Now, in addition to running short-term website experiments with Optimize, you can create custom website experiences that deliver the right message to your customers—every time they visit your site.
What does it mean for you?
Until now Google Optimize gave you a possibility of setting up A/B Tests, Multivariate Tests and Redirect Tests. Now Optimize allows creating customized experiences on websites in order to show relevant, tailored versions and compelling messages/contents to specific buckets of users.
It was a solution already available in competitors’ A/B testing tools but now it will have a few advantages.
- It’s simple to set up
- It’s natively integrated with Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads
- It’s free.
The possibility of personalizing the message/content according to a specific target of users, the full integration with Google Analytics and the fact that it’s free are good reasons to make Optimize more and more appealing for the market.
How do you create a personalization?
Create a new personalization by following these steps:
- Go to Google Optimize, navigate to your Optimize container page and click CREATE EXPERIENCE.
- Enter a name, the URL of the web page you want to edit, and click Personalization.
- Click CREATE.
- Make site changes using the visual editor and add targeting rules just like you would for an experiment. Note: you don’t need to specify any objectives.
- Click START to begin running your newly created personalization.
- That’s it, your personalization is now live!
You can create a test to see if personalization works for you. But you can also create personalized experiences without running a test first. For instance, you might want to offer a special (e.g. free shipping) to all customers in San Francisco.
Use the Optimize Visual Editor to make a change on your site and then make it available to any segment of your users.
What targeting options are available?
I mentioned that you can personalize by city (or region, or country). But what other rules can you set up for personalization?
Here’s a screenshot of available options inside Google Optimize:
Conclusion
Google Optimize is a relatively simple tool compared to other solutions on the market. But due to its integration with Google Marketing Platform ecosystem and because it’s free and because new features are added constantly, it’s definitely a very useful tool.
At the moment the personalization feature is in its early stages but it shows great potential. Mainly because it’s integrated with Analytics, Tag Manager, and Ads.
Also, according to Google’s announcement, “more personalizing features are on the way”.
Start testing personalization with Google Optimize and as you get comfortable using it, more features will become available.
PS. Too bad targeting by Google Analytics custom audiences is only available if you have Optimize 360, Google’s paid product, which is crazy expensive.
