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A/Z Testing: How to Create Email Variants

Test different subject lines and email body copies

Updated today

A/Z testing lets you test different subject lines and email body copy across your campaigns so you can identify the best performers and make data-driven decisions.

You can create up to 26 variants per step. Watch the video walkthrough HERE

Basic A/Z Testing

To test different variants of your email copy and subject lines, please follow these steps to create variants:

  • Create a new campaign or open the target campaign

  • Click "Add variant" to create a new version of the email. You can add variants to any step in your sequence using the same process.

  • Use the toggle to enable or pause variants:

    • When the toggle is blue, the variant is enabled.

    • When the toggle is grey, the variant is paused.

Note: If you want follow-up emails to remain threaded, keep the subject line in Step 2 (and subsequent steps) the same as Step 1. You can create multiple variants for the email body while keeping the subject line consistent. Changing the subject line in any follow-up variant will break the thread for that variant.


Auto-Optimize A/Z Testing

When enabled, the auto-optimize feature automatically analyzes variant performance and deactivates lower-performing versions, based on a defined winning metric - reply rate, click rate, or open rate.

To enable auto-optimize A/Z testing:

  • Go to Campaign Options β†’ Advanced Options β†’ Auto optimize A/Z testing.

  • Select your winning metric: reply rate, click rate, or open rate.

  • Don't forget to click Save


Check Variant Analytics

Here are the steps to check the analytics for each variant:

  • Go to the Analytics section of the campaign

  • Scroll down to find the Step Analytics

  • View performance for each variant and use the toggle to turn off underperforming ones.

  • For more accurate results, select a longer time range (such as "Last 4 weeks") to see complete data


Variant Distribution

By default, the system balances variant usage over the entire lifetime of a campaign. This means that if you add new variants to a campaign that's been running for a while, only the new variants will be sent until their usage catches up with the older ones.

Viewing analytics over a longer time range can confirm that variants are distributed evenly overall.

If you'd prefer equal daily distribution, enable "Reset A/Z variant usage tracking daily" on the Preferences page. This overrides the default behavior and distributes all variants equally each day.


Frequently Asked Questions

Will Step 2 Variant A always follow Step 1 Variant A?

No. Variant assignment is random at each step, and there is no option to match variants across steps. For example, a lead who receives Variant A in Step 1 could receive any variant (A, B, C, etc.) in Step 2. This is by design, since each step can have a different number of variants.

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