How to Create a Multivariate Test in VWO?

A Multivariate test is typically created to test multiple elements on a single page and find the optimal combination of those changes. To know more, refer to Multivariate testing in VWO.

An MVT test in VWO can be created from TESTING > Multivariate and involves the following steps:

• Setting up pages for your test
  This is the first and foremost step in creating your Multivariate test in VWO. Here, you specify the hypothesis, define the page URLs, and configure the visitor segments for your MVT test. To know more about setting up pages for your test, refer to Setting-up Pages for Your Test in VWO.
  
  
• Creating variations using Visual Editor
  Once you are done with setting up the pages for your Multivariate test campaign, the next step is to create the variations of your website. The VWO Visual Editor enables you to quickly make changes to the existing web pages and create variations to test. To know more about creating variations, refer to Creating Variations Using Visual Editor in VWO.
  
  
• Adding conversion goals
  Once your variations are ready, you can define the events for which you want to record a goal conversion in VWO. When a visitor performs the event you defined, VWO will record a goal conversion. For example, you can record goal conversion when users click on a link, visit pages, submit forms, and so on. To know more about adding conversion goals, refer to Adding Conversion Goals in VWO.
  
  
• Estimating Your Test Duration
  VWO also lets you estimate the duration for which you must run your test. Using your current data and the expected conversion lift you want, VWO SmartStats gives you an estimate of how long you’ll need to run the test. This estimated duration may differ from the initial estimate in the duration calculator if the actual number of visitors differs significantly from what you entered. To know more about estimating your test duration, refer to Estimating Duration of Your Test in VWO.
  
  
• Finalizing your test
  The last step in creating your Multivariate test is to configure some advanced options allocating traffic percentage to the variations, integrating VWO data with third-party products such as Google Analytics, etc. To know more about finalizing your test configurations, refer to Finalizing Your Test in VWO.

Steps to Create a Multivariate Test in VWO

Prerequisite
You need to add the VWO SmartCode to the web pages you want to test. To learn how to add VWO SmartCode to your website, refer to Configuring SmartCode for your Website. 

Procedure

1. Login to your VWO account.
2. Go to TESTING > Multivariate.
   The Multivariate testing dashboard appears.
3. To create a new Multivariate test, click CREATE.
4. To change the test name, click the edit icon present next to the New Campaign and enter the name for your test.
5. In the Enter URL of the page you want to test field, enter the URL of the webpage you want to test.
   
   NOTE: To include or exclude URLs from the campaign, click the ADVANCED tab present next to the URL field. Using this tab, you can also define advanced pattern-matching options to either include a broad URL with wildcard entries or a specific URL. To learn about using different URL patterns, refer to Using URL Patterns in VWO.
   INFO: In the case of specifying a URL pattern for the campaign, where you wish to exclude a given webpage that matches the pattern criteria, the Exclude URL option comes in handy.
   For example: Let’s say you wish to run a site-wide test on https://vwo.com, but you want to exclude the Contact Us page (https://vwo.com/contact-us/) from it. Then, you need to mention the URLs in the respective fields as follows:
   Included URLs: https://vwo.com*
   Excluded URLs: https://vwo.com/contact-us/
6. From the What hypothesis are you testing? dropdown, select a hypothesis you want to work with. This is an optional step.
   NOTE: If you do not have a hypothesis yet or wish to create a new one, you can do so by clicking on the Create a New Hypothesis option present at the bottom of the hypothesis dropdown. To learn more about the hypothesis, refer to Hypothesis in VWO.
7. If you want to target your test for a specific set of visitors or want to load your campaigns on mobile devices, you can use the options present in the More Options section. To know more, refer to Setting-up Pages for Your Test in VWO.
8. Click NEXT.
   The VARIATIONS page appears and the VWO Visual Editor in a new tab allowing you to modify and save changes on the variation.
9. Once you are done making the changes to your variation, click NEXT.
   The VWO Visual Editor gets closed and the GOALS page appears.
10. To set up goals for your test campaign, click the edit icon present next to the New Goal and enter the name for your goal.
11. From the Goals Type dropdown, select the goal type you want to work with. To know more about different goal types in VWO, refer to What are the Different Types of Conversion Goals?.
12. In the Include URLs field, specify the operation from the dropdown, and in the field next to it, enter the URL of the webpage where you want to track the conversions. If you wish to exclude a webpage from the goal conversion tracking, use the Exclude URL option to specify the operation and the URL of that page.
    
    NOTE: This field appears based on what you have selected in the Goal Type dropdown.
13. To track another activity in your campaign, click Add Another Goal. Additionally, at the bottom of the page, the Frequently used goals section is present, which shows the goals you use the most. You can either search or choose from the ones displayed. Selecting a goal from here allows you to reuse the goal code instead of configuring a new one.
    
    NOTE: The goals appear based on the domain where your test is running. 
14. Once you are done setting up the conversion goals, click NEXT.
    The DURATION page appears.
15. To get the estimate of how long you need to run your test campaign, configure the options present on the DURATION page. The estimated duration gets updated based on your configurations. To know more about these options, refer to Estimating Duration of Your Test in VWO.
16. Once you are done configuring the test estimation parameters, click NEXT.
    The OTHERS page appears.
17. To customize the visitor traffic allocation for your campaign, expand the Traffic Split section, and choose the relevant option.
18. If you want to integrate your test with the third-party integrations supported by VWO, expand the Integrate with third-party products section, and choose the desired integration.
19. To configure advanced options for your test, expand the Advanced Options section, and select the desired options. To know the functionality of each option, refer to Finalizing Your Test.
20. To add notes about something important to your test, click Add Notes, and enter the information.
21. To add labels to your test, click Add Labels.
    
    NOTE: You can use the Labels to filter tests on the dashboard.
22. Once you are done finalizing the advanced settings for your test, click CREATE.
    Summary of your test appears along with the option to RUN NOW or REVIEW CAMPAIGN AND START LATER. To learn about how to schedule your test in VWO, refer to Scheduling a Campaign in VWO.

Post-requisite

To ensure that the changes you made to the variations are in place and work as expected for your website visitors, preview your variation before actually starting a test. This can be done using the PREVIEWS tab of your Multivariate test campaign. Options present in this tab provide a convenient way to check and validate your combinations quickly without digging through the entire test settings. To know more about previewing a test, refer to How to Preview Changes for a Test.