If this is your first time using Optimize, welcome!
Prerequisites
Google Analytics and Optimize work closely together and accounts in both are required. If you don't have Analytics and Optimize accounts, follow the steps in Set up Optimize before creating your first experience.
Get started
To create your first experience:
- Sign in to Optimize.
- Click on a container.
- Click Create experience.
- Name your experience.
- Choose the type of experience you want to create. Learn more about experiences.
- Click Create.
Experiences
You can choose from the following types of experiences:
- A test is a set of website changes that help you determine what converts best with your visitors. With Optimize, you can run A/B, multivariate, and redirect tests for up to 90 days.
- A personalization is a set of website changes made for a specific group of visitors. Unlike tests, personalizations don't have variants and they can run forever.
-
A banner is an important piece of information placed along the top of your site. You can choose to display the banner along the top of all pages or certain pages.
Create your experience
Choose an option below for details on how to set up your experience.
Create a test
After clicking CREATE you'll set up your test using two widgets at the top of the page (the status bar and stepper) and a series of configuration cards.
Two informational widgets at the top contain important information about your test, at a glance:
- The status bar displays the name and status (e.g. draft, running, or ended) and provides quick access to the Schedule
, Start
, and More
buttons to the right.
- The stepper tracks your progress and displays a green checkmark
next to each completed step.
buttons to the right.
next to each completed step.The configuration cards include:
Variants and targeting – Click ADD VARIANT to create a new variant in the Optimize visual editor. Once you've made your changes, add targeting rules to determine which visitors will see your new variant.
Description – Enter relevant information for your reference (e.g. project, client, objective, hypothesis, etc.) and help colleagues understand the goal and intention of your test, even long after it has been archived.
Measurement and objectives – Link your Optimize container to a Google Analytics property and view. Once you complete this step, you'll see the linked Property, View, and the Experience ID. Learn more. You'll also see a checkbox (unchecked by default) that allows you to send additional hits so you can view reports in both Optimize and Analytics.
Settings – Ensure that your experience is set up correctly with these helpful tools:
- Installation diagnostics – Run diagnostics to verify that Optimize is installed correctly before starting your experience. Learn more.
- Email notifications – Receive important notifications about your experience via email. Learn more.
-
Traffic allocation – Control the percentage of visitors that are eligible to see your experience. Learn more
- Activation event – Optimize supports dynamic web pages that load additional data after the initial page load via activation events. Learn more.
Once you've completed the steps above, you're ready to start your experience. Just click schedule or start
, in the status bar.
Create a personalization
After clicking CREATE you'll set up your personalization via two widgets at the top of the page (the status bar and stepper) and a series of configuration cards.
Two informational widgets at the top contain important information about your personalization at a glance:
- The status bar displays the test's name and status (e.g. draft, running, or ended) and provides quick access to the schedule
- The stepper tracks your progress and displays a green checkmark
The configuration cards include:
Site changes and targeting – Click MAKE SITE CHANGES to start creating your first personalization in the Optimize visual editor. Once you've made your changes, add targeting rules to decide which visitors will see your new personalization.
Description – Enter relevant information for your reference (e.g. project, client, objective, hypothesis, etc.) and help colleagues understand the goal and intention of your personalization, even long after it has been archived.
Measurement – Link your Optimize container to a Google Analytics property and view. Once you complete this step, you'll see the linked Property, View, and the Experience ID. Learn more. You'll also see a checkbox (unchecked by default) that allows you to sending additional events to view reports in both Optimize and Google Analytics.
Settings – This card will help ensure that your experience is set up correctly.
- Installation diagnostics – Run diagnostics to verify that Optimize is installed correctly before starting your experience. Learn more.
- Email notifications – Receive important notifications about your experience via email. Learn more.
- Activation event – Optimize supports dynamic web pages that load additional data after the initial page load via activation events. Learn more.
Once you've completed the steps above, you're ready to start your experience. Just click schedule or start
, in the status bar.
What happens next?
Now that you've started your experience, here are some things to do next.
Check your real-time active users to ensure that traffic is flowing to your experience. If you don't see traffic, installation diagnostics can help troubleshoot any issues. If your Optimize container links to a Google Analytics 4 property, you can't currently check real-time active users.
Enable notifications to receive an email when important milestones occur. These are helpful for keeping you and your stakeholders informed throughout the lifecycle of an experience.
Resist the urge to view your Optimize reports until enough data has been collected. You should wait at least two weeks before looking for meaningful results in your Optimize reports.
While you wait, you can:
- Review some test suggestions.
- Create more tests and personalizations.
- Watch some Optimize videos.