Applies to 2.0 version — Price Test, URL Redirect Test, Theme Test, Template Test, Shipping Test, Visual Editor Test. Please make sure you're using the beta version before referring to this article.
The 2.0 version uses a standard flow for all test types. A visitor must pass each of the following steps to enter your experiment.
1. Traffic allocation
When a visitor arrives at your store, ABConvert first decides whether they should enter the test at all. You control this with the Traffic allocation percentage (1–100%).
100% — All eligible visitors enter the test (recommended)
Lower percentages — Useful for cautious rollouts or limited inventory
For example, if you set traffic allocation to 50%, half of your visitors will enter the test and half won't. This decision is sticky — once a visitor is included or excluded, they stay that way for the duration of the test.
2. Audience filter (optional)
After passing traffic allocation, visitors go through audience filters. These let you narrow down exactly who sees your test. Filters only apply to visitors who haven't been assigned yet.
Basic Filters
Countries — Target specific geographic regions
Traffic Sources — Filter by where visitors came from (paid ads, organic search, social, email, etc.). See Understanding Traffic Sources below for full details.
Devices — Target desktop or mobile visitors
Visitor Type — Target new visitors or returning visitors. Note: Enable ABConvert Visitor Label in your embedded apps at least 2 weeks before using this filter.
Advanced Filters
Click Advanced filters to expand these options:
Referral Domain — Filter by the referring website domain
Landing Page URL — Target visitors arriving at specific pages
URL Parameters (UTM) — Target visitors with specific UTM parameters
Cookie Values — Target based on existing cookie data
Advanced filters support complex logic — for example: Landing Page URL starts with /products and contains /A or /B or /C.
Understanding Traffic Sources
ABConvert detects where a visitor came from using two signals on their first page load:
Click IDs in the URL — When someone clicks a paid ad, the ad platform automatically appends a unique ID to the landing URL (e.g.
gclidfor Google Ads,fbclidfor Facebook Ads,ttclidfor TikTok Ads). ABConvert reads this to identify paid visitors reliably.Referring page — When a visitor clicks a link on another site, the browser passes along where they came from. ABConvert uses this to detect organic search, organic social, and referral traffic.
Once detected, the traffic source is saved for the entire session — so navigating to other pages won't change the visitor's classification.
Channels
Channels group visitors by acquisition type:
Paid Search — Clicked a Google Ads or Bing Ads link (detected by
gclidormsclkidin the URL)Organic Search — Clicked an organic result from Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.
Paid Social — Clicked a paid social ad on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc. (detected by
fbclid,ttclid, orutm_medium=cpc/paid)Organic Social — Clicked an organic post on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, or YouTube
Email — URL contains
utm_source=emailorutm_medium=emailSMS — URL contains
utm_source=smsorutm_medium=smsAffiliate — URL contains
utm_medium=affiliateReferral — Came from another website (not a search engine or social platform)
Direct — No referrer and no UTM params (typed URL, bookmark, or unknown source)
Platforms
Platforms let you target a specific source within a channel. For example, selecting Google captures all Google visitors — both paid (Google Ads) and organic (Google Search). Available platforms: Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, YouTube, Bing.
How filters work together
A visitor must pass all enabled filter groups to proceed to group assignment.
Example configuration:
Country: United States OR Canada
Device: Mobile
Traffic source: Facebook OR Instagram
Result: Only mobile visitors from US/Canada arriving from Facebook or Instagram will enter the test.
3. Targeting rules (optional)
Targeting rules let you force-assign specific visitors to a particular group, instead of random assignment. Rules are evaluated in order — the first matching rule wins.
Add a rule — Click + Add rule to create a condition
Set conditions — Choose from: Country, Traffic Source, Referral Domain, Landing Page, Device, UTM parameter, Cookie
Set the action — Choose what happens when the rule matches:
Assign to group — Send matching visitors directly to Control or a Variant
Random split — Pass to the normal random assignment step
Exclude — Remove from the test entirely (not tracked in analytics)
Example: "IF Device is Desktop → Assign to Control"
Default: Visitors who don't match any rule are randomly split according to your group percentages.
4. Random group assignment
If a visitor passes all filters and doesn't match any targeting rules, they are randomly assigned to a test group based on your split percentages.
ABConvert uses a deterministic hash so the same visitor always lands in the same group across sessions — even if they clear cookies or return days later.
Example: For a 50/50 split, visitors with hash 0–49 see Group 0 and hash 50–99 see Group 1.
Traffic flow summary
Every visitor goes through the same steps in order:
Traffic allocation — Is this visitor in the allocated %? If no → excluded.
Audience filters — Does this visitor match all filters? If no → excluded.
Targeting rules — Does any rule match? If yes → assigned per rule action.
Random group assignment — Assigned to a group by deterministic hash.
Visitor sees their variant.
FAQ
Why is traffic distribution not exactly 50/50?
Even with a 50/50 split, analytics may show 52/48 or similar. This is normal for two reasons:
1. Smaller sample = more variance
Audience filters reduce the visitor pool. With 100,000 visitors you'll see near-perfect 50/50. With 1,000 visitors after filtering, 48/52 is statistically normal.
2. Short-term randomness
Like flipping a coin — you might get 6 heads and 4 tails in a short run. It evens out over time.
What to do: Let the test run longer. As sample size grows, the distribution naturally balances.
What happens when I run multiple tests at the same time?
Each test assigns visitors independently. The same visitor can be in different groups across different tests — this is by design. Each test's assignment is isolated and based on its own experiment ID.
Example:
Price Test A → Visitor in Group 0 (Original)
Theme Test B → Same visitor in Group 1 (Variant)
Shipping Test C → Same visitor in Group 2
How do I keep visitors in the same group across all tests?
This is not currently possible. We're planning to launch a test grouping feature that will unlock this use case — stay tuned!
Can I change traffic allocation after launching?
Yes. You can adjust the allocation percentage at any time. However, visitors who were already excluded stay excluded.
Example: If you start at 50% and increase to 80%, the extra 30% comes from previously excluded visitors.
Can I edit audience filters after launching?
Yes, but changes only affect new, unassigned visitors. Visitors already in a group keep their original assignment.
Best practice: Test your filters thoroughly before launching to avoid losing attribution data.
What happens when a visitor doesn't match audience filters?
They are permanently excluded from the test. They won't see any variant and won't appear in test analytics.