Any risk with making changes during A/B test?

[Anonymous]

Hi there!

We started our A/B test and it went off without a hitch, a champion was selected, but a change request came through before the winner was to be sent out. Most things stayed the same, the only difference was a small line of copy.

Is there any risk to changing the email at this point in the operation? What if we had changed the subject line?

[Anonymous]

In my experience, could be wrong here, but if your test is not approved you can still make edit no risk involved. Once you approve your champion/challenger, you can't go back. You would have to declare a winner and make a new one. 

[Anonymous]

I'd avoid it. You run the risk of creating new issues or not really being sure which version you're sending. Much better to stop the campaign if you can, fix it, and then run it again.

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Part of me wants to say I'd avoid it... and part of me says what's the worst that could happen. It really depends on how important the change that you're looking to make is. 

Either the old version goes out and you were unable to control it (if it's an email program, only Marketo support is able to cancel the champion send -- you can't do this on your own), or the new version that you wanted goes out. If it's a champion/challenger test (not based in an email program) then you can add yourself to the send smartlist so that you'll know which version went out.

[Anonymous]

@Dory, you're not wrong in that sense, although the major worry I'd have is introducing some new (worse) mistake because I was in a hurry.