Getting Started Guide

Welcome to Nelio A/B Testing for WordPress! We are very happy that you are with us. Take a couple of minutes to read this guide and learn the basics you will need to use our service. In this getting started guide you will learn how to:

1. Install and activate Nelio A/B Testing so you can create your firsts A/B tests.
2. Create, delete, or view the progress of any test.

Install and Activate Nelio A/B Testing

Watch The Short Video

Or Follow the Detailed Instructions

Install The Plugin

To install Nelio A/B Testing on your WordPress you just have to follow the usual steps you do with any other plugin. First, go to the WordPress Dashboard and click on Plugins » Add New. In the search box, type Nelio and WordPress will search for the most relevant results.

One of the results will be Nelio A/B Testing. The box contains information about the plugin (number of active installations, average score, compatibility notices, and so on). Click Install Now to download the latest version of Nelio A/B Testing and then Activate it on your website.

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see a new option in your Dashboard called Nelio A/B Testing. Click on it and you will see a message showing that Nelio A/B Testing is almost ready.

To use our service, you must first accept our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. Click Continue » to configure the plugin.

Use a Nelio Account

If you want to use a Nelio account, the first thing you should do is subscribe to one of our plans. After subscribing, you will receive an email confirming your subscription. This email will include your License Code.

Click on the Subscribe menu option and, on the new screen, click on the Use Licence button (or if you have not subscribed yet, first click on Suscribe). Then write the license code that you have received by mail and click Apply to validate the code and access your Account.

If all is OK, you’ll see your Account information:

• Information about the plan you’re subscribed to:
  • name and type of subscription,
  • amount and date of the next charge,
  • quota of available page views, and
  • options to cancel the subscription, buy more quota, or upgrade your subscription.
• Sites linked to your account,
  • with the option to unlink them by clicking on Unlink Site when you hover your cursor.
• Account information:
  • your name and last name,
  • your email address,
  • the date you signed up, and
  • your License Code.
• Billing history, where for each invoice there are:
  • a link to view the detail of the invoice,
  • the date of issue,
  • the total amount.

Create a Test in Nelio A/B Testing

With Nelio A/B Testing you can test different aspects of WordPress. Specifically, you can test the headlines of your posts, create one or more variants of your pages, posts and custom post types, test other themes, widgets, menus, templates, WooCommerce product summaries, view Heatmaps, and much more.

Let’s quickly review how to create your first test. If you need more details, check out our tutorials.

Create a New A/B Test

1. Under the Nelio A/B Testing menu, click on Tests to view and manage your tests.
2. Click the Add Test button at the top of the screen.
3. A window will open with all the types of tests you can create. Each of them has a name and an icon.
   • Click on the type of test you want to create.

Name and Define Your Test

First of all, give a descriptive Name to the test you want to create to help you identify it in the future (for example, we can “Test different featured images” on one page). In addition, on the right sidebar, you’ll find three additional tabs:

• Status and Management, where you see the state in which your test is currently (Draft, Ready, Scheduled, or Paused) and options on when it should start and end,
• Description of the test, where you can indicate what you are testing and what you intend to achieve with it,
• Test Scope, where, depending on the type of test created, you specify which pages of your website are affected by this test.

How to Create the Variants to Test

An A/B test consists of testing different variants of a page, post, menu, theme, widget, templates, and so on. Split tests measure which variant works best to achieve your goals. For example, you can analyze on your homepage what changes in design or content generate more interest or provide more sales.

Select the Control Version to Test

First, we need to select the specific element we want to test (called “Control Version” or “Version A”). For example, the following screenshot shows the tested element in a page test. When creating a page test, the first thing we have to do is select the specific page we want to test:

For some tests, the tested element is already set. For instance, in theme, widget, or CSS themes, the control version is your current setup.

Create New Variants

To run a split test you have to create one or more variants of your tested element. To do this, in most cases, you will have to name your variant and, by default, an exact copy of the “Variant A” will be created which you can modify as you wish with the Edit link.

The set of variants you can use in some test types is already pre-set. For example, in a theme or template test, your variants have to be themes or templates already available in your WordPress installation.

Editing a Variant

When you edit a variant, WordPress will open your default content editor for that type of content. This can be the official WordPress block editor or any other editor that your theme or plugins have set up.

Additionally, when you are editing an element that belongs to a Nelio A/B Testing test it allows you to go back to the test to which the variant belongs.

