Before setting up a dynamic optimization experiment, please be sure to review our known issues article.
Configuring an Experiment
1. Create your Content Builder email
Create the Content Builder email you will use in your send. In a later step, you’ll drop the required code snippet within this email and set the subject line variable.
2. Create your Phrasee Experiment and initialize
Create your Phrasee experiment and approve the language variants. Open the integration drawer:
For broadcast experiments with dynamic optimization:
The MID number should match the business unit for your send.
The Start schedule should be set slightly before the time and date your Journey Builder activity is scheduled to run.
The End schedule will always be set to a few days after your start to allow time for Phrasee to collect mature results from your sends.
Select your Optimization metric.
Click Start the Awesome.
Once initialized, you’ll see a success message. Upon initialization, Phrasee creates the following:
Five data extensions to store information needed to reference subject line content, testing proportions, performance metrics and send records. These data extensions will all be named after your experiment ID and the type of information they store:
<your_experiment_ID>-AR
Used to store aggregated send information from your experiment<your_experiment_ID>-batches
Used to store the proportions of your audience each variant should receive by batch<your_experiment_ID>-Clicks
Used to keep track of clicks per variant throughout the test<your_experiment_ID>-recipients
Used to keep track of which recipient received which variant and when<your_experiment_ID>-variants
Used to store the actual copy variants
Just like the code snippet, the data extensions are stored in a folder named after your campaign. You can find it in your existing data extension folder structure under PhraseeData.
The integration will also create an experiment-specific content block known as a code snippet. This code snippet will be named after the experiment you make in Phrasee.
This content block will be automatically created and placed in a folder named after your campaign in Content Builder. You can find it in your Content Builder folder structure under PhraseeData.
It's very important you don't modify anything in either code snippet. The integration will not work correctly if the code is modified.
If for any reason you need to change the start or end schedule or optimization metric, you can edit in the drawer and click ‘Update Settings’.
3. Update your Content Builder email
Now that your Phrasee experiment has been initialized, you are ready to finalize your Content Builder email.
Drop the experiment-specific code snippet Phrasee created upon initialization of the experiment into the body of your email. We recommend placing it below the opening <body> tag but after where your preheader text will render.
Then, make sure to set your subject line to:
%%=TreatAsContent(@phraseeVariantText)=%%
4. Configure your Journey and activate
The last step is to configure your Journey Builder flow with your Content Builder email.
Below is an example flow for running a broadcast experiment with dynamic optimization:
Add the Data Extension that contains the audience for your test.
Utilize a Random Split activity to sample your audience for a test path.
Then, select a designated testing period in a Wait by Duration step and add it to the start of the winning path.
Drop in your Content Builder email on each path, and you’re ready to test!
Note: Your Phrasee rep will make a unique recommendation for the amount of time you configure in your Wait step and the sample size for your test path.
When you are ready, activate your Journey! Using those assets, some API calls and the power of the Phrasee Brain, Phrasee will optimize your subject lines throughout the send.