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Our Advanced Testing feature allows you to define your test segments and select the criteria used to determine the winning test segment. The elements from the winning test segment will then be applied to the winner segment of the Advanced Test.
An Advanced Test can be configured via multiple paths in the platform.
- Select Send Advanced Test from the Actions menu for the email in the Email Manager.
- Adding an Advanced Test activity to the Process Automation canvas.
- Adding an Advanced Test activity to the Journey Automation canvas.
The configuration of an Advanced Test does vary between a Process Automation and Journey Automation.
Configuring an Advanced Test for a Process Automation
Advanced Test activities consist of four separate tabs that need to be configured in order to send the email. Many of the elements within these tabs can be found in a standard Email activity and AB Test sends.
Configuration Step
To begin configuring your Advanced Test, fill out the information in the initial tab. This tab consists of the basic information for the Advanced Test and allows you to define your audience.
Email Send Configuration
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name given to the automation and Advanced Test. This is editable and can be changed as needed. |
| Description | Enter a description for this Advanced Test. |
| Campaign Tag | Select a Campaign Tag for the Advanced Test. |
| Reports Folder | Select the folder for the Advanced Test to reside in. |
| Track Opens | Enable Open Tracking for the Advanced Test. This is set to Yes by default. |
| Track Links | Enable Click Tracking for the Advanced Test. This is set to Yes by default. |
| Web Tracking | Enable Web Tracking for the Advanced Test. If Web Tracking is configured for your client, this option will be defaulted to Yes. |
| Web Analytics | Enable Web Analytics for the Advanced Test. If Web Analytics is configured for your client, this option will be defaulted to Yes. |
| Send Classification | Select the Send Classification for the Advanced Test. |
Advanced Options
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Contact May be Sent This Activity Only Once | If selected, any contacts who have passed through this automation previously will be suppressed. |
| Deduplicate Audience By Email Address | Deduplicates the audience by email address ensuring one email is sent to each recipient. This option is enabled by default. |
| Use Recipient's Preferred Email Frequency When Known | Allows you to send based on the recipient's email frequency if this feature is enabled on your account. |
| Email Frequency | Allows you to suppress sending to contacts who have received an email in the previous X number of days. |
| Opt-out Override | If yes, send messages regardless of a contact's opt-out status. The is configured to No by default. If the Send Classification is configured to Transactional, this will update to Yes. |
| Fail MX Rejections | If yes, do not attempt to retry delivery of messages because of a MX rejection, e.g, 554 Transaction Failed. This is set to No by default. |
| Fail DNS Timeouts | If yes, do not attempt to retry delivery of messages because of a DNS timeout, e.g, not able to reach host. This is set to No by default. |
| Never Retry Delivery | If yes, the system will bypass the email retry process. |
Audience Selection
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| List(s) | Use this field to select Static or Dynamic Lists that will be used in the audience for the Advanced Test. |
| Sendable Data Table(s) | Use this field to select Sendable Data Tables that will be used in the audience for the Advanced Test. Data Tables must be configured in your client to use this option. |
| Coupon Table | Select the iPost Coupon Table the content is using for the Coupon iTL. |
| Suppression List(s) | Use this field if you would like to suppress contacts found on a list. |
| Suppression Data Table(s) | Use this field if you would like to suppress contacts found in a sendable data tables. |
| MD5 Suppression List(s) |
Use this field if you would like to suppress records found on a MD5 Suppression List. |
Please note, a minimum of 100 contacts are required to configure an advanced test.
Once you have completed the Configuration Step, click Next to move to the Segments Step.
Segments Step
In the Segments Step tab, you can select the email content that will be used in the Advanced Test. You have the option of using the same email content for the test segments, or selecting multiple emails to be used in the Advanced Test.
If you started the Advanced Test from a specific email, the details of that email will populate in the Segment A field. If you started the Advanced Test from a Process automation, click the Email Name field in order to select the email content for the test. Once selected, the various fields will be populated form the email content.
The Duplicate Icon allows you to add more Test Segments to your Advanced Test. The Trash Can icon allows you to delete a Test Segments.
All of the fields for each Segment are configurable for testing. This allows you to not only test different content, but also any element of the email send itself.
Once the Segments Step has been completed, click Next to move to the Distribution Step.
Distribution Step
The Distribution tab allows you to determine the size of your test audience and the distribution of the test audience between test segments. You can show the distribution size in Numbers or Percentage by clicking the box next to the corresponding type. Use the slider to adjust the audience size in the Total Distribution or Segments Distribution sections.
Make sure you are testing an appropriate audience size in order to receive the best possible results.
Total Distribution is equal to the total size of your sending audience. In this section, you can determine how much of that audience will be used for the testing audience and how much will be used for the winner send. The total of the Total Distribution section will always equal to 100% of your total audience.
Segments Distribution is equal to the Testing total in the Total Distribution section. You can then split the total Testing audience among the various Segments configured in the Segments Step. The total of the Segments Distribution section will always equal to 100% of the Testing amount.
In the example above, 30.1% of the total audience will be used for testing. The remaining 69.9% will be used for the winner send. From the 30.1% allotted for Testing, each test Segment will be sent to 45 contacts.
Once you have completed the Segments Step, click Next to move to the Test Configuration Step.
Test Configuration
The Test Configuration tab allows you to configure your test criteria for the Advanced Test and determine how to proceed with the winner send.
- Test Duration: determine the amount of time in which data is being collected in order to determine the Winning Segment.
- Test Send Time: choose whether to send the segments at the same time or at different times.
- Winning Criteria: select the criteria that will be used for determining the Winning Segment.
Test Send Time
Test Send Time is an additional test element for the Advanced Test. You are able to schedule the Test Segments to send at the same time or at various times depending on what you are testing.
If the Send at the Same Time option is selected, you will then be able to determine when the winner audience will send.
- Send Immediately Upon Completion of Testing Duration: send the winner send once the test duration completes.
- Send at Scheduled Date and Time: schedule a specific date and time for the winner send.
If the Send at Different Times option is selected, you will choose the specific dates and times for each test segment.
The time associated with the winning test segment will be used to send the winner email at the end of the test duration. This may result in the email sending a day after the test duration ends.
Winner Criteria
Winner Criteria allows you to select one of the options that will be used to determine the winner send from the test Segments reporting metrics.
| Winner Criteria | Description |
|---|---|
| Top Combinations | Selects the Subject Line, Preheader, and From based on the highest open rates and selects the content with the highest click rate for the winner's send. |
| Click Thru Rate | Selects the winner send based on the highest click rate. |
| Open Rate | Selects the Subject Line, Preheader, and From with the highest open rate. |
| Click to Open Rate | Selects the winner send based on the highest click-to-open rate. |
| Conversion Rate: Top Items Sold | Selects the winner based on the highest number of conversions. |
| Conversion Rate: Top Revenue Performing | Selects the winner based on the highest revenue. |
| Manual Selection | Allows you to select the winner after the test duration has completed. |
If Manual Selection is selected for the Winner Criteria, you will receive a System Notice with the results of the Advanced Test. After viewing the results, click the radio next to the Test Segment you wish to send to the rest of the selected audience.
A Winner Segment is required when using the Advanced Test functionality. If you need to test without a winner segment, please split your audience and send separate emails.
Once the Winner Criteria tab has been configured, click Next to review your Advanced Test configuration. Once reviewed, click Confirm to complete the activity.
From this point, you can add any other activities that may be needed to your Process Automation, then click Continue to move to Schedule the automation for sending or choose Run Immediately.