
You can use Adobe Target to create a wide range of experiences, from simple A/B tests to complex personalization flows.
One of the key benefits of Adobe Target is its ability to integrate with other Adobe products, such as Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Campaign.
This integration allows you to leverage data from across your marketing stack to inform your personalization and optimization efforts.
By using Adobe Target, you can unlock the full potential of your customer data to deliver more relevant experiences and drive better business outcomes.
Expand your knowledge: Why Is Reaching Your Target Audience Important in Data Analysis
Setting Up Tests
Setting up tests in Adobe Target is a straightforward process. You have three main options: manual A/B testing, auto-allocate A/B testing, and auto-target A/B testing.
To create a test, you'll need to set up the experience variation for your test, which is a version of your site experience that will host the changes you want to test against your "default" experience. This variation can be as small or as significant as you need it to be, and even the smallest of changes can be responsible for the largest differences.
If this caught your attention, see: Adobe Target A/b Testing
You can create variations by altering content, such as changing the page heading or using an alternative hero image. The online editor in Adobe Target also allows for basic style changes, like amending the background color of a text box or changing the text color.
To manage your tests, you should avoid conflicts between multiple tests and consider any upcoming events or campaigns that could impact the measurement of success of each test. The duration of a test varies depending on the number of experiences included, traffic volume, and type of allocation.
Here are the two main ways Adobe Target handles A/B testing:
- Using a single URL where different experiences are created for each test by amending the content, navigation, or styling for the page.
- Using a URL redirect where each experience has its own dedicated URL, e.g. Experience A uses homepage.com and Experience B uses www.homepage.com/version2.
Test Configuration
Create variations for your test by setting up a version of your site experience that will host the changes you want to test against your "default" experience.
These variations may be as small or as significant as you need them to be, and even the smallest of changes can be responsible for the largest differences.
You could test a different color of a button, or add text addressing common objections, say "no card required" if you're finding that customers don't click a button.
How It Works

To define your test, you need to understand what you're testing and what success looks like. Marketers define their success metrics, target audiences, and channels with objectives to achieve.
You'll need to set up variations for your test, which are versions of your site experience that will host the changes you want to test against your default experience. These variations can be as small or as significant as needed.
Adobe Target uses customer data insights, machine learning, and A/B testing to find the most impactful content for your target audiences and business goals. This helps create personalized experiences across channels at various touchpoints.
To create effective variations, consider the smallest changes that can make a big difference, like testing a different button color or adding text addressing common objections.
Traffic Allocation
Traffic Allocation is a crucial aspect of A/B testing, and Adobe Target provides two ways to manage it. You can manually define the traffic allocation when building the A/B test, which is based on percentage splits between each experience.
Take a look at this: Targeted Traffic to Website
The default method is 50% of visitors to one experience and 50% to another. However, you can adjust this to suit your needs, such as allocating more traffic to the control experience if you're looking to improve it.
Adobe Target also offers an auto-allocate option, which automatically allocates traffic to the best-performing experience. This option is commonly used when there's a revenue-based goal, such as an e-commerce order or an online donation.
Here's a comparison of the two options:
Test Management
Managing multiple tests in Adobe Target can be a challenge, but it's essential to avoid conflicts between them. You'll want to consider upcoming events or campaigns that could impact the measurement of success of each test.
It's also important to determine the right test duration, which can vary depending on the number of experiences included, traffic volume, and type of allocation. Generally, lower traffic volumes or tests with more than two experiences require longer test durations.
Adobe Target allows you to allocate traffic to your tests, and the default setting for a true A/B test is 50/50, but you might not always want to go this route, especially if your current experience is working well and you're looking to make small improvements.
Test Allocation

Test Allocation is a crucial aspect of A/B testing, and Adobe Target provides two primary methods for managing traffic allocation during a test. Manual allocation is set by the user when building the A/B test, based on percentage splits between each experience.
The default setting for manual allocation is a 50/50 split, where half of all users in your audience will see one experience or the other. This is considered the fairest split, but there may be circumstances where you want to allocate more traffic to the control experience and test only a small percentage of traffic on your new variation.
In Adobe Target, traffic allocation can be managed in two ways: manual/user defined and auto-allocate. Manual/user defined allocation is set by the user when building the A/B test, based on percentage splits between each experience.
Auto-allocate, on the other hand, automatically allocates traffic to the best-performing experience. Adobe Target will split the traffic equally between each experience and after a period of analysis, will allocate the traffic to the best performing experience, based on the goals for the A/B test.
Here are the two methods of traffic allocation in Adobe Target:
- Manual/User Defined: Set by the user when building the A/B test, based on percentage splits between each experience.
- Auto-allocate: Automatically allocates traffic to the best-performing experience, based on the goals for the A/B test.
Managing Tests
Managing tests is crucial to avoid conflicts between multiple tests.
You should consider any upcoming events or campaigns that could impact the measurement of success of each test.
A/B tests should run for varying lengths of time depending on the number of experiences included, traffic volume, and type of allocation.
Lower traffic volumes or tests with more than two experiences usually require longer test durations.
Features and Benefits
Adobe Target is a powerful tool that offers a range of features and benefits to help businesses deliver personalized experiences to their customers. It presents two different versions of the same page to test the impact and engagement of different user groups.
With Adobe Target, you can identify and establish trending experiences during A/B testing and drive more traffic towards the path for a better conversion rate. This is achieved through its advanced capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) that automate and facilitate every single interaction as personal for everyone.
Adobe Target allows you to find high-performing experiences and automatically targets tailored user experiences. It also tries various combinations of elements on a single page and identifies their impacts to find the winning one.
