Split Testing in Ad Management

The Sovrn Ad Management platform allows you to run multiple wrapper configurations at once on live traffic. This enables you to split test different configurations to determine performance implications and optimize accordingly. For example, if you are considering adding a new creative size to an ad unit, you could run a version with the creative size enabled on a small percentage of live traffic and review the performance results prior to rolling out the change site-wide.

NOTE: We recommend reviewing instructions for Editing and Deploying Versions prior to setting up a split test.

Setting Up a Spit Test

Select the Working version that will be the primary version for your split test from the Versions drop down

Click the edit icon.
Name the version. Tip: Use a descriptive name to identify what will be different about this version from others in the test. Example: “0.75 price floor”
Enter a Version Tag that is unique to this version. Version Tags are logged in analytics and simplify comparing results across versions.

Make any necessary settings changes
From the Versions drop down, click the copy icon next to the version you just configured.
Name the copied version to indicate what is different about this version from others in the split test (see step 3 above)
Enter a Version Tag
Make the settings changes that you are testing
Repeat steps 6-9 to set up any additional versions being tested
Click Ad Manager, then click Deploy
Select all versions being tested from the drop downs and assign the percentage of live traffic you would like each version to run on. Traffic percentage must sum to 100

Select Session Persistence if you would like the version the user gets on the first page to be the same on every page throughout the session
Enter a description of what is being tested
Click Push It

Testing a Version

Apply the query string parameter ?p_default_tag=[versiontag] to the end of a site URL to force one of your split versions for testing purposes.

For example, if you input the Version Tag “60secondrefresh”, the parameter should be:

?p_default_tag=60secondrefresh

Reporting on a Split Test

Click Analytics, then click Explore
Click on the Tags dimension to include it in the report
Click the filter icon next to the Tags dimension to add it as a filter, and enter the names of the Version Tags for each version included in the split test
Add performance metrics that you would like to view by tag (i.e. Page RPM, Ad CPM)

NOTE: Session level data such as Session RPM will only be accurate if Session Persistence was enabled for the split test. You will also need to include the dimension Table Select as a filter with the value Log to view accurate session level data.

Need more help?

If you still have questions, please reach out to admanagement@sovrn.com.