Build a Standard Test Experience

Standard Test experiences allow you to test different versions of some change on your site against a control variant. You can learn more about the behavior of your customers and test new content before pushing it to a larger portion of your audience or to your entire audience using a 100% Experience. Each site visitor in the defined audience sees a random variant from the experience you build. Site visitors remain in this variant group for the duration of their session.

The Standard Test experience type persists across sessions so long as the site visitor doesn't clear their Monetate ID mv.t cookie. Monetate stores the initially assigned variant in the cookie so that it persists for the length of the test for consistency. Once you set up a Standard Test experience, any returning visitor is exposed to the very same variant with each new session each time they return to the site. See The Monetate Session for more information.

Follow these steps to build a Standard Test Web experience.

  1. Click EXPERIENCES in the top navigation bar, and then click Web.

    Callout of the Web option in the COMPONENTS menu

  2. Click CREATE EXPERIENCE.

    Callout of the CREATE EXPERIENCE button

  3. Name the experience.

    Animated demonstration of a user typing and saving a name on the Experience Editor page

  4. Configure the WHY settings.
    1. Click WHY.

      Callout of the WHY settings

    2. Select To test multiple metrics with random traffic allocation, and then click NEXT.

      Callout of the STANDARD TEST option and the NEXT button

    3. Select a goal metric, adjust the statistical significance level for the goal metric if necessary, and then click NEXT.

      Animated demonstration of a user selecting a goal metric, viewing the options in the SIGNIFICANCE LEVEL selector, and then clicking the NEXT button

    4. Configure as necessary the secondary metrics by one or both of these options. Click NEXT to confirm the secondary metrics after you configure them.
      • Remove any default secondary metrics as necessary. Hover over a metric name, and then click the minus sign (–) that appears at the end of the row.

        Callout of a secondary metric with the delete icon in view along with a callout of the NEXT button

      • Add custom metrics or default metrics that you removed by clicking ADD METRIC, selecting one or more of the options in the Add Metrics modal, and then clicking CHOOSE SELECTED.

        Animated demonstration of a user selecting two custom metrics in the Add Metrics modal and then clicking the CHOOSE SELECTED button

    5. Confirm that the WHY summary statement is accurate, and then click SAVE.

      Example of the WHY summary statement with a callout of the SAVE button

  5. Optionally, configure the experience to target a more specific group of site visitors instead of all visitors, the default setting. Click WHO, click ADD TARGET, select a target type, and then complete the settings for that target. See Configure Experience Targeting and Types of WHO Targets for more information about target options and settings.

    Callout of the WHO settings and the ADD TARGET button

  6. Configure the WHAT settings.
    1. Configure at least one WHAT action. Click the A field, click ADD ACTION, select an action type, and then complete the settings for that action. Refer to the Actions section of the User Guide for more information.

      Callout of the A field in the WHAT settings and the ADD ACTION button

    2. Optionally, add more variants to test multiple versions of action A. Hover your mouse pointer over the plus sign (+) under the Control field of the WHAT settings, click ADD VARIANT when it appears, select an option, and then configure the variant. See Add Variants to a Web Experience for more information.

      Callout of the ADD VARIANT selector

    3. Optionally, configure the traffic allocation for each variant and the control.

      By default each variant receives an even traffic distribution. See Allocating Traffic in Add Variants to a Web Experience for more information.

      Callout of the Traffic Allocation selector

  7. Click WHEN, click START AND STOP TIME, and then configure the date and time settings for the experience. See Configure Experience Timing for more information.

    You must click Specific End Date before you can add an end date and time to your experience.

    Callout of the WHEN settings and the START AND STOP TIME option

  8. Click PREVIEW and then select the option that corresponds to the variant you want to preview and if you want to preview it alone or with all other active experiences. See Activate an Experience for Preview and Testing for more information.

    The experience preview options for a Standard Text experience

  9. Click ACTIVATE to deploy the experience to your site as determined by the WHEN configuration.

    Callout of the ACTIVATE button

Refer to Experience Priority and Enable Auto-Promotion for Experiences for more information about how experiences are prioritized.

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