An A/B test helps you to measure engagement for different versions of the same email with a sample of recipients. After creating a marketing email, create a version B to test how a single variation influences email's open or click rate. Depending on how each version of your email performs over a period of time, the tool will pick the winning version to send to the rest of your recipients list.
To Create your A/B test emails
- Go to Marketing > Email in your HubSpot account.
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Click Create email. This will be version A of your A/B test.
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Click the A/B icon in the left sidebar, then click Create A/B test.
- In the new box, enter the name for the variation B email, then click OK.
- After creating both versions of your A/B test email, you can switch between the two variations at any time by clicking the A or B tab.
Select the criteria for A/B test
After editing your A and B email variations, configure testing options. Click the A/B tab on the left side of the content editor.
- A/B distribution: use the slider to decide what percentage of contacts will receive Variation A and Variation B.
- Winning metric: if you've opted to send variations A and B to a smaller group, then send the winning version to the remaining recipients. Click the dropdown Winning metric and select the metric that will decide how the winning variation will be chosen: Opens by delivered, Clicks by delivered, or Clicks by opens.
- Test duration: use the slider to set a time period to gather data before choosing a winner.
- If the sample size is too low, send: if the final list size is too small i.e less than 1,000 contacts, only the version that you will select here will be sent to the recipients.
- If the results are inconclusive, send: if the results for the winning metric are inconclusive after the test duration has ended, the version you will select here will be sent to the remaining recipients.
Send the A/B test email and gather results
- Click the Send or schedule tab to send or schedule the email.
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Once your email is sent and the test duration ends, you can analyze the performance of your email variations in the email details:
- Go to Marketing > Email in your HubSpot account.
- Click the name of your A/B email. You can see the results on the Performance page. The winning email version and metric will be highlighted in green.
- Click the dropdown Email version in the upper right to analyze the email results for your email overall, or for either of the variations.