Split testing allows you to test your message open, read, click, click to open, and conversion rates. Listrak offers two different ways to create a split test: 1) automated email split testing and 2) manual split testing.
What is the difference?
The automated split testing tool places contacts who meet any filters into a new split testing group each time a split test is sent. This means that if you schedule 2 different AM vs PM split tests a contact could receive an AM message in one test and a PM message in the other test.
The manual split test places contacts who meet any filters into the same split testing group until a split testing segment is created. This means that if you schedule 2 different AM vs PM split tests a contact would receive either the AM or PM message for both sends.
The second major difference is how new subscribers acquired between send 1 and send 2 are handled.
In an automated split test, new subscribers are added to either the AM or PM group if they meet the applied filter.
In the manual split test, new subscribers are added to a remainder segment. When scheduling a split test you can choose to send these remainder contacts a send or only send to the pre-established segments.
Creating a Manual Split Segment
The split segment determines which contacts are are in each segment and if any contacts are included in the remainder.
Navigate to Contacts > Email Contacts Split Test Segmentation.
Select the filters you'd like to use to determine which contacts should receive the split test messages. If no filters are applied every contact will receive the split test message.
💡 When a filter is applied, contacts who do not fit the filter criteria will be added to the remainder group.
Enter a percentage of the list that you're split testing. This represents the percentage of contacts who meet the filter who will receive the message. To conduct a split test on all contacts who meet a filter, set the percentage to 100%.
Enter the number of segments that you're splitting. Under the input box you will see the approximate number of contacts who will be included in each segment.
💡 If the number of contacts eligible to receive a message cannot be evenly split into the number of segments, the additional contacts will be added to the remainder group.
Once your split segment is finalized, click Generate Test Segment.
⚠️ Each time a test segment is generated it will overwrite any existing segment you have created. If you return to the Split Test Segmentation page the values will reset and not represent any existing segments created.
You can view the progress of your test segment creation in the progress monitor by navigating to Settings > General Settings Progress Monitor.
💡 The account owner will receive a an email that confirms the split test segment was created. The email will be labeled as Listrak Split Test Segmentation Update.
Adding Segments to a Message
After the segments are generated, you can add them to each version of the message. This process assumes you have already created the messages that will be include in the manual split test.
⚠️ The filter for split test should be simple. You have already used the filter when creating the test segmentation to determine who is eligible for the message. Adding additional filters may leave your messages being sent to an uneven number of contacts.
Navigate to Messages > Email View Saved Email > click the name of the saved message.
Scroll to the Segmentation Filter Settings.
Click Edit Filter.
Select System Fields.
Then Split Test Segment.
Select Segment 1 and apply the filter.
Repeat steps 1-5 for the second split test message.
Select Segment 2 and apply the filter.
If you are sending to additional segments continue this process until you have applied each numbered segment to a message.
💡 If desired, you can send another version of the message to the remainder contacts. This will send a message to anyone not eligible to receive the split test because they did not meet the filters or because you chose not to send to 100% of eligible contacts. It will also include any contacts who have subscribed since you created your manual split test segment.
Common Use Cases
One of the most common use cases is to split test the effectiveness of send time optimization. Create a split on your active audience and send one group the email at your standard send time and the other group a send using STO.
Maintain a group over time. This method does not rely on a specific group, but rather sending multiple split tests over time to see their performance. This allows you to analyze the results to see if they remain consistent over the test. The groups will maintain the same unless contacts unsubscribe and are removed from a group.