Running an A/B test

An A/B test splits your visitors between two or more versions and measures which one earns more. A/B tests are available on the Growth plan (3 running at a time, up to 4 versions per test) and the Scale plan (no limit on running tests, up to 8 versions).

What you can test#

• Page A/B — two or more versions of a whole page.
• Section test — two versions of one section on a page.
• Journey holdout — a journey against no journey. This one is created for you when you turn on a journey holdout; see Journeys, frequency caps and holdouts.

Each visitor is assigned to one version and keeps seeing it on later visits.

Test a section#

The quickest test. In the editor:

1. Select the section and press Split test this section in its toolbar. PageStax duplicates it as variant B, directly below, and creates the test, set to run.
2. Change variant B — a different headline, image or layout.
3. Publish the page (or push live). Shoppers are split from then on.

On the canvas, each version shows a badge with its share of visitors. The toolbar button becomes Open split-test results. You can pause the test from its screen in A/B tests.

Test a whole page#

1. In Pages, press Duplicate on the page you want to test. The copy is an independent draft.
2. Change only what the test is about in the copy.
3. Open A/B tests and press New A/B test.
4. Work through the steps: What to test (choose Page A/B), Target (the original first, then the copy), Variants, Decide on.
5. Press Create test.

The version shoppers see is decided when the page loads, and it shares the original page's address and SEO settings.

Choose what "better" means#

On the Decide on step pick the metric:

• Revenue / visitor — more orders and bigger orders. The best choice for most tests.
• Visitor → order — the share of visitors who buy.
• Visitor → cart — the share of visitors who add to cart.

And the traffic split: 50 / 50, 70 / 30, or Custom (10–90% to A). With more than two versions, traffic is split evenly.

Start it#

A test made with New A/B test is saved as a draft — nobody is split until you start it. Open the test and press Start test. From then on, real visitors are split.

Tests on the same page#

On plans other than Scale, a page can run one test at a time. Scale allows overlapping tests on one page and shows how the combinations performed.

Next: Reading results.