Split Testing & Promotion

Split Testing & Promotion

A split test lets you compare variations of a journey path against each other on live traffic, then promote the variant that performs best so every new subscriber follows it. A split divides subscribers into 2–4 named variant paths by percentage; each path is its own sequence of notifications and waits, and all paths converge downstream so the journey continues as one flow afterward.

Setting up a split test

Add a Split Test step from the + on any edge, name each variant, and set each variant's percentage (all percentages must total 100%). You can have up to 4 variants; adding one redistributes the percentages evenly. Build each variant's path independently — click the + on a variant's edge to add waits, notifications, and other steps to that branch. All branches automatically converge at a shared join point downstream.

For the basics of adding and configuring steps, see Journey Builder.

Reading variant performance

Once a journey with a split is running, the builder shows performance for each variant in two places:

• On-canvas performance cards. Each variant path shows a compact card at the fork with metrics for the whole path (every step in that branch, not just one send): entrances, impressions, clicks, CTR, and — when the journey records purchases — purchases and purchase rate.

• The Split Test Results drawer. Click a variant's performance card to open the drawer: every variant appears as a row with the full metric set, side by side. This is also where you promote a winner.

A few states to expect:

• Until a variant has enough data, its rates show as “—” and no leader is suggested.

• A draft journey shows no metrics — data appears once the journey is running.

• Journeys that don't track purchases simply omit the purchase columns.

Promoting a variant

When you've decided, click Promote on a variant's row in the Split Test Results drawer. A confirmation dialog explains exactly what will happen. Promotion:

• Routes all new subscribers down the promoted variant's path. The split is replaced by that single path going forward.

• Lets in-flight subscribers finish. Anyone already in the journey — including on a path you didn't promote — completes their current path uninterrupted. Promotion never moves someone mid-journey.

• Keeps the losing variants in history. They're removed from the live journey but preserved in the journey's revision history, where their results remain viewable.

Keep in mind:

• Promotion is irreversible. It creates a new version of the journey; you can't “un-promote” back to the split (you would rebuild the test).

• Save first. Promotion acts on the saved journey, so unsaved builder edits block it — save your changes before promoting.

Viewing past revisions

Promoting (and other structural changes) creates a new revision of the journey. Use the revision selector in the Journey Builder header to view any past revision read-only: the canvas shows that earlier version (for example, the original split), with a banner indicating you're viewing history and a Back to current revision button to return. On a promoted journey, the past revision marks the promoted variant with a 🏆.

Revision-aware Insights

On the journey's Insights tab, a revision scope control lets you view reporting for all revisions (grouped into collapsible per-revision sections, each with its own subtotal) or scope to a single revision. This keeps before/after metrics comparable — for example, the split test's variant results stay attached to the revision that ran the test, separate from the collapsed journey's later performance. The Split Test Variants report defaults to the revision that held the split. On journeys with only one revision, no scope control appears.