How to run an A/B test in a marketing campaign with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing is a powerful tool. It allows you to conduct complex marketing campaigns directly from your Dynamics Customer Engagement portal. However, right now as this article is being written, Microsoft Dynamics 365 still lacks an essential function for any marketing campaign which is the capacity to run an A/B test (or split test).

The function, which allows the same product to be offered in several different formats to determine which one is preferred by consumers, is not available in the standard form of Dynamics 365 for Marketing. However, there is still a method that allows you to achieve the same result.

In this article, you will see the how to conduct an A/B test campaign in Dynamics 365 for Marketing in 5 necessary but easy steps:

1 – Use the “distributor” function of the customer path

2 – Create a new customer path and add the segment on which you want to perform your test as a starting point

Then add a “Distributor” thumbnail in percentage mode.

3 – Add two “separation branches” thumbnails

Configure the first two thumbnails with the percentage of individuals in your campaign to whom you want to send your test emails.

The last thumbnail (remaining branch) will automatically take the remaining percentage to complete 100%. In this example, 10% will receive email A and 10% email B and the winning email will be sent to the other 80%.

4 – Link your email A and B with your first two branches and a new segment with the remaining branch

This will ensure that the system will distribute the individuals between the A, B or winning emails.

5 – The next step is to analyze the success of your A and B emails using the Insights function of the email template

Then use the winning segment to trigger your new customer journey with your winning model.

This method will obviously require a little more effort than a standard A/B test. But it still meets the same need. It is likely that Microsoft will sooner or later come up with an A/B test function worthy of the name!

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