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      How do I create an A/B Test with multiple Variation Groups?

      You can test multiple page components on several different pages by creating an A/B Campaign composed of several Variation Groups. This is helpful if you have different themes you want to test on a collection of pages. This topic provides an example of how to create an A/B Campaign with the following components:

      • an Original
      • three Variation Groups that contain similar Variations
      • Triggers that determine when the Variations should be shown to your visitors
      • a single KPI that measures if the changes were effective

      Example

      Let's say that you have three different sale offers you want to try out:

      • 15% off for one week
      • 20% off today
      • 10% off next purchase

      You want to test each sale scheme on three different pages. The following steps explain how to use the A/B Campaign Builder to do that in very broad steps. For greater detail, click on the highlighted terms within the steps or view the other more detailed topics within the help.

      1. Start out by creating a new Campaign: select New, A/B Campaign. The New Campaign page opens.

        How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - New Campaign

      2. Define the Campaign.
      3. Create one Variation Group.
      4. Create three Variations within the Variation Group.
      5. Create two more Variation Groups.
      6. Add a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that measures how many visitors got to the Checkout Complete page after seeing the Buy Now button.

      Define The Campaign

      None of the other fields in this section of the page are required. Feel free to skip them for now.

      1. Open the General section of the Campaign Builder.

        How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Define the Campaign

      2. Enter a descriptive name for your Campaign. The name you enter appears in the Campaign List. For this example, enter Sale Offers.
      3. Select Standard from the Type drop-down.

      Create One Variation Group

      Variation Groups contain a collection of Variations that you want to test together. Variations describe the changes you want to make to a specific page. You can define Variations using the Visual Editor or Find & Replace mode. The Variations section of the Campaign Builder uses Visual Editor by default. However, this example uses Find & Replace mode.

      1. Open the Variations section of the page.
      2. On the right side of the Variations area, select Find & Replace from the Select Edit Mode drop-down. Once you make this selection, the fields in the Variation section of the page change. The Variations section will look like the one in the following image. Refer to Variations Overview to learn about all the components of this page area.
        How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create One Variation Group III
      3. Open Variation Group 1 and change its name to 15% off for one week. To edit the name, click on the text and replace Variation Group 1 with 15% off for one week.

      Create Three Variations

      Now that you've created a Variation Group, you'll need to create some Variations to go inside it.

      1. Rename Variation 1 to 15% off - Home Page.How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Three Variations II
      2. Triggers determine when to show the Variation to visitors. For this example, we want to show the visitor a 15% off offer when they land on the home page. We do this by setting up a Trigger that recognizes when the visitor has landed on the home page, index.html. In the Triggers area, URL is selected by default. Select Regex from the drop-down and enter /index.html in the field next to the drop-down. When a visitor lands on http://www.staging.clothingco.com/index.html, the visitor sees the Variation you define.
      3. At the right end of the entry field, notice the little ESC button. Click ESC to escape the content of this field. SiteSpect warns you that it will escape all the text in that field. Click Yes. When the text is escaped, it looks like this:How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Three Variations IV
      4. The Find this field specifies what you want to look for on the page. For this example, we want to replace some text on the existing page with new text. The existing text is Everyday Savings. Enter that text in the Find this field.
      5. The Replace with this field specifies what replaces the contents of the Find this field. For this example, we want to use 15% off for the next week as the replacement text. Enter that text in the Replace with this field.You are done creating the first Variation in the first Variation Group. Next, you'll create two more Variations within this Variation Group.
      6. The next step is to create a second Variation in the existing Variation Group. To do so, click the three dot menu at the right end of the name row for the Variation you just created. Select Add to All. This adds a new Variation to this Variation Group and any other Variation Groups, if there are any.
      7. Rename the Variation to 15% off - Products Page.

      How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Three Variations VII

      Click the arrow to the left of its name to open it. The new empty Variation looks like the one inside the rectangle below.
      How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Three Variations VIII

      1. As you did earlier in these steps, complete the Variation only this time, use the following information:
      • Select Regex from the drop-down.
      • URL: /products.html (Don't forget to escape this text. See Step 3 above for instructions.)
      • Find this: Everyday Savings
      • Replace with this: 15% off for one week

      When you're done, the new Variation should look like the one in the following image.
      How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Three Variations IX

      8. Add another Variation just like you did in Step 6. To do so, click the three dot menu and select Add to All. SiteSpect creates a new blank Variation at the bottom of the Variation Group. Name it 15% off - Checkout Page. Complete the Variation as follows:
      • Select Regex from the drop-down.
      • URL: /checkout.html (Don't forget to escape this text. See Step 3 above for instructions.)
      • Find this: Everyday Savings
      • Replace with this: 15% off for one week

      When you're done, the new Variation should look like the one in the following image.
      How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Three Variations X

      Now you've got three Variations inside the Variation Group, as shown in the following image. All the Variations are shown closed.

      How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Three Variations XI

      Create Two More Variation Groups

      Now that you've successfully create a Variation Group that contains three Variations, you're going to create two more Variation Groups that are very similar to the one you already created. When you create additional Variation Groups within a Campaign, the new Variation Groups contain the same Variations as the first.

      To add a Variation Group:

      1. Select Copy from the three-dot menu in the name row for the Variation Group.

        How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Two More Variation Groups

        SiteSpect creates a new Variation Group containing the same Variations as the first Variation Group.

        How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Two More Variation Groups II

      2. Rename Variation Group 2 to 20% off today. This is the second sale offer from the example presented at the top of the page.

        How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Two More Variation Groups III

      3. Open the top Variation by clicking the small arrow and notice that it is exactly as you created for the first Variation Group above (15% off for one week). However, for the new Variation Group, you'll have to make a few changes in order for it to work as you want:
      • Change the name of the Variation to 20% off - Home page.
      • Change the replacement text to 20% off today.
      Note: Leave the Trigger as is because you want this Variation to be tested on the home page.

      When you have made these changes, the Variation looks like the one in the following image.

      How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Create Two More Variation Groups IV

      1. Edit the second and third Variations as you did for the first, except with the following settings. In addition, leave the Triggers the same.
        • Second Variation
          • Rename it to 20% off Products page.
          • Replacement text 20% off today.
        • Third Variation
          • Rename it to 20% off Checkout page.
          • Replacement text 20% off today.
      2. Create a third Variation Group by clicking the plus sign at the end of the name row for the second Variation Group (20% off today). Rename it to 10% off next purchase.
      3. Complete Steps 3 and 4 for the third Variation Group to make the correct settings for its Variations as follows:
      • First Variation
        • Rename it to 10% off Home page.
        • Replacement text 10% off next purchase.
      • Second Variation
        • Rename it to 10% off Products page.
        • Replacement text 10% off next purchase.
      • Third Variation
        • Rename it to 10% off Checkout page.
        • Replacement text 10% off next purchase.
      1. Leave all the Triggers as is.

      Add a KPI

      1. Open the Metrics area of the page and drag one Metric to the KPI box. In this case, the example shows that the KPI is a Metric called Checkout Complete. This measures how many visitors get to the Checkout Complete page.

      How do I create an AB Test with multiple Variation Groups - Add a KPI

      2. Click Save at the bottom of the page to save your new Campaign. This Campaign will be listed on the Campaign List page and remains in Review mode until either you start it running or it's start date arrives.