Optimize 360 - Google Releases Its Latest Website Testing Tool

An initial look at Optimize 360, Google's latest website testing and personalisation tool. We'll show you how this new tool will make testing quick and easy, with personalised targeting at the forefront.

The 360 suite

The new Google Analytics 360 Suite is stacked with a 6-pack of products ranging from some familiar platforms like GTM and GA to some brand new players. These include Data Studio 360 (read about it in Dan’s blog), Audience Centre 360, Attribution 360 as well as Optimize 360.

This suite aims to bring together all your data from your website analytics and marketing efforts to deliver more actionable insights. Optimize 360 is one of the tools available for taking action based on these insights and enables data-driven testing and personalisation.

Strengths of Optimize 360

Optimize 360 makes it quick and easy to create A/B, Multivariate or Redirect tests. But, as Optimize is a new player to the not-so-new CRO game, what sets this apart from all other optimisation tools?

A. Integration with GA:

Tight GA-Optimize integration and advanced statistics means the ability to action data collected in GA is super simple. With a few clicks, you can link up your Optimize container and GA properties/views, which will allow for a multitude of collaborations between the two platforms.

So what does this integration actually give us?

1. GA data powers Optimize objectives and reporting

As experts in the CRO field (more about our CRO services), we know how important it is to align testing efforts to the business/website KPIs. The GA-Optimize integration gives us the ability to use the goals and key metrics in GA as experiment objectives, to be able to measure the success of testing or personalisation based on KPIs.

2. GA audiences available for personalised targeting

Probably one of the most ground-shaking features of Optimize. Imagine being able to take anything and everything you are tracking in GA, use it to segment users groups, and deliver extremely personalised experiences to each. Well, now you can! Use GA like a DMP-light and share audiences with Optimize, which will allow you to run personalised experiments targeting specific subsets of users. This means you can now deliver the perfect content to every customer.

3. Optimize data available in GA for analysis

Testing in itself is a cyclical process and this integration makes that method a whole lot easier. Without having to export/import data or set custom dimensions for experiments, Optimize sends experiment data back into GA in the form ofExperiment Reports and has its own specific dimensions for you to be able to analyse the results of your experiments without any glitches. Once you’ve completed your post-experiment analysis, you will be able to feed this back into Optimize to re-target audiences (that cyclical process again!). Of course, you also get a full suite of experiment reports within Optimize 360 itself which will be discussed in more detail below.

B. Easy-to-use WYSIWYG Editor:

Optimize’s easy-to-use editor makes creating tests quick and simple. Just point, click and change – it’s that simple! And for those of you more code-inclined, Optimize also allows for writing CSS, as well as the ability to change/add HTML and JavaScript.

C. Advanced Bayesian Statistics:

The powerful Bayesian stats engine helps to make smarter, faster decisions. When you reach a result you can be 95% (or more) confident that your experiment is what’s caused the impact, allowing you to make statistically-backed data-driven decisions.

The Interface

Experiment Objectives

This is defined as "the website functionality you wish to optimize". As mentioned above, the goals and key metrics from the linked GA view will be available in a drop-down for you to choose from.

Targeting Options

Optimize Targeting rules allow you to choose when and to whom the experiment will be served. You can combine multiple rule types to create a very specific target audience.

The Editor

The Editor Palette allows you to change any CSS style attributes to the element you have selected, including dimensions, location, typography, backgrounds, borders, etc.

The Reports

In the Reports Tab you can monitor a running experiment or see the results of a concluded experiment.

Evaluate the success of the variation based on any goals or key metrics by Adding New Objectives in the Improvement Overview Card. This means you don’t have to go back and forth to GA to get a quick snapshot of how well your experiment is performing relative to any goals or key metrics.

Optimize 360 definitely stacks up, with its tight integration with GA and an easy to use interface. Turning insights into actions to deliver optimal experiences has never been easier.

Stay tuned to our blog for more on Optimize 360 as we dig deeper into this new platform.

If you want to view this blog written by Shahina Meru on the Periscopix webstite, please click here.