Optimizing the performance of your page is key to increase sales and conversions. Our A/B testing tool provides you with the tools to do this.
A/B testing is currently available on the Optimize plan. If you would like to upgrade, you can do so in the Settings of your Shogun dashboard, or get into contact with support if you are on a legacy Shogun plan.
How to Create an A/B Test
Getting an A/B test started is easy. Simply click on the 'Start Test' option in the menu in the top-right of the editor.
Once you have started the test, you will notice a few changes to the editor. New tabs named original and variant a will appear in the editor, which will allow you to switch views between the pages that you are A/B testing. Beside these tabs, you will also notice that there is an objective of your A/B test, in this case, clickthrough.
Create different content in the "Original" and "Variant A" editor tabs to test which version is best received.
What metrics can I compare?
Shogun currently offers you three metrics to compare your page variants:
- Clickthrough
- Sales
- Add to Cart
Tracking clickthrough on a Shogun page
When starting a test, you can choose to select the clickthrough metric to measure the variant of the page. This will measure the traffic of users through this page to another page of your choice. To get started, click start test and select clickthrough.
Once you select the dropdown to select a page you will be presented with a number of options.
- Find page allows for you to search through your Shogun pages
- Add URL allows you to add any web URL. This can be an internal URL for your store or a completely different website.
- Page list will list the recent pages from your store, as a convenient way to link your pages to the test.
Once you have selected a page, hit set to confirm your selection.
Tracking sales on a Shogun page
The second option within the A/B testing tool is to track sales on your Shogun pages. This will track the order from adding the product to the cart, right to the sale of the product.
Tracking Add to Cart clicks on a Shogun page
The final option to track your Shogun page performance is based on the number of visitors clicking the add to cart button on your pages. This is a great metric to compare to sales to determine if your visitors adding a product to their cart is translating into a sale or not.
Please note, you must have an Add to Cart button on your page for this metric to be able to track data.
How do I set who sees this test?
After you click 'publish' you will be given the option to set the 'Variant Percentage', this is the percentage of your visitors that will receive the variant of your page.
Automatically setting the page live
If you would like the test to handle itself, you may set it to auto-publish once enough data has been collected and we have confidence in a winner. Set autopilot on if you would like this to happen.
Setting a timeframe for your test
If you do not want us to automatically publish the page when we have a result, you can set your own timeframe on your test. First, set autopilot to off and you will be presented with more options.
You can then set this to auto-publish the best performing page once this test has completed by checking the 'publish winner on completion' option.
How do I know if a test is running?
You will see this in your dashboard when you are running a test, you will notice that the status of the page is 'running test'.
Opening this page will also let you know that a test is running for this page.
How can I view the results of my test?
No test is complete without results! Simply open up the page and you will be given the option to check out the current results of the test, even if it is still going!
This can also be accessed through the page analytics!
What happens when my A/B test ends?
Your test will run for the duration that you set it to run for, or, if you have chosen the more automatic route, this will run until we have a clear winner based on the confidence level of the variants.
When a test has ended, you will see four key pieces of information about the test.
- The user sessions: this is the number of users that took part in the test on the pages
- How long the test ran for in total
- Our confidence in the winning variant
- The winning variant, whether it was the original or the variant of the page
Viewing old versions of variants
You can easily view older variants of a page or variants that have been tested on the page by using the Versions tool. For versions with variants, you will see the 'Show Variants' option, clicking this will show you the variants of your page and give you the option to revert to these, if you choose.
Note: The A/B testing feature is currently available for select platforms and plans. Please contact our support team for details on how to add this tool to your account.
Past webinar: A/B Testing to Increase Conversion
A/B Testing FAQ
My data is not showing!
Data can take up to 24 hours to first populate. This gives Shogun time to compile the first set of data, and give the platform time to collect information that you may find valuable.
My add to cart objective is not showing data!
First, check that there is an add to cart button added to your page. If there is not an add to cart button added to the page, then this objective will not track any data, as it does not have an add to cart button to track.
Do the variant pages have a different URL?
No! The URL for both the original page and the variant is the exact same URL. Your content is served up by Javascript right in the page, rather than providing different URLs.