Data time AB test via smart campaigns

[Anonymous]

I am looking for Creating a Date time AB test in engagement program using smart campaigns. Could you please advise?

[Veronica_Holme4]

Hey - I think you better give us a use case or scenario you're trying to actually achieve? The sentence above made my head spin just a little bit as it's bringing together 3 different types of automation in Marketo that have nothing to do with each other...

[Anonymous]

Hi Veronica,
    we need to Date/time test a few emails in engagement program. As you know Date/time test can only be done in email programs.
why not in champion /challenger?

we also tried to do the same testing using smart campaigns and random sample. But that was not successful. Could you please help us find a way to do Date/time test in engagement programs?

Thanks.

[Veronica_Holme4]

Hi - it's not available. Engagement programs are considered "trigger-based" campaigns, and hence only work with Champion Challenger, and Date/Time makes no sense with Champion/Challenger because the test always fires when the triggered campaign fires. And as you know Email Programs can't be embedded into Engagement programs.

The best way I've seen this accomplished is to put random sample on the batch smart campaign that adds people to the engagement program, pushing 50% into stream A which runs on a cadence, and 50% into stream B that runs on a different cadence. Make the content in each stream identical. If it were truly random sorting, the comparison of results between stream A and stream B would give you a decent A/B test on different send cadences.

If I were being really creative, I'm guessing you could do something creative with programs in Engagement streams using a combination of random sample and wait steps, but I reckon that road would be really ugly.