Campaign flow: Traffic Allocation step

In this tutorial, you'll find best practices to set-up traffic allocation for all types of campaign. 

General rules for Traffic Allocation

Traffic Percentage Between Variations

We recommend splitting equally the traffic between the original and variation(s) for statistical reliability.

But you can allocate more traffic to your variation(s). Drag the Traffic allocated to the variation slider towards the right or add more than 50% of traffic into it.

You can set the percentage of your traffic that will be allocated to each version.

Untracked Traffic

For example, let’s say you have implemented a ‘risky’ test and want to limit risk-taking. In this case, you can limit the number of visitors tracked so that 40% of visitors are not tracked. This way, you reduce the test sample and limit the visibility of your new version(s).

This means that 40% of untracked visitors will see the original version of your website but will not receive a cookie in their browser related to the test. Their actions on the website will not be tracked unless you decide to increase the percentage of tracked visitors.

The percentage of visitors you track depends on the volumetry of your website. For example, if your website has over 10M unique visitors per month, you can choose to track only 20% of the entire traffic (and limit the test sample to 20%). However, if you have around 200k unique visitors per month and decide to track 20% of the traffic, you will not reach reliability quickly enough to determine whether or not you can increase the percentage of tracked visitors. 

For more information about the calculation of the traffic, you would test regarding your needs, refer to our Sample Size Calculator article in the AB Tasty blog.

To get more information about reliability and the chance to win in the reports, please visit our specific guide Campaign reports.

Traffic Allocation Changes

We recommend keeping the same traffic allocation throughout the campaign duration.

Heads up ⚡

If you change the traffic allocation while your campaign is live, only the new visitors will be affected by this change. 

Visitors who have already been affected by a variation (before this change) will keep on seeing the same variation.

If you want to change the traffic allocation of the test to assign 100% to the variation, you think is the highest-performing after analyzing your report, you need to create a patch campaign from the current test. Otherwise, people who have a cookie from another variation or the original version will continue to see the original version of your website. 

You must use the duplication feature to transform your winning variation into a fresh new campaign patch. 

Comparison in Personalization Campaigns

If you allocate 100% of your traffic to your personalization campaign, you will not be able to make a comparison with the original version. We recommend leaving at least 10% of your traffic on the original version (depending on the amount of traffic on your website) to be able to control the performance of your experience, make a comparison with the original.

Best practices & automatic set-up by types of campaigns

AB Test

Set up the traffic allocation on the AB test from step 5 Traffic allocation of the creation flow. 

By default, 100% of your visitors will go through the campaign and the traffic will be split equally between the original and the number of variations of your test. In our example with one variation, 50% of the traffic will be allocated to the original and the other 50% to the variation.

You can always change this configuration by limiting the traffic allocated to variations at the campaign level (Traffic allocated to variations slider in the bloc "Global traffic") or allocate more traffic to a specific variation (variations sliders in the bloc "Variations traffic").

AA Test

By default the traffic allocation for AA tests is locked to 100%

Multipage Test

Set up the traffic allocation on the Multipages test from step 5 Traffic allocation of the creation flow. 

By default, 100% of your visitors will go through the campaign and the traffic will be split equally between the original and the number of variations of your test. In our example with one variation, 50% of the traffic will be allocated to the original and the other 50% to the variation.

This is exactly the same principles and flexibility than for AB tests.

You can always change this configuration by limiting the traffic allocated to variations at the campaign level (Traffic allocated to variations slider in the bloc "Global traffic") or allocate more traffic to a specific variation (variations sliders in the bloc "Variations traffic").

Multivariate Test

Set up the traffic allocation on the Multivariate test from step 5 Traffic allocation of the creation flow. 

A multivariate test is made up of several “sub-tests” and can therefore be used to test a range of combinations of variations.
You therefore need to configure the traffic allocation for each sub-test.

By default, 100% of your visitors will go through the campaign and the traffic will be split equally between the original and the number of variations of your subtests. In our example with one variation in the first sub-test, 50% of the traffic will be allocated to the original and the other 50% to the variation.

This is exactly the same principles and flexibility than for AB tests, but at a sub-test level.

You can always change this configuration by limiting the traffic allocated to variations for each sub-test (Traffic allocated to variations slider in the bloc "Global traffic") or allocate more traffic to a specific variation (variations sliders in the bloc "Variations traffic").

Once you've set-up your traffic allocation for the first sub-test, don't forget to do the same for the other ones by using the dropdown. 

The best practice remains to keep a perfect iso repartition for each subtest.

Patch Campaign

The Traffic allocation step is not available for Patch and Multipages patch campaigns, meaning that 100% of your traffic will see your patch.

Simple Personalization

Set up the traffic allocation on a Simple personalization from step 5 Traffic Allocation of the creation flow. 

By default, 100% of your global traffic is allocated to your experience. Although, we recommend leaving at least 10% of your traffic on the original version (depending on the amount of traffic on your website) to be able to control the performance of your experience and make a comparison with the original.

Multipage Personalization

Set up the traffic allocation on a Multipage personalization from step 5 Traffic Allocation of the creation flow. 

Each percentage of the targeted traffic is assigned to a page. Do not forget to set up traffic allocation for each page of your campaign using the dropdown. 

By default, 100% of your global traffic is allocated to your experience but you can change this configuration.  

Multiexperience Personalization

Set up the traffic allocation on a Multiexperience personalization from step 5 Traffic Allocation of the creation flow. 

Each percentage of the targeted traffic is allocated to an experience. Do not forget to set up traffic allocation for each experience of your campaign using the dropdown. 

By default,100% of your global traffic is allocated to your experience but you can change this configuration. 

Dynamic Allocation Option

If you prefer to use the Dynamic allocation option, you don't have to set-up your traffic allocation. For more information please refer to the specific article.