The Advanced Settings dialog available from the Variations section of the A/B Campaign Builder allows you to specify a number of advanced features that determine how to treat the Variation when it appears on a page accessed by the user. Advanced Settings include:
Sequence
When a user's request matches more than one Variation or Metric, the Sequence determines the order in which the individual Variation is applied or the Metric matches. Variations and Metrics with lower Sequence numbers are considered before those with higher Priority numbers. The Priority value must be within the range of -100 to 100.
By default, Metrics have a Sequence of 10 and Variations have a Sequence of 50. This means that SiteSpect counts Metrics before applying any Variations to the user's current request.
In addition, for Origin Campaigns, the Sequence determines the order in which the values appear in the Affinity Cookie.
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 Variation or Metric matches whose New Visit Rating value is not zero. Visit Ratings ensure that a Metric does not trigger unless the visitor sees particular Variation first.
Required:
The Required Visit Rating specifies the minimum Visit Rating that a user must have in order for a 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 Variation to be applied. A Required Visit Rating of zero matches any existing rating value.
New Visit:
The New Visit Rating specifies the new value for a user's Visit Rating when a 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.
Count Users Who See This Variation
Count Users Who See This Variation determines whether or not a user is counted in a Campaign after seeing this Variation. The default is Yes. By setting this parameter to No, users who see this Variation are not counted (although they may still be counted by seeing another Variation whose Count Users Who See This Variation is set to Yes).
Ordinarily, a user who has been assigned to a Campaign must see at least one Variation (or Control) before being counted toward the results. SiteSpect does this to keep the Campaign's data as pure as possible; users who are assigned to a Campaign but don't ever view a Variation are not counted.
In special circumstances, you may want set this value to No to prevent a user from being counted if they have seen the Variations. For example, if a Variation exists solely to rewrite a URL link (href) to any of several alternate target pages, the act of rewriting the URL link should not cause the user to be counted. However, in this example, we recommend creating a Variation that triggers on the target page (even if the Search Text and Replacement Text are empty), so that the user is counted.
Disablement
When the contents of the Search Text field for this Variation does not match anything on the pages of your website, disable this Campaign. If this is checked, any Campaign that contains 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 has not been applied. This is also useful when the underlying content has changed, which results in the Variation no longer working.