Optimize's experiment scheduling feature allows you to set your experiment's start and end times so that they work best with your business objectives. Use it to schedule your experiment to coincide with an important event – for example, during a campaign or over a holiday – or to any time that better fits your schedule.
In this article:Prerequisites
The following permissions are required to schedule Optimize experiments:
| Read | Edit | Publish | |
| View schedule | Y | Y | Y |
| Create schedule | – | Y | Y |
| Edit schedule (draft experiment) | – | Y | Y |
| Edit schedule (running experiment) | – | – | Y |
| Remove schedule | – | Y | Y |
| Publish schedule | – | – | Y |
Create a scheduled experiment
In this example, we'll schedule an experiment to run for two weeks in April. You should run your experiment for a minimum of two weeks to account for cyclical variations in web traffic.
To schedule an experiment in Optimize:
STEP 1 – Click CREATE SCHEDULE
STEP 2 – Select a start time.
STEP 3 – Select an end time.
STEP 4 – Click DONE.
STEP 5 – Add Variants, Objectives, and Targeting to your experiment.
STEP 6 – Click SAVE.
STEP 7 – Click START EXPERIMENT.
STEP 8 – Click START.
Edit or cancel an experiment
After starting a scheduled experiment, it can be edited or canceled, but it can't be ended.
To edit or cancel a scheduled experiment, click More [
- Edit schedule – to change the start and/or end time(s).
- Cancel experiment – to end the experiment.
You can reuse an ended experiment by copying it.
Archive or copy an experiment
Once an experiment has ended, you can archive or copy it.
Click More [
End an experiment
To end an experiment, click END EXPERIMENT in the experiment status bar.
Reports
To monitor a running experiment or see the results of a concluded experiment, click the Reporting tab at the top of the experiment detail page. The report is broken down into a series of cards that contain data about your experiment, including its status and how your variants perform against your objectives.
In addition to the reports included in Optimize, you can also see Optimize reports in Google Analytics. Sign in to Google Analytics, select the Reporting tab and select Behavior > Experiments in the report navigation. Learn more about Optimize reports
Best practices
- Preview all variants before starting a scheduled experiment.
- Run your experiment for a minimum of two weeks, to account for cyclical variations in web traffic.
- Run your experiment until at least one variant has a 95 percent probability to beat original.
- Whenever you aren't actively using an experiment, end it to free up an experiment slot under your quota.
- Scheduled experiments count against your Optimize free quota.
- All experiments run for 90 days for Universal Analytics and 35 days for Google Analytics 4
- All experiments are ended after 90 days.