Which URL targeting should I use for my a/b test?

https://docs.convertize.io/fr/docs/comment-cibler-des-url-specifiques-ou-des-groupes-durl/

When you do an a/b test in Convertize, you need to specify the pages you want your experiment to run on. You can do this with URL targeting.

You can set the URL targeting for your a/b test in the Options menu in the Experiment tab.

Choosing a match type

You can target URLs or groups of URLs for your a/b test, depending on the “match type” you choose. There are five of match types:

URL contains:
URL is:
URL starts with:
URL ends with:
URL matches pattern:

URL contains

The URL you enter contains at least the parameter you have specified. Here is how it works.

Example: Let’s imagine the parameter is a=1, the following URL will match
http://www.mywebsite.com/a=1
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/a=1
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/subpage/a=1

The following one will not match
http://www.mywebsite.com/
http://www.mywebsite.com/page
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/subpage

URL does not contain

The URL you have entered does not contain the URL or parameters you have specified.

Example: If the parameter is www.mywebsite.com/page, the following URLs will match:

http://www.mywebsite.com/
http://www.mywebsite.com/a=1
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/category/page/

The following URLs will not match:

http://www.mywebsite.com/page
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/subpage
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/a=1

 

URL is

We recommend this match type when you test on a single page. With “URL is”, you target the exact URL you enter. Note that exact means exact, so the same URL with for example query parameters will not be included in the experiment.

Please note: you must include http or https at the start of the URL for the page to match.

Example:
http://www.mywebsite.com/page

 

URL starts with

The URL starts exactly as you specify it and must start with http or https. This will match a URL that has any parameter after what you’ve specified.

Example:
http://www.mywebsite.com/page
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/subpage
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/subpages/a=1

 

URL ends with

The URL end with the text you specified

Example: let’s imagine the text you specify is mypage/ , the following URL will match
http://www.mywebsite.com/mypage/
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/mypage/
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/subpage/mypage/

But the following URL will not match:
http://www.mywebsite.com/mypage/a=1
http://www.mywebsite.com/page/mypage/subpage/

 

URL matches pattern (RegEx)

You can use this match type for a complicated URL that can’t be set up by the other targeting listed above.

Example: Let’s imagine the pattern you specified is : /product/(.*)/purchase, the following URL will match
http://www.mywebsite.com/product/toaster/purchase
http://www.mywebsite.com/product/35/purchase

The following URL will not match
http://www.mywebsite.com/product/toaster
http://www.mywebsite.com/toaster/purchase

 

Avoid Targeting Conflicts

With Convertize, you are meant to only run 1 experiment per page at a time. If you try to run multiple experiments on the same page(s) simultaneously, this leads to confusion as to which experiment a visitor should participate in. As a consequence, one of the experiments will not get any traffic from that page.

Because of this, you should be careful with your URL targeting: make sure that you don’t target the same page with the targeting rules of more than 1 a/b test. When you target the same page in multiple experiments, you create a targeting conflict.

Example of a targeting conflict

Say you run two experiments with the following targeting:

• Experiment 1: URL contains www.example.com
• Exerpiment 2: URL is www.example.com/pricing

In this case, the page www.example.com/pricing is included in the targeting of both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. As a result, experiment 2 might not receive any traffic.

How to solve a targeting conflict

• Consider which page(s) you really want to include in Experiment 1. Is it all the pages that contain ‘www.example.com’ or can you make it more specific? For example, URL contains www.example.com/product*.
• If you really want to run Experiment 1 on www.example.com/pricing as well as Experiment 2, you should choose which experiment you want to do first. Once that experiment has finished, you can put it on inactive and run a new a/b test.

Do you need help with the URL targeting of your a/b tests? Ask our support team in the in-app chat by clicking the blue bubble on the bottom right. They are always happy to help!