Website Optimiser

How to launch your first A/B Experiment

Once you have chosen a test page and have created the new content variations, you will then be ready to access the tool and setup your test. For your first Website Optimiser experiment we would recommend launching an A/B experiment as this is the easiest type of test to launch and generally requires less data (traffic/conversions) to obtain a conclusive result.

To launch an A/B test please follow the step by step guide below:

1. Getting started

1. To access Website Optimiser within your AdWords account please visit the following link.
2. Read and accept the terms of service if you haven't already done so.
3. Click Create a new experiment.
4. Select Create from the A/B Experiment field.
5. Confirm that you've completed the “Before you start list“ by selecting the checkbox and clicking Continue.

2. Setting up the experiment

1. Enter an Experiment name.
2. Enter the Original page URL – this should be the original page of your website which you'll be testing. It should also be accessible to our validation, meaning that it can't be hidden behind a password.
3. Enter the Page variation URL – this is your first alternative page, which will replace your original page for some percentage of your visitors. Again, make sure the page is accessible. You can give this (and all other alternative pages) any name you like. The name will be used in your reports, but won't be shown to users.
4. Click Add another page variation to add more alternative pages.
5. Enter your Conversion page URL. This is the page that marks a successful visit, whether it be a purchase, signup, or article view.

3. Install and validate JavaScript tags

If someone else, such as your site's webmaster, will be adding the JavaScript tags to your pages, select My web team will install… and forward the displayed URL to them. They'll be able to access all of your account-specific code, but they won't have access to any other part of your AdWords or Website Optimiser account.

If you'll be adding the code to your pages yourself, select that option and click Continue. The next page will provide you with step by step instructions on tagging the relevant pages.

Once all of your pages have been updated and uploaded to your server, click Validate pages. Website Optimiser will visit your pages and check for correct installation of your code. If there are problems with the code, you'll be notified of the error and told on which page the error occurred. Please fix the code and click Validate pages again when you're ready to validate.

If everything checks out okay, click OK then Continue to proceed.

4. Preview and setting up your experiment

Your experiment is ready to go at this point – if you'd like to see all of your pages, click the Preview link. If you're ready to start the experiment, click Start experiment. We'll start the A/B test immediately, and data should be available in your reports within 24 hours.

If you are looking for more advanced technical instructions you can download our techie guide (English) for free.

For specific questions/information on test implementation, please visit the Official Website Optimiser Forum.