Split Testing W/ Tables

[megler]

Hey Guys!

Is there an *easy* way to flip offers back and forth for split testing? If I had them both set up on one line, I'd know how to do it, but the way the site is set up, I have offer 1 on 1 row of a table and offer 2 on row 2. To make it harder, their banners are in seperate cells on the same rows.

So row 1 has 2 cells and row 2 has 2 cells. I would like to flip the contents of those rows back and forth so that each one has a chance to be the "featured" product and see which one converts better.

Would this be a total pain in the ass to do?

Thnks!

Marceia

 

[awesometbn]

Is there an *easy* way to flip offers back and forth for split testing? If I had them both set up on one line, I'd know how to do it, but the way the site is set up, I have offer 1 on 1 row of a table and offer 2 on row 2. To make it harder, their banners are in seperate cells on the same rows.

So row 1 has 2 cells and row 2 has 2 cells. I would like to flip the contents of those rows back and forth so that each one has a chance to be the "featured" product and see which one converts better.

Hello Marceia,
Are you making a call to a flat file database? Or SQL? Or is this some type of customer requirement on the layout with your tables? The reason I ask is because the common method of doing this (and yes there are lots of variations) is to setup a single location that is "split testing" your offer behind the scenes. Below is an example of a PHP script called offer.php.

<?php
$links = array(’http://www.affiliatelink1.com’,'http://www.affiliatelink2.com’);
$link = $links[array_rand($links)];
echo “<meta http-equiv=’refresh’ content=’0;url=$link’/>”;
?>

This is what you would create to do a PHP include in the table cell of your choice. The split will happen randomly behind the sceens. For more of an explanation take a look at,

Affiliate Network Blog Blog Archive Offer Split Testing Script

But if I'm way off the mark, please tell us more about what you are trying to do. Thanks.

 

[megler]

Hey awesometbn,

yeah, that'll work great if everything were on 1 line. Here, let me show you:

What I want to do is flip the top row with the bottom row on refresh, or even random, I don't care. Just a way to test it. I'm not sure how to do it with an array, like I said, if it were all on one line, I'd use your way.

Any other thoughts?

 

[bluebuddha]

I don't see why having it on one line or two makes it any different. Have each offer in an array and then generate a random index when displaying the offer.

i.e., pseudocode would be
offers=[offer1,offer2,offer3,offer4]
func getOffer() {
return offers[rand(1,4)]
}

except you'd wanna make offers a static variable if it's in a function, so you can keep track of what offers have already been selected. Another way to do it would be to have an array of keys and values (offers) and then just merge them after randomizing the keys array.

 

[megler]

I didn't think about having each offer in an array. that makes sense. i'll give it a shot. Thanks, bluebuddha.