Sometimes when you're creating marketing campaigns, there are multiple ideas as to how to execute the campaign. Whether it's a different email subject line, design, or CTA, being able to test these different ideas is critical to optimizing your campaigns to increase your open rate, click rate, or whatever your objective is.
With SimplyCast 360, you can easily create an A/B Split Test campaign to test different ideas at the same time. In order to create this campaign, as pictured above, you will need to use the following elements:
- Send to List at Fixed Time
- Percentage Split
- Email Campaign x 2
It's important to note that this example will test two different email campaigns. If you'd like to test two different SMS messages or an SMS message and an email campaign, drag those elements into the workspace instead of the two email campaigns.
The first step in this campaign is to drag in your Send to List at Fixed Time element and attach it to a Percentage Split element by clicking, holding, and dragging the arrow in the bottom left of the element until it is connected to the second element.
Go back and click on the Send to List at Fixed Time element and refer to the black sidebar on the left. This sidebar provides you with a place to choose your list and time for your A/B split test. First, you need to click on the Time field in the sidebar and choose the date and time you would like to send your A/B split test. Once the day and time are set, click off the calendar view and click Select List to choose the contact list you want to put through the A/B Split Test campaign.
Once the decisions are set for the Send to List at Fixed Time element, move to the Percentage Split element and attach it to the two email campaigns in the flow in the same way you connected Send to List at Fixed Time to Percentage Split.
You'll notice after you attach Percentage Split to the Email Campaigns that the connection says "Branch 0% Chance." To change this to a 50/50 split, click on the block on the three lines in the corner of the connection and select Split Setting. You will now be presented with a pop-up window called Percentage Split Error. This is where you set how much of the traffic from the list you added back in Send to List at Fixed Time goes to each message. In most cases, you'll have two messages so you'll likely want to set both options to 50%. However, you could make it 75% to 25% or any other combination if you like. You could also have more than two campaigns and make the split evenly depending on how many you're testing.
Once the flow is set as described, go into the campaign editor for your messages and create your content as usual. Once you're satisfied with the whole flow and all the content, click Next in the bottom right-hand side of the screen. From the following screen, you can activate your account as usual and click next to be brought to the Cross-Check page.
Once everything is approved on the Cross-Check page, you may click next to complete your campaign. Your uploaded contact list will be randomly divided between the messages in the flow at the time you chose at the initial node. Wait until a couple of days after the campaign has sent to go into the 360 Reports to see how each email performed.
When you go to review your A/B Split Test campaign report, you can select both messages in the campaign and click Compare Reports to see the results on the same page. This is very helpful for determining which message performed better. Once you have the results and know the better message, you can move forward in your campaign by sending only the best message.
Try this flow out for yourself in SimplyCast 360! Not a SimplyCast user? Sign up for a 14-day free trial and see how this campaign can work for you.
