How to create a Patch / Multipage Patch

A Patch or Multipage Patch consists of modifying:

• One or several elements on one page (for example, your homepage, basket page, etc.) or several pages that share the same layout (all your product pages or all your results pages, etc.).

• One or several elements on different pages (for example, your homepage, basket page, etc.) or several pages that share a different layout (all your product pages and all your results pages, etc.).

Patching your website means changing a piece of code to correct an error or to push out an important piece of content or information as soon as possible.

The objective of patching is not experimental or personalization, but only to make a very fast change to a page of your site to fix an error or update something urgent. Therefore, you don't have to set up Goals and it does not generate any reporting.

A patch campaign:

• is always pushed to all of your audience – you can’t choose a specific segment.

• is always pushed to 100% of your traffic.

• can’t be analyzed as it does not generate any reporting.

• can tell you how many unique visitors have been exposed to the patch (this data is pushed directly to the dashboard).

• You can also force your opt-out visitors to see your patch campaigns.

To learn more about the differences between each type of test, refer to the Types of campaigