Marketing experiments
Marketing experiments enable Marketing Managers to run alternative paths within existing web activities to determine whether small changes might improve the effectiveness of a web activity.
You can add an experiment to a web activity to deliver an alternative
marketing message. An experiment can include an experimental version
of any marketing element, such as a target customer segment, an e-Marketing
Spot used to deliver the marketing message, or the marketing content.
You create experiments by editing existing web activities. By changing
a single element on an experimental branch, you can experiment with:
- The content that the web activity displays
- The target customer segment
- The e-Marketing Spot in which the web activity displays
- The web activity displayed in a particular e-Marketing Spot
In the Management Center,
experiments are created in the Activity Builder,
and are represented as optional paths through the web activity.
The optional paths are called experiment paths, while the original path is called the control path. A web activity can have more than one experiment path.
After the experiment is complete, marketing managers can compare
results between the experiment path and the control path using the
Statistics tab in the properties view for the experiment:
These results help determine whether the current marketing effort is effectively maximizing revenue by targeting the right audience with the most appropriate message. If not, incorporating the experiment path into the control activity might improve the efficiency of the marketing message.
These results help determine whether the current marketing effort is effectively maximizing revenue by targeting the right audience with the most appropriate message. If not, incorporating the experiment path into the control activity might improve the efficiency of the marketing message.
In an extended site model, the statistics
reflect the results in the current store. If the activity is defined
in the asset store, then each store accumulates its individual statistics.
In this way, you can evaluate the effectiveness of the same experiment
in different stores.
Mapping between experiments in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator and the Management Center
There are several changes in behavior in marketing experiments with the move to the Management Center. If you have used the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator in the past to manage marketing experiments, you can review this section to view any changes.| Common behavior | WebSphere Commerce Accelerator differences | Management Center differences | What this means to you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing experimentation is supported. | In WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, experiments are a separate marketing asset. While web activity experiments incorporate a snapshot version of the control activity, they are otherwise distinct. | Marketing experiments are now tightly integrated into existing web activities. You can create an experiment in any web activity to test whether certain changes might improve the results of the web activity. | Because the experiment is created inside the Activity Builder, it is more flexible, and easier to visualize customer interaction. |