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Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, & acceptance: The A/B testing lifecycle.
- bjpless 14y agoWhat is the most frustrating A/B test that you've run?
- jack7890 14y agoAre you A/B testing different Kevin Costner photos right now? Clever. I like it.
- forgot_password 14y agoOff-topic but what do you guys use to run A/B tests?
- bjpless 14y agoWe're currently using Google Content Experiments. The Pros are that it's incredibly easy to get a test started thanks to the presence of Google Analytics scripts in the rest of the website. The major Con is the lack of true multivariate testing. We experimented with Optimizely but had a bad experience. It seemed as though their javascript was synchronous and blocking. We may have been able to customize that but did not dig deeper.
- scoremotive 14y agoAnother flaw in Google Content Experiments (which was mentioned in the article) is that it doesn't distribute traffic evenly. This is a big bummer with seasonal products/services where having the control start getting 80% of the traffic during a high conversion period makes the test useless. Overall, even though testing is easier in some ways, I definitely miss Google Website Optimizer.
- bjpless 14y agoFor our logged in user A/B testing (often relating to email), we've built an in-house solution that uses a MOD based system to track group performance (as opposed to storing each group member in our databases). Pretty clever implementation by the data scientist on our team.
- karolisd 14y agoWe've looked at Optimizely and Google, but we prefer VWO.
- btilly 14y agoGetting emotionally invested in your tests is a good recipe for an emotional rollercoaster. Don't do that. Instead try a bunch of things, and see what sticks. Be curious, not invested.
- suneel0101 14y agoThat's a great point, echoing the part of this post about not being results-oriented. Process-driven is the way to go!
- thenomad 14y agoThis is a great piece. I'm doing a lot of testing for advertising right now, and the emotional rollercoaster - no matter how sanely you attempt to approach it - can be pretty intense. It's good to see someone writing about that side of the process!
- bjpless 14y agothanks thenomad. There's a funny disconnect between the rational, detached self and the insane subconscious self present in most people.