Defining Experiments

When you define an Experiment, you specify: the Web site Publication and Page Region where you want the Experiment to appear, what content you want to display in the Experiment and when you want the Experiment to be triggered.

About this task

An Experiment consists of Publications, a Page, a Page Region, Triggers (optional), and Content Variants:
IconItemDescription
Where:

Publications—the Web sites where you want to display the Experiment.

Page—the Web page where you want to display the Experiment. You must select one Page only.

Page Region—the specific area of a Web page where you want to display the Experiment. You must select one Page Region only.

When: TriggersOptional: The conditions when to trigger the Experiment: if you want the Experiment to be only available in certain situations, define Triggers. By default, an Experiment is always triggered.
What to display: Content VariantsThe content to display to a visitor. A Content Variant consists of a Component that defines the content and a Component Template that defines the look and feel of the Component on a Web page. The following rules apply when defining Content Variants for an Experiment:
  • specify a minimum of two Content Variants and maximum 20.
  • the combination of Component and Component Template must be unique.
  • the Components must contain one or more links so that you can track Conversions.

Procedure

  1. In the slide out navigation pane, select Targeting.

    The Targeting Dashboard appears.

  2. In the Source drop-down menu:
    1. Select a Web site for which you want to manage Experiments. For example, you will typically have a "Staging" Web site and a "Live" Web site:
      • Staging is the internal Web site where Experience Manager is set up for inline editing and testing
      • Live is your external, public-facing Web site
    2. Click the Experiments tab to view the list of Experiments available for the Web site.
    A list of Experiments for which you have Manage Experiments rights is displayed.
  3. Click Add a new Experiment.

    The Add a new Experiment dialog appears.

  4. Enter a name for the Experiment.
  5. Deselect Enable this Experiment if you do not want the Experiment to be available.
  6. Select a Start Date and End Date to specify when the Experiment is active.
  7. Optional: Click Show more to define the following properties:
    • Title—defines the title of the Experiment displayed to visitors
    • Slogan—defines the slogan of the Experiment displayed to visitors
  8. Select the Where section and specify the Publications, Page, and Page Region where the Experiment will appear:
    1. Click the Publication section and choose the Web site where the Experiment will appear.

      By default, an Experiment is only available in the selected Publication, so select Include Child Publications to make the Experiment available in this Publication and all Child Publications.

    2. Click the Page section and select the Web Page where you want the Experiment to appear.
    3. Click the Regions section and choose the region on your Web page where you want the Experiment to appear.
  9. Optional: Select the When: Triggers section, then choose a trigger from the drop-down menu:
  10. Select the What: Content Items section to choose the Content Variants:
    1. Browse to a Folder.
    2. Select two or more Components.
    3. Click Choose (the number of selected items is displayed in brackets).
    4. Select a Component Template from the drop-down menu to apply the same Component Template to all the selected Components, or click Select per item and choose a Component Template for each Component separately.
    5. Click Add Items to add Components to the Experiment.
  11. Click Save when you have finished editing.

    The Experiment is saved and the dialog closes.

What to do next

After defining an Experiment, Publish the Web page and all the Content Variants used in the Experiment to the appropriate Web site.