Create a Multivariate Campaign

Before You Start

• Before you create a Multivariate Campaign, familiarize yourself with the terminology and ways they can be used.
• Send combinations to at least 5,000 subscribers to make sure you receive the most useful data from your test. If the size of your list or segment doesn’t allow for 5,000 subscribers in each combination, we strongly recommend that you test your entire list and use your campaign results to inform future campaign content decisions.
• Wait at least four hours after you send a Multivariate Campaign to send a winning campaign. Many subscribers won’t engage with your campaign sooner, which can misinform your test results. Shorter test times may cause a losing combination to go out to the rest of your list. You can see the campaign results at the time the winner was selected in the campaign report.
• In Multivariate Campaigns where Content is a variable, choose the winner by best click rate, since opens occur before a subscriber views your content.

Create a Multivariate Campaign

Multivariate Campaigns are built in a series of steps, just like other campaign types. If you haven’t started building a Multivariate Campaign yet, start at the beginning of these instructions. If you already started and saved your progress, skip to the step you want to work on.

To create a new Multivariate Campaign, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the Campaigns page.
2. Click the drop-down menu next to Create Campaign, and choose Multivariate Campaign.
   

Recipients Step

On the first step of the Campaign Builder, choose the list or segment you want to send your campaign to. To send to a segment, configure a new segment on this screen, or choose a saved segment.

Variables Step

You’ll configure the elements you want to test on the Variables step.

1. Click the Plus icon for each variable you want to test.
2. Click the Plus or Minus icons to add or remove additional variations of the variable.
   You can test up to three of four variables, to create up to eight combinations. The number of variations of each variable multiplied together equals the number of combinations. This number is shown in the Summary.
   
   For example, if you want to test 3 subject lines and 2 variations of content, we’ll generate 6 combinations of your campaign.
3. Under How should we split your recipients?, click and drag the slider to set the percentage your recipients you want to send your test combinations to.
   
   Send combinations to 100% of your recipients if your list or segment doesn’t allow for 5,000 subscribers in each combination. If you’re testing Send time, this is your only option.
   
   Review the Summary to see how many of your subscribers will receive each combination.
4. Choose whether to determine a winner based on open rate, click rate, total revenue, or manually. Then, choose how long you want the test to run.
   
   At the end of the test phase, we’ll send the winning combination to your remaining recipients.

During the test phase, you can convert to manual selection to choose the winner from the campaign report.

Setup Step

Depending on which variables you test, the Setup step will present multiple Email subject, From email address and name, and Subject line fields.

1. Type in your variation content in the fields provided. Settings for Send time variations also appear on this step.
   
2. Check the boxes next to your preferred settings or tracking options.

Content Step

The Content step is where you add content for your campaign. What you see on this step will vary if you choose to test content.

Test Subject Line, From Name, or Send Time

1. Choose your layout on the Template step of the Content Builder.
2. On the Design step of the Content Builder, design and test your campaign.
3. When everything is how you want, click Confirm Before Sending.

Test Content

The Content setup page shows a preview for each variation of your campaign content. To add content to each variation, follow these steps.

1. Click Add Content for any variation of your campaign.
   
2. Select your layout on the Template step of the Content Builder.
3. On the Design step of the Content Builder, design and test your campaign. When everything is how you want, click Next.
4. On the Description step of the Content Builder, type in text to describe the variation of the content. Your subscribers won’t see this description, but it will help you remember the differences between each variation.
   
5. Click Continue to Content to return to your content variations.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for each content variation. On the Template step, use a different template or select a variation you already designed in the Previous Variations tab.
   
7. When everything is how you want, click Next.

Confirm Step

The Confirm step is where you’ll review the combinations that make up your Multivariate Campaign.

1. Review the Pre-delivery Checklist. Click Resolve or Edit to make changes to any section.
2. After you’re finished, Send your campaign now or Schedule it to go out later.
   

Account users with a Manager user level or higher will receive an email when a winner has been automatically chosen, or after four hours if you haven’t yet picked a winner manually.

Manually Choose Winner

If you chose Manual Selection from the drop-down menu on the Variables step of the Campaign Builder, you’ll be able to view the campaign report after the test combinations are sent, and choose the winner.

To manually choose a winner, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the Reports page.
2. Click View Report for the Multivariate Campaign you want to work with.
3. An alert will tell you how long into the testing phase you are and recommend that you wait at least four hours.
   
4. Review the report for each combination. Under Finalize your test, click the radio button next to the combination you want to send to your remaining subscribers.
   
5. Click Send To Remaining Recipients.
   
6. Click Send Now in the confirmation pop-up modal to send the winning campaign.

Convert to Manual Selection

After you send your test with the choice to have the winner chosen by open rate, click rate, or total revenue, you may decide that you want to manually choose the winning combination instead.

To convert to manual selection after you sent your campaign, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the Reports page.
2. Click View Report for the Multivariate Campaign you want to work with.
3. Click Convert to manual selection in the alert block.
   
4. In the pop-up modal, type CONVERT and click Convert.
   
5. When you’re ready, choose a combination to immediately send to your remaining subscribers.