Optimize 360 Vs. Optimizely X

In this blog we highlight some of the key features you will find with both of these optimisation platforms. ​Certified in both Optimize 360 and Optimizely, we can help you identify which of these tools would work best for your team.

As one of Optimizely’s long-time partners, and now also newly certified in Optimize 360, we thought it was high time to write a blog to highlight some of the key features you will find with both of these platforms. Whether you are looking to start your optimisation/personalisation process or are keen to understand which product would suit your needs best, this blog will take you through the main features which stand out for both tools.

The consistency of Optimize 360

With Optimize 360, you will find a great deal of ease and consistency if you are using Google Analytics. The native integration with GA makes linking these products super simple. This integration allows you to leverage the segments/audiences you have already created in GA and use them to create personalised experiences for your key audiences. With many of our clients already having audience lists set up, targeting these lists in Optimize is a great, natural extension of that.

As a bonus point, the integration of the entire analytics suite allows for you to target this one audience across your AdWords and DoubleClick campaigns as well as your Optimize experiments. So what that really means is that you can serve to one audience, the same targeted ads from AdWords, the same display messaging from DoubleClick ads, and also serve them a personalised landing page with Optimize. Talk about consistency!

In keeping with the consistency of integrations, if you are using GTM and have set up a dataLayer with particular attributes, you can use these attributes as targeting options. For example, if your site gives users the ability to login, and your dataLayer is capturing this information about the user, you can serve different experiences to users who are logged-in than to those who are not. Allowing you to serve customised experiences based on users’ states or attributes you are already capturing.

Optimize 360 aligns its testing strategy to ensure you are measuring the success of your experiments to reflect your key business/website objectives. Automatically bringing in the goals you have set up in GA, Optimize allows you to pick the goal you wish to use as the experiment objective. Of course, for Analytics set up with Ecommerce, you will also have access to revenue and transactions.

Bringing it back full circle, the data that is collected by Optimize is then fed back into GA. Optimize-specific dimensions as well as Experiment Reports are available in the GA reporting interface for you to conduct extensive post-experiment analyses. With the segmentation feature in GA, you will be able to segment on tons of metrics/dimensions, including the experiment variations itself to be able to understand differences in behaviours of those who had been served a particular variant. Once you are aware of differences in behaviour of users who had seen a particular variant, you can then create an audience and target those users with a different experiment.

The flexibility of Optimizely X

Being independent of any analytics tool makes Optimizely X a very flexible platform. Whether you are using Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics, Optimizely X has the ability to integrate with multiple different tools. With this, Optimizely X also allows for integrations with heatmapping, survey and call tracking tools as well as CMSs and DMPs. This vast variety of potential integrations opens the doors to discovering a variety of ways to enhance your testing efforts by combining qualitative and quantitative results as well as new ways of targeting your experiments.

Another bonus point for Optimizely X web experimentation is its capability to create multipage experiments, alongside its A/B, MVT and redirect tests. The multipage experiment type allows you to test changes implemented across several pages making it very useful for testing funnels or experimenting with changes to site-wide experiences.

Optimizely X gives you the flexibility to measure the success of your experiments with very little restriction. Track visitor behaviour in your variations by creating events to measure a multitude of different engagement types including clicks, pageviews and custom events.

Optimizely X web experimentation offers slightly more bespoke targeting options, for example IP Targeting; combined with the Optimizely X personalisation product, you will have the ability to integrate customer profiles using first-party, third-party and behavioural data.

As part of the new products, Optimizely X Mobile allows optimisation of apps built on iOS and Android, with the ability to instantly rollout new features without waiting for App Store or Google Play reviews.

Optimizely X Full Stack will enable your team to experiment deeply and broadly across the technology stack, with server-side and client-side testing unified on a single experimentation platform, on functionality such as pricing, search results order, or site redesigns.

All in all, both Optimizely X and Optimize 360 rack up their strengths in terms of performance and offering. Please click here to read this blog on the Periscopix website, which includes a comparison chart.