How to set up the “test scope”

  • Resolved cutu234

    (@cutu234)


    2 years, 2 months ago

    We have a test running that switches the theme to see whether a trust badge has any positive effects on Woocommerce conversions. This works just fine, but it consumes a lot of quota. At a conversion rate of, say, 4% most page views are not really used for this test. How would I apply “test scope” to use only those page views that contain pages of the checkout process? We would like to include only those users that put the product in the cart and purchased the product. Would it be enough to put /cart/ in the test scope field? I’m not quite sure if this would work, since the URL changes to /checkout/ later. After purchasing the URL looks like so, for example: /checkout/order-received/509077/?key=wc_order_ybQkbpzuMZONq I’m not quite sure how strict “test scope” works.

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  • Plugin Author David Aguilera

    (@davilera)

    Hi! The test scope limits the pages in which alternative content will be loaded and, therefore, the pages that might trigger a page view and consume quota. In your particular case, loading variants on all URLs that contain /cart/ seems correct.

    Conversions, on the other hand, are not affected by the test scope. But if you want the /checkout/ page to also be affected by the test (i.e. show/hide the trust badge), you’d need to add /checkout/ to your test scope as well.

    I hope this answers your question.

    Thread Starter cutu234

    (@cutu234)

    Sorry to bother you again. Which page views do consume quota? Only page views for the variants? Are page views of the orignal version also included?

    For example, on day X we have 300 page views of the orignal page and 320 page views of the tested variation. Does this consume 320 or 640 page views?

    Thank you!

    Plugin Author David Aguilera

    (@davilera)

    Which page views do consume quota?

    Every time a visitor sees a tested page (either the control version or one of its variants), this will consume one quota unit. Moreover, conversions also consume quota units (one conversion ? one quota unit).

    For example, on day X we have 300 page views of the orignal page and 320 page views of the tested variation. Does this consume 320 or 640 page views?

    300 + 320 = 620 page views. But, again, that’s without counting any possible conversions that may also have occurred.

    In general, all tests in our plugin will only trigger a page views when the visitor sees the tested page (and conversions, but let’s ignore those to make the explanation simpler). However, there are some tests (like theme tests) whose “tested page” is not very specific. Here’s what I mean.

    If you test a page p, it’s pretty obvious which page will consume quota, right? It’s page p. And you test a post template t, it’s also pretty obvious which pages will consume quota: all pages using template t. But what about a theme test? Which pages does it test?

    Well, long story short: all your pages. A theme test will consume quota every time a visitor browses your site and moves from one page to another. Luckily, to limit this, theme tests have a Test Scope property that allows you to specify which URLs are actually under test. This way, only the pages whose URL matches your Test Scope will load alternative content and consume quota, while the rest of your site will be unaffected.

    I hope this answers your questions and sheds some light on the plugin’s behavior. If there’s anything else I can help you with, let me know.

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