Here are some of the key features and benefits of Adobe Target:
- Seamless integration with Adobe Analytics to create more insightful customer profiles.
- Omnichannel personalization to deliver tailored and similar experiences at various touchpoints across channels.
- Customer data insights to build profiles and craft cross-channel personalized experiences.
- A/B and multivariate testing to find the experiences that resonate with customers.
- Automated and personalized experiences using AI and ML algorithms.
- Intuitive and easy-to-use interface that doesn't require much training.
- Easy integration with analytics and CRM tools without changing the solution.
- Variety of metrics, success parameters, and detailed analytics to improve campaigns.
Adobe Target's features and benefits make it an ideal solution for businesses looking to deliver personalized experiences to their customers.
Types of Tests
Adobe Target offers several types of tests to help you achieve your goals. A/B testing is a common and efficient test that presents two versions of the same page to different user groups and compares the results for efficiency and effectiveness.
Multivariate testing is another type of test that allows you to try multiple combinations of elements on a single page and identify the impact. This can help you understand how different elements affect user behavior.
The Recommendations feature of Adobe Target delivers personalized content for each user based on demographics, behavioral analysis, preferences, and browsing history. It uses advanced algorithms to understand customer preferences and generate personalized recommendations.
Experience targeting empowers marketers to identify and target specific audiences with personalized experiences across various interaction touchpoints, including websites, eStore, Apps, and other digital channels. It uses customer insights, behavioral, contextual, and other preferences to create targeted campaigns for enhanced engagement and conversion rates.
Audience and Segmentation
You can choose to show your test variation to everyone, but it's often better to target a specific audience. In fact, you'll want to show your test variation to the audience that's most relevant to the issue you're trying to solve.
Adobe Target allows you to set up audience segments based on data or analyses that led you to launch the test. This means you can target the audience that's most likely to respond to the change you're testing.
If you find that a specific group of users, like Mac users in the United States, aren't clicking your CTA button, you can show a new variation to them to see what kind of CTA resonates with that audience better.
Adobe Target provides advanced audience targeting capabilities using "and/or" boolean rules to make your audience criteria as specific as you need them to be.
Here are some predefined audiences you can use in Adobe Target:
- Browser specific – Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari etc.
- Operating System specific – Mac OS, Windows OS etc.
- Tablet Device specific – Using a tablet device
- Search engine referrals – Arrived at the website via Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.
You can also create new audiences based on several additional rules, such as the pages the visitor has viewed and referring sources, like specific campaign URLs.
Recommendation Engine
Adobe Target's Recommendation Engine is a powerful tool that uses AI to provide relevant and personalized recommendations in real-time.
The engine analyzes millions of data points to recommend the most relevant items from your company's catalogue, such as products, media, articles, and further reading/related articles.
Marketers can define the context for what kind of recommendations to provide, and then Adobe Target takes care of the rest.
You can use existing audiences or one of 14 built-in audiences to target your recommendations.
Criteria for recommendations are like a recipe that determines which content, product, or service visitors receive.
Adobe Target features 10 built-in design templates, or you can create your own design for recommendations.
Here are the key components of Adobe Target's Recommendation Engine:
- Audience: Existing audiences or one of 14 built-in audiences
- Criteria: A recipe that determines which content, product, or service visitors receive
- Design: 10 built-in design templates or custom designs
Goals and Reporting
In Adobe Target, you can define your testing goals and track their performance using the platform's in-built reporting capabilities.
Every great test begins with a clear goal in mind, which is often based on data you've already collected about your existing experience, pointing to an opportunity for improvement.
Your goal will be what you aim to improve with this test, whether that's click-through rates on your CTA button, time on the page/site, etc.
With Adobe Target, you can define your goals (along with your success metrics) in the goals and settings feature.
Goals are split into three measures: Conversion, Revenue, and Engagement.
Conversion measures are viewed a specific page(s) or clicked a specific element(s), Revenue measures revenue per visitor or order, and Engagement measures page views or time spent on the site.
A primary goal is set for each A/B test, which is used in the auto-allocate traffic allocation mentioned above (if selected).
Multiple additional metrics can also be added to track performance.
Here's a breakdown of the three measures:
Customization and AI
Adobe Target's customization capabilities are a game-changer, thanks to its AI technology. This means you can perform A/B and multivariate testing, as well as rule-based customization, with ease.
With Adobe Sensei at the helm, you can access sophisticated and customizable artificial intelligence features. These cover testing, personalization, recommendations, search, and more, making the transition from manual to automated execution a breeze.
Testing is rigorous and thorough, designed to test many variations on the Web, mobile applications, IoT, and more, on both client and server. This helps in every step of the process, showing what the best combination is and how it will work, contributing to the best customer experience.
Adobe Target's AI-powered features help automate the testing process, saving you time and effort. You can focus on what matters most – creating a seamless and engaging experience for your customers.
Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign Management Platform
Adobe Target's multi-channel marketing campaign management platform allows you to create and manage campaigns across various channels, including web, mobile, and email.
This platform is designed to help businesses reach their target audience across multiple touchpoints and devices, increasing the chances of conversion.
With Adobe Target, you can create personalized experiences for your customers based on their behavior, preferences, and demographics.
You can also use Adobe Target to automate and optimize your marketing campaigns, saving time and resources.
By using Adobe Target's multi-channel marketing campaign management platform, businesses can improve their customer engagement and conversion rates.
Adobe Target's platform provides real-time analytics and reporting, allowing you to track the performance of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
This helps you to identify what's working and what's not, and make adjustments accordingly.
Adobe Target's platform also allows you to integrate with other Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions, such as Adobe Analytics and Adobe Experience Manager.
Additional reading: Google Analytics 4 Demo
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