I'm hoping to test different versions of a form with Google Optimizer (Multivariate testing). The form is in an ASP include, but what the server-side code will load before Google's JS does. Any ideas about how to approach this? Thanks.
A:
My answer is probably out-topic, but I guess you should implement the Multivariate testing by yourself in the ASP.
In the simple case, It is quite simple to implement on top of your existing application, so maybe this can do the trick in your case.
Oct
2009-10-19 21:55:57
I'm sorry, I'm not following. Are you suggesting that I build my own multivariate testing system?
Ethan
2009-10-19 22:15:24
Yes. This is something that is achievable, provided there aren't too many variants to test. Depending on the complexity of the test to perform, I'd suggest using more than one analytics tags to identify the various trends the user follow (for example if your layout has 2 or 3 main variants). For more variants, the time-spent on page, and refining using funnel can probably do the trick although It's very dependant on your system :) On one of our websites, we built up the 49 AdSense channels to test the variants of the system on 7 Ad Banners because the Google Solution was not working for us.
Oct
2009-10-19 22:29:35
+1
A:
I think I understand your problem. The trouble is that Google's multivariate test is designed to allow you to test two or more snippets of HTML and the multivariate test itself is controlled via Javascript.
So I'm afraid the only way this will work is if you can specify the HTML for Google Optimizer to use for the two versions of the form. This could be made to work with basic forms, but if the form itself is dynamically created in ASP due to some other application requirement then I don't think Google Optimizer will work so well for you.
Steve Wortham
2009-10-19 22:51:21
Yeah, that's what I suspected. For anyone else who may stumble onto this question in the future, I did find this: http://www.gwotricks.com/2009/05/server-side-dynamic-section-variations.html. This link doesn't really solve my problem, but it may solve someone else's.
Ethan
2009-10-20 14:10:32
Another thought -- you might try using Google Optimizer to create two different links on the page before the form. That way the user is just taken to one of two versions of your form.
Steve Wortham
2009-10-20 14:51:29