply Based on Campaign Assignment
- Apply Based on Variations Shown or Metrics Hits
Not all Advanced Settings are available for both Site and Campaign Variations. Differences are indicated below.
Evaluation Sequence
When a user's request matches more than one Global Variation, the Evaluation Sequence determines when it is applied. Lower sequence numbers are considered before those with higher sequence numbers. The Evaluation Sequence value for Site Variations must be within the range of -127 to -101 or 101 to 127.
Required Visit Rating
A Visit Rating is an integer value associated with each user's visit. The Visit Rating starts at zero when the user's visit starts and changes if a Site Variation matches whose New Visit Rating value is not zero.
The Required Visit Rating specifies the minimum Visit Rating that a user must have in order for a Site Variation to be applied. Acceptable values are integers in the range -127 to 127. For example, a Required Visit Rating value of 5 means that the user's rating must be greater than or equal to 5 for the Site Variation to be applied. A Required Visit Rating of zero matches any existing rating value.
New Visit Rating
The New Visit Rating specifies the new value for a user's Visit Rating when a Site Variation matches. Acceptable values are integers in the range -127 to 127. No change is made to the Visit Rating if the New Visit Rating is set to zero.
Sampling Rate (Site Variation Only)
The Sampling Rate determines the percentage of all requests that result in the Site Variation being applied.
For example, let's say that a visitor is on a page where the Site Variation applies. The Site Variation Sampling Rate is set to 50. If the visitor repeatedly reloads the page, the Site Variation is applied roughly 50% of the time.
Disable When Search Text Fails
If this is checked, any Campaign that displays this Variation is automatically disabled when the defined Search Text fails to match anything on the page. This prevents visitors from being counted in a Campaign when the Variation is not applied. This is also useful when the underlying content has changed, which results in the Variation no longer working.
Apply Based on Campaign Assignment
This option allows you to control what traffic this Variation applies to.
- The default selection All traffic applies this Variation to all visitors regardless of whether they are assigned to a Campaign or whether they have been counted (shown a Variation during their visit). This is available only for Site Variations.
- Choosing Test traffic only (and user is counted) applies this Variation to all users who have been assigned to a Campaign and have been counted (shown a Variation during their visits).
- Choosing Test traffic only (regardless of whether user is counted or not) applies this Site Variation to all users who have been assigned to a Campaign, regardless of whether they have been counted (shown a Variation during their visits).
- Choosing Non-test traffic only applies this Site Variation to all users who have not been assigned to a Campaign. This is available only for Site Variations.
- Choosing Preview traffic only applies this Variation to only preview traffic.
Apply Based on Variations Shown Or Metrics Hits
This option allows you to control when this Variation is applied.
- The default selection, Always, applies this Variation regardless of whether SiteSpect has shown the user a Variation (as part of a Campaign) or the user has hit a Metric.
- Choosing Only when a Variation was shown applies this Variation only after SiteSpect has shown the user a Variation (as part of a Campaign).
- Choosing Only when a Metric was hit applies this Variation only after the user hits a Metric.
- Choosing Only when a Variation was shown or a Metric was hit applies this Variation only after either SiteSpect shows the user a Variation (as part of a Campaign) or the user hits a Metric.