Google Analytics: Run an Experiment

At any time, you can have up to 12 experiments per profile that are running, in the process of being setup, or that are calculating your final data. Experiments that have ended do not count toward the limit of 12.

To create a new experiment:

In Google Analytics, open the profile in which you want to create the experiment.

Click the Standard Reporting tab.

Expand the Content section, then click Experiments.

If this is your first experiment, click START EXPERIMENTING.

If you have already created other experiments, click Create experiment above the list of current experiments.

When you create an experiment, Google Analytics assumes that you have already taken time to prepare. That preparation includes identifying the goal of your test, choosing your conversion page, choosing your original page, creating your variation pages, making sure the Google Analytics tracking code has been added to all pages, and determining the percentage of visitors you want to be included in your experiment.

1. Name Your Experiment and Select the Pages

In the Experiment name field, enter the name you want to use for the experiment. This name appears on your experiment list and in the experiment report. The name is also used to refer to your experiment in emails and notifications.

Next, identify the pages you want to include in your experiment.

In the Original Page URL field, enter the URL of the page you want to use as your control (for example, your existing home page, or the existing landing page for a product), then press Enter. If that page is live and publicly accessible, you see a snapshot of the page.

In the Name field just below the URL, enter a name for the original page so that it's easy to identify in your experiment report.

You can then specify variation pages, which should also be publicly accessible, by entering their URLs and giving them names. To add more variations, click + Add Variation near the bottom. To delete a variation, click the X next to that variation's name. You can include up to five variations of a page.

If your variation pages do not appear in the preview and you're sure they're available on your web server, investigate the known reasons for pages not appearing.

When you have identified all the pages you want to include, click Next near the bottom of the page.

Learn more about using URLs with dynamic parameters for your original or variation pages

2. Set Experiment Options

Under Google Analytics goal to improve, select one of your Analytics goals.

If you have not already created Analytics goals, or you want to create a new one now for the experiment, click + Add new goal.

If you create a new goal, click your browser's back button when you have finished, or click the experiment name in the list to continue with this step.

Under Visitors included in experiment, select the percentage of visitors you want to include.

Remember that your original page is also part of your experiment. If you choose, for example, to include 50 percent of your traffic in an experiment with only one variation page, then 25 percent of your overall site traffic will see that variation page, and the remaining 75 percent will see your original page (half of the visitors included in the experiment, plus half of all your visitors).

In the Notes field, enter any pertinent information you want to keep for yourself and your collaborators.

Select Rewrite variation URLs to original in Content reports to consolidate all traffic to your original and variation pages under the URL for the original page in your Content reports. This option lets you see all traffic to the URL of your original page. You can still see traffic to the individual pages (original and variations) in your Experiment reports.

What happens when URLs are rewritten

When you’re ready to go to the next step, click Next near the bottom of the page.

3. Add and Check Experiment Code

In this step, you have two options for adding the experiment code to your original page:

Add the Code Yourself

Have Your Webmaster Add the Code

If you’re comfortable with HTML and have access to your original page, you can add the experiment code yourself. Otherwise, you’ll need to contact your webmaster to help you add the code.

Remember that all the pages in your experiment need to have the Google Analytics tracking code installed.

The experiment code is synchronous. The Analytics tracking code is either asynchronous (newer, preferred version) or synchronous (older version). The experiment code works with both versions of the Analytics tracking code.

Check Your Code

Once you or your webmaster had added the experiment code to your original page, click Next to verify the code. At this point, Content Experiments checks to make sure the experiment code has been added correctly, and that each page contains the Analytics tracking code. For each page that is coded correctly, you see a green checkmark. If a page is not coded correctly, Content Experiments explains the mistakes and suggests remedies.

When you've successfully coded your pages, you can proceed to Step 4.

If validation for your variation pages fails and you're sure the experiment code has been properly added to your original page, it may be due to your web server not allowing unknown URL parameters.

4. Review and Run Your Experiment

In this final step:

Click Preview all to verify that your pages are being displayed properly, and that all pages are being displayed.

If You Can't Preview a Page

Check your experiment settings.

To start your experiment, click Run experiment now.

If you don’t want to launch your experiment right away, click Save and run later. Return to this step in the experiment by clicking the experiment name in the list.

5. Modify Your Experiment

Up until the time you run your experiment, you can make changes to any of the options you chose.

To modify an experiment before you run it, click the experiment name in the list, and then use the Back and Next buttons to navigate through the wizard.

Once you have started an experiment, you can modify the experiment name, the names of the variation pages, the percentage of visitors who are served experiment pages, your notes, whether email notifications are sent, and you can disable specific variations.

You can also copy an experiment by clicking Copy experiment.

To modify a running experiment, click the experiment name in the list:

To disable a variation, click Disable Variation, then select the variation you want to disable. You cannot disable the original page.

To modify your experiment, click Edit settings above the Explorer tab.