Some Initial Thoughts From the First Google Optimizer Test

What I had in my head the whole time I searched for an A/B tester was that I would create multiple versions of the pages I was testing. In Google Optimizer, you actually define sections of code you want to swap within a page. I haven't tried it yet but I assume you can just define the whole page or just the body etc.

So I already had my first test in mind which basically took a sales page, where I was selling 3 eBooks, and swapped out the way I presented the books. The default setup was to show all three eBooks as a "package" for a single price. The 'test' was to show the primary eBook, which is the one most of my traffic is driven by, as the eBook for sale, and the other two as Free Bonuses for buying the first. In addition, I was going to put in the ole' regular higher price crossed out graphic above the actual price.

With this in mind, when I got in to G optimizer for the first time last night (moments after finding my beta invite email in the spam filter!), I struggled with whether I should do such a test for my first try.

See, the way G optimizer is setup, having you define sections of code, required me to pinpoint the exact start and stop points within the larger page - I guess I could have done the whole body - but I was still a little anxious. Another thought was if I do the whole body, what if I want to test something smaller, within the body test section tags? This would be "nested testing" as I see it...and I thought about it a lot while lying in bed a few hours ago. I think I'll test nested testing today, and make it the subject of My next post. In any case, the way its setup I think will ultimately be fantastic for it will give incredible flexibility to testing - and that's the point...test 2 headlines on a page in combination with 4 different sales pitches and just let G optimizer tell you what the best combination of the 6 variables is - which combo makes the most conversions? For those of you who have taken the gmat or other similar tests - think permutations - then think about how much time this "section of code" testing is saving you over doing it a full page at a time. In the 2 headlines and 4 sales pitches, you would have to make 8 pages if you used a straight full page a/b tester.

Another thing I stumbled on and pondered a bit was the "percent of test" setting - I wasn't quite sure if this meant "% we will swap the pages" i.e. your test page will be shared 50% and 50% between the original and the optimized - or whatever - in any case it cant be this with all the different variations - it's just how much you want the test running vs. how much you want your standard pre- google optimizer pages running.

What is an Experiment? Another stumbling point - do I setup an experiment for a site, a page, a part of a page....I set up a G Optimizer "experiment" for a page, with multiple tests under that experiment. Sort of like a "Campaign and Ad Group" in AdWords. So, my experiment is the sales page (the "test" page in the setup) - I named the experiment "Sales Page Old Price and Bonus" to correspond with the two tests I mentioned earlier. Within that Experiment, I have sections of code tagged and some alternate html setup to swap (this is easy to setup in "new experiment' process) for each section. For example, with the "old price" graphic, which is just the higher price crossed out above the current price, I defined a section of blank space above the price, and the alternate or test code was simply the html to place and center the graphic there.

I was about to continue with another issue of tracking code and templates, but I think it deserves it's own post...