Optimize your Automation workflows

Optimizing the performance of your autoresponder email sequences and driving more conversions is easy to do in SendinBlue Automation when you use the A/B split step to run your own A/B test.

Effective use of an A/B split step in your Automation workflows will help you find out what works for your potential customers (and what doesn't), resulting in an increase in your open rates, click-through rates, purchases, signups, etc.

In this article, you'll learn how to...

Add an A/B split step to your workflow
Measure the results of an A/B test
Update your workflow based on the test results

Before getting started

Please consider these rules when creating a workflow to A/B test:

A contact must reach the A/B split step in the workflow to participate in your test.
A contact may only follow one of the two paths (A or B) and must remain on the path taken.
Contacts reaching the split will be assigned to one of the two paths in 50:50 ratio in an alternating fashion.

View this guide for inspiration about what you can A/B test in your Automation workflows.

Good to know: Automation enables you to evenly split participants in your workflow between two distinct paths, so that you may review the outcome of each path and determine which best achieves your goal. This A/B split enables you to perform your own A/B test. SendinBlue will not select a winner for you since there may be many factors you use to judge the outcome.

Add an A/B split to your workflow

To A/B test new or existing workflows, go to Automation > Workflows and click on the Create a new workflow button or edit an existing workflow.

You can add the A/B split step anywhere on the workflow, below the Start Point.

Click on the (+) button anywhere on the workflow to add a new step and select the A/B Split step under conditions.

You will be asked to give your A/B split a name to help identify this split in your workflow logs.

All contacts that reach this step in the workflow will be evenly split across one of the two paths, i.e. A or B, in an alternating fashion.

You can then create and add varying actions (such as an email sequence) across the two paths to test which path performs better.

Once you have finished creating your workflow, be sure to activate your workflow.

Measure the results of your A/B test

You can track how each of your A/B split paths performs. From the Automation Workflows listing, click on your workflow's View Stats button.

From the View Stats page, you can identify which path has performed better based on your goal and decide the winning path.

Update your workflow based on your test results

Remove the less effective path

Once you have determined the better performing path, you may remove the A/B split from your workflow to send all contacts on the winning path.

Click on Edit on the workflow, hover the mouse over the A/B spit step, and click on the Delete icon.

You will be asked whether you want to keep path A or path B. Choose to keep the path which was the winner based on your goal.

Once you confirm, the A/B split step will be removed from your workflow and all contacts entering the workflow will now follow a single path.

Remove the entire A/B split step

From the same screen, you may also choose to delete both paths in case a clear winner was not determined and you would like to try another A/B split.

Good to know: If there are any contacts currently in the deleted path of the workflow, they will exit the workflow as soon as you delete the path.

What's next?