When you are first getting started with FERMÀT you will likely be curious how your new funnel compares to your old BAU (Business as Usual) funnel. Here's how you can create a test to compare them.
Note: This method is meant to test a new FERMÀT Funnel vs an existing post-click experience. If you are looking to conduct ongoing experimentation between two destinations contact your Account Manager for assistance.
Building your test
In the past if you wanted to evaluate the performance differences between two ad destinations you had to create two different ads and send each to different landing pages. Or you had to do complex data setups.
With FERMÀT testing the difference between a FERMÀT Funnel and your usual ad destination is easy with Split Destination Forever Links.
This page is meant to help with initial testing, if you are interested in setting up longer term holdout tests, we recommend following the the holdout setup guide here.
1. Generate a Forever Link
By adding a Forever Link to an ad you are able to send traffic to both destinations from the same ad. This allows for as close to an apples to apples comparison as possible since that ad will be generating the same type of traffic from the same places for both destinations.
You can create a link by navigating to the Forever Links tab in the app.
2. Map to the correct destinations
Once you have generated a Forever link you can edit the destinations to include a FERMÀT shop and an external URL. We recommend working with your Account Manager to select what FERMÀT shop to select.
The external URL you select should be the destination you use for the majority of your ads, this is usually a catalog page, home page, or quiz.
3. Set the appropriate traffic split
When first getting onboarded with FERMÀT these tests should utilize a 50/50 split. This allows for the most accurate results during the testing period.
4. Connect Forever Links to Cloned Versions of Existing Ads
Now that you know how to setup a Split Destination Forever Link, you will use these links to compare FERMAT Funnels vs existing destinations.
Start by duplicating 3-5 of your top performing creatives and keep them within their existing campaigns
Keep all of the existing targeting the same
Change the destination of the ad to your Forever Link (one per FERMAT Funnel you want to test)
Make sure that you have copied the link with the correct UTMs
🔥 Pro Tip: By keeping these ads within existing campaigns, you will get the most accurate comparison of performance. The more you can hold constant, the more accurate the test.
5. Allocate enough budget
With the Forever Link in place it's important that you allocate enough budget to this ad to get a strong enough read on its performance. Remember that this ad will start in the learning phase so you will need enough budget to both:
Exit the learning phase
Have enough traffic to be confident in the results
🔥 Pro Tip: we recommend allocating at least $200/day so that this ad exits the learning phase as quickly as possible. Once the ad is out of the learning phase we can get a much more accurate read on performance.
While it may take weeks to months for this experiment to become statistically significant, we recommend allocating budget so that enough people have landed in the test for you to be comfortable making a decision.
This budget allocation can vary greatly by brand.
Allocate enough budget that you will see enough customers in the experiment within a few weeks to draw conclusions.
Evaluating Your Test
To access your split destination analytics select the analytics icon next to the appropriate forever link.
Here's what you should expect to see and by when.
Within your first week
Upon initial launch, your campaign will likely still be learning. It’s critical that you leave the ad running throughout the learning phase, especially while performance is stabilizing. You should be meeting or exceeding 50 purchase events over a week period to successfully exit the learning phase.
Post learning-phase
Once the campaign has exited the learning phase, we recommend scaling your budget incrementally given strong performance.
From there, the FERMAT team can work with you to implement more granular optimizations as needed using initial data. These may involve making adjustments to the FERMAT shops, product cards, discounts, or campaign settings - we’ll be monitoring performance with you frequently to ensure we’re delivering the best possible results for your business.