Testing Groups

The Testing Group functionality provides an open platform for building, analyzing and reviewing test and effort data more quickly and efficiently. Testing Groups and Sub Groups are formed to organize efforts that share a common testing variable together in one location.

When creating new Testing Groups - select one of the following categories that best define the element(s) shared between the efforts you will be grouping together. These categories will also help in the filtering process for reviewing the effort results.

Price: Refers specific price points and potentially changes in price point of the publication ($39 vs. $49 for example)
Copy: Represents any of the promotional copy attributes such as overall message, wording or syntax changes, etc.
Format: Refers to the arrangement or set-up of a promotion (Video vs. HTML for example)
Offer: Relates to any other offer information of a publication besides price (refund policy, copywriter or terms of purchase)
Creative: Refers to the creative copy used to endorse the promotion as well as any immediate design or layout changes (dedicated lift note copy for example)
Checkout: Deals solely with the order form used in the promotion.
Gauntlet: Flags all efforts labeled as “gauntlet” efforts for better categorization and organization.
Upsell/Cross-Sell: Represents offers that utilize an upsell or cross-sell in addition to a main pub offer
Effort Type: Refers to the type of ad that will be running. For example: dedicateds, space ads, banner ads, text ads, editorial mentions, ps links, podcasts etc.
Miscellaneous: To be used for efforts that do not fit with any other category.

To access the Testing Group Report data, click the Options menu located in the lower left-hand corner of your IRIS screen. Then select Testing Group.

After selecting a category, you will see all the groups available for review in that category. If you wish to see more detailed information about one group in particular, click on the title of that group.

Also note: the Batch, Gross, Net and Refund % data for all efforts in each group are displayed next to the group title.

The next screen you will see is a list of sub-groups found within that main testing group. This screen also houses the description and results of the test for later use and review

If you wish to see further details of the specific efforts that make-up the sub groups, click the sub group name link to be taken to the effort list where you can view the efforts individually.

To add efforts to testing groups, select Testing Group from the Effort Options menu when creating/editing an effort.

New fields will appear. Select a parent group for the effort to join, or select the Add link to add a new group into IRIS.

If you selected Add, a pop-up form will appear for you to enter the new parent group information. Create additional Sub Groups to help further organize the effort and test data. Add or remove additional Sub Groups by using the [+] and [-] buttons located next to the Sub Group naming fields.

Select the Sub Group you wish to use for the current effort, and when finished save your changes by selecting Edit Effort (or Create Effort if you are building a new effort).

The Sub Group information will now display on the Effort Details page ("Options" section) and in the Testing Group Report data. The sub group name will be hyperlinked and when selected will direct you to the testing group’s report data page for further review and analysis.

You may also place an effort into multiple testing groups to accommodate long-term or cross-promotional tests. To do this, simply use the [+] and [-] buttons next to the testing group drop-down fields.

After a marketing test has completed or order data and revenue begin updating in IRIS, recording test Results will be critical to identifying the variables that worked and did not work in the marketing test. You can enter a group Description or test Results at any time.

There are two ways to enter description/result info into the testing group screen:

1) the effort page

2) the testing group report page

To enter descriptions and results from the effort screens…

Navigate to the Edit Effort screen of an effort that belongs in one of the groups you wish to update and select the Edit link located just above the group name

The next window will display the two text boxes that can be used to format a group Description and testing Results at any time. Enter the data you wish to have displayed on the testing reports screen and click Edit to save.

To enter description/result info on the testing group report page…

Navigate to the Testing Group reports page (via the Options menu in the lower left-hand corner of the screen) and select the Category and Group you wish to edit.