Split Testing Campaigns

Split testing is a powerful tool that can ultimately increase your open and click rates, as well as the general effectiveness of your email marketing efforts. It works by allowing you to send two or more slightly different versions of your message to different portions of your list, and then compare the reporting results afterward. You can even create a special kind of Split Testing Campaign that will pause after sending a portion of your emails, determine which version of your message has the higher read rate or click rate, and then send that “winning” message to the remainder of your list.

Creating a Split Testing Campaign

To create a Split Testing Campaign, follow the normal steps for creating a new campaign and choose the Split Testing option under “Choose Your Campaign Type.”

On the next page, select which list or lists you would like to send the split campaign to.

Creating Your Messages

Create your email just as you would in a normal campaign by selecting a template, designing from scratch, or basing your message off of a past campaign. You'll notice a tab on the left side with the name of your campaign, and below it an "add a new message" option. Clicking this duplicates your email message so you can create a "split" or different message to test in your split testing campaign. For example, you could change the information in the header, the dominant image, or the subject line to see which version had a higher amount of clicks or opens. We usually recommend doing at least two versions in a split testing campaign, and no more than four.

Click the tabs on the left of the message editing screen to view or edit your message, or click the “X” to delete a message from your split campaign.

Standard Split Campaign

When you have finished adding and editing messages in your Split Campaign, scroll down to see more split testing options.
You can set up your campaign to send to equal percentages of your whole list, and when the campaign is complete, you can compare the reports between all messages. To do this, select "Do not determine the winner," and each message will be sent to a randomized percentage of your list.

Advanced: Determining the Winner

You can also set up your split campaign to first send the messages to a smaller percentage of your list, pause, then determine which message performed better or was the “winner” based on the open or click rates. Once the winner is determined, the message will be sent to the remainder of the list. This helps ensure the best possible response rate for your campaign.
After choosing to “Determine (and send using) the winner,” choose whether you would like the winner to be selected by the open rate or click rate, and select how long it will take to determine the winner. Then set the percentage each message will be sent to.

Reporting

When the Split Campaign is finished, you can view the overall report for the campaign as well as individual reports per message.

To view the report, click the Campaigns tab and click the Reports link next to campaign you sent. By default, you will see the overall report. There’s a drop-down menu in the upper right corner that allows you to filter the reports to reflect only the statistics of a certain message in a Split Campaign.