How to set up A/B testing for your Email Campaigns

Created by Abderraouf Boukhadra, Modified on Mon, 13 Nov, 2023 at 12:59 PM by Abderraouf Boukhadra

Email marketers! Are you looking for a way to test and improve the impact of your emails?

With A/B Test Campaigns, you can now test up to 6 different versions of an email campaign with your recipient list.


By testing multiple variations of your email campaigns, you can get valuable insight to help create content that resonates with your audience and drives them to action.


Try out A/B Test Campaigns today and see why they’re the best way to measure the success of your emails. Follow the guide below to get started.



Please Note:
- A minimum 10 contacts are needed for each variation. At least 40 total contacts are needed to conduct any split test. 
- A/B test campaigns can be only sent via using send now or scheduling the campaign. It will not work for batch schedule or RSS schedule.

- During the duration that is set, if there were no results for click or open rate as chosen, by default the first variation will be sent out as winning variation.


Covered in this article:

How A/B Test Email Campaigns work 

How to Set up an A/B Test Email Campaign

  • Step 1: Go to Marketing > Emails > Select "Campaign" from the dropdown. After creating a new Email Campaign, there is an option to enable "A/B Testing."
  • Step 2: Choose which you would like to split test: Email subject line or Email content.
  • Step 3: Choosing the A/B Test Duration time frame
  • Step 4: Choosing the number of split test variations
  • Step 5: Choose the Winning Criteria
  • Step 6: Testing your A/B Split test



How A/B Test Email Campaigns work 

  • Choose one element to test, such as your email subject line or email content.
  • Set the number of variations to be tested - A maximum of 6 variations can be tested. 
  • Set the duration for when the test should run - Test duration can be set from 30mins to 24 hours. 
  • Select the sample size of recipients for the test (each variation will be sent to exactly half of the sample)
  • Choose the method for determining the winner: open rate or click rate.




Step 1: Go to MarketingEmails > Select "Campaign" from the dropdown. After creating a new Email Campaign, there is an option to enable "A/B Testing."


  1. Please Note:
A/B test campaigns can be only sent via using send now or scheduling the campaign. It will not work for batch schedule or RSS schedule.





Step 2: Choose which you would like to split test: Email subject line or Email content.



  • Email Subject Line (Optimize Open Rates) - It is necessary to play around with the length of the subject line or add personalization to get better open rates. Email subject lines are the first thing the recipients will see when receiving an email campaign since subject lines are visible to them before they even open your campaign.


  • Email Content (Optimize Click Rates)- You can test different elements in the campaign content that could influence or not the conversion or action from the recipients, like different section titles, article length, call-to-action buttons, images, videos, and more. 



Step 3: Choosing the A/B Test Duration time frame


A/B testing is a key part of any email marketing strategy, and properly selecting the duration time frame is essential to success. It is important to consider how long it will take for customers to recognize, read, and act on emails when determining the duration time frame, as this can impact your results. 


In this step, we select the time period after the combinations are sent out, compared to the results for open or click rates. 


Data collected during the test phase can be used to determine the email campaign's winning combination. Test duration is between 
30mins to 24 hours.



Please Note:

During the duration that is set, if there were no results for click or open rate as chosen, by default the first variation will be sent out as winning variation.




Step 4: Choosing the number of split test variations 

The number of variations in the email campaign will be based on the strategy that you are following. To set the Test Size, use the slider to decide what percentage of contacts will receive different variations. You can also set the slider to variations to 50%.

Please Note:

A minimum 10 contacts are needed for each variation. At least 40 total contacts are needed to conduct any split test. 






Step 5: Choose the Winning Criteria

Select which winning metric you want to measure: Unique Open Rate or Unique Click Rate


Step 6: Testing your A/B Split test

Once the A/B Test emails are prepared, and you are happy, you may test the email campaign or preview the campaign by clicking on the 3 dots.


To publish/launch your campaign to the selected receipts, please set the delivery method to either 'Send Now' or 'Schedule For Specific Date/time'.


  1. Please Note:
A/B test campaigns can be only sent via using send now or scheduling the campaign. It will not work for batch schedule or RSS schedule.


Once the email campaigns are sent out, you may check the enhanced statistics and reports of variations and overall email campaigns.

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