How to Define Your Conversion Goals and Actions

A/B tests are usually done with one or more goals in mind, such as “getting more subscribers,” “showing interest in your products,” or “increasing visits to posts.” The goal are met when the visitor performs certain actions. For example, a visitor may be “showing interest in your content” when they visit your price page or when they fill out a certain form on your website.

Define Your Conversion Goals

You can add as many goals as you want by clicking on the + New link. If you create more than one goal, Nelio A/B Testing will show you information on how effective each variant is for each of the defined goals.

Optionally, you can give your goal a name that helps you remember what you were interested in improving in your test. For example, your goals could be “Increase subscriptions,” “Show interest in my products,” or “Increase visits to posts.”

Add Conversion Actions to Your goals

Different types of conversion actions are available to track your visitors. For example, you can control when they access a certain page, when they click on a certain element of your website, or when they submit a contact form.

1. Click on the Action Button that interests you. For example, if you want them to visit a product’s pricing page or a post, click Page View icon.
2. Each type of conversion action has its own settings. In the case of a Page View, for example, you must specify what type of content the user has to visit (a page, a post, etc.) and what is the specific content to visit for a conversion to be counted.
3. Repeat the process for all the actions you want to add.

Remember that you can delete any action by clicking on the Delete link below the action.

How to Start the Test

Start your test

To start a test, check that it is Ready and, if it is, click on the Start… button in the upper right corner. If it was not ready, you can hover the mouse over the information icon that appears next to the Status to see why your test is still a Draft.

If you do not want to start the test directly, but want to leave it scheduled for a specific date, specify it using the Start field in the Status & Management section.

Once the test has started, the plugin will show you its results page and you will see that the status changes to Running.

Important: tests cannot be edited once they are active, but you can pause, modify them and restart them so they continue to run. Of course, depending on the modifications you make, your partial results may be invalid after restarting the test. If that is the case, it is best to start a new test, duplicating the previous one.

When do you want to end your test

You can also define when you want the execution to end, indicating the End Mode of the test:

• Manual: the test will stop when you click the Stop button, in the list of tests or on its results page.
• Duration: the test will stop automatically after the indicated time.
• Page views: the test will stop automatically after reaching the total number of visits you have specified.
• Confidence: The test will stop automatically when a winner is found in the first goal with the specified confidence level.

How to See the Progress of a Test and Its Results

In the menu option Tests you can see the list of the tests created, the status they are in and the date of their last update. At any time you can see the results of a test that is started or that has already ended by clicking on the View Results link below its name.

Summary of the results

In the right sidebar of the results page you will find the Summary of your test with the following information:

• Status icon. This icon helps you quickly identify the progress of your tests. It is initially in yellow, indicating that there are not enough visits to determine a winner. If the icon changes showing a clock with a heart, there is a possible winner, but statistical confidence is low, so things can still change. Finally if a green icon is shown (with a medal), we have a clear winner. If the icon is red, no alternative is better than the original.
• Some metadata about your test. Specifically, you can see the status of the test, how long it has been running, when it started and how it ends.
• The description and scope of the test are also included, if applicable.

Progress of a Test

The results page shows, in turn, the following information on the progress of a test :

1. Test Name
2. Evolution with the conversion rate of the control version and all variants, as well as the total number of conversions and visits to the tested pages.
3. Two additional graphs showing the conversion rates of each variant and its degree of improvement over the control version, respectively.
4. For each of the variants of the test we will see a thumbnail image, if available, of the page under test, the number of visits it has received, its number of conversions, the resulting conversion rate and, for all variants other than the original, the degree of improvement that they have with respect to the control version.
5. For some types of tests, we also find a button to display the heatmap of that variant.
6. Finally, a summary of the conversion goals and actions of the test is shown.

Improve Your Web Conversion

You can end a test manually at any time by clicking on the Stop button found in the top right corner of the results page. Remember that a test can also end automatically if the condition indicated in its end mode is met.

After completing a test, and to improve the conversion of your website, in some types of tests you can click on the Apply button of the winning variant (if it exists) and the content of the original element will be replaced with the contents of the winning variant.

If you need more specific instructions to create a specific type of test on your website, take a look at the list of tests that Nelio A/B Testing allows you to create.

Moreover, don’t hesitate to consult our Help Documentation for additional information.