# Variants and A/B testing

Canonical URL: https://support.optimonk.com/en/articles/variants-and-ab-testing

A campaign can hold more than one version of the popup. Each version is a
**variant**, and once two or more of them are switched on, your traffic is split
between them — that is the A/B test.

## Where variants live

Open a campaign and stay on the **Overview** tab. Under the metrics you will find
the variant table, with one row per variant.

The desktop table has these columns: **Traffic**, **Variants**, **Active**, three
performance columns that follow the campaign's goal (for the default goal:
**Impressions**, **Submits**, **Submit rate**), and **Uplift**.

Each row shows a thumbnail of that variant, its name, its traffic share as a
percentage, and a switch that turns it on or off. While a variant is still being
built, the thumbnail is a working placeholder and the row says
**Building · step {step} of {total}** instead of showing a preview.

## Adding a variant

Under the table there is **Add A/B test variant**. It opens a menu with three
options:

- **Control (no popup)** — *"A holdout bucket that sees nothing"*. This is the
slice of visitors who get no popup at all, so you can measure the popup against
showing nothing. You can only have one, and the menu says **Already added** if
you do.
- **Duplicate a variant** — *"Clone an existing design to tweak"*. Pick one of
your existing designs; you get a copy named after it, with its own build, ready
to edit.
- **Create with AI** — *"Generate a new design in the designer"*. Disabled when
the campaign has no design session: *"Unavailable — this campaign has no design
session"*.

Two more routes exist. Each row's own menu has **Rename**, **Duplicate**,
**New design from this variant** and **Delete**. And from a design session's
concept board you can select finished concepts and use **Add {count} as A/B
variants** to attach them to an existing campaign.

Whenever you add or remove a variant, traffic is redistributed evenly across
whatever is active.

## Asking the assistant for test ideas

The chat next to the campaign can propose variants. Ask something like *"Suggest
an A/B test I could run"* — it is one of the suggested prompts. The assistant may
first ask a couple of questions, then come back with a set of labelled ideas,
each with a preview.

Click an idea to open **Variant comparison**: your **Control · current** on one
side, the **Suggested** version on the other, plus **Why this works** and
**What changes**. **Add variant** creates it in the campaign; the button then
reads **Added**. If none of them appeal, there is **None of these — show me other
variants**.

## Editing a variant

Click a variant row and it opens in an overlay: desktop and mobile side by side,
with **Preview** and **Edit with AI** tabs. Describe a change and it rebuilds
that variant.

Nothing here reaches your visitors on its own. Every change is kept as a draft —
the header shows an **Unpublished draft** badge — and *"Nothing changes for your
visitors until you press Save."* **Save** is the control that publishes.

For hands-on work there is **Drag & drop editor** in the overlay footer. If two
variants still share one build, opening the editor forks a copy first, so editing
one variant never changes the other.

## Running the test

There is no separate "start test" button. Once two or more variants are active on
a live campaign, a banner appears above the table saying **A/B test running**.
Until there is enough data it reads **Data collection in progress.**; after that
it names the leader — *"{name} is leading by +x.xx% (nn% chance to win)"*.

The banner also carries **Declare winner at {threshold}%**. Pressing it keeps the
leading variant serving and switches the others off. If the leader's chance to
win is below your threshold, or there is no data yet, you get a confirmation
first — **Declare winner now?** with **Keep testing** and **Declare anyway**.

Clicking the **Traffic** cell opens **A/B test settings**, which holds
**Auto-declare winner** with **Declare at … chance to win**, **Min conversions
**and **Min days running**, plus a **Traffic share** section. Traffic share is
**Evenly split**, marked **Always on**: *"Traffic is shared equally across all
active variants."* A custom split is not available yet — the panel says
*"Custom traffic split is still in progress."*

## Where the results show up

The variant table itself is the scoreboard: impressions, conversions, conversion
rate and **Uplift** per variant, with the chance-to-win percentage next to the
leader. Above it, the metrics band shows the campaign totals for the goal and
date range you pick. The campaign also has an **Analytics** tab.

One thing to know about the numbers: the per-variant figures are all-time totals,
and uplift is measured against a baseline variant — the holdout if you have one,
otherwise the oldest variant. Chance to win is a Bayesian estimate, so it needs a
reasonable amount of data before it means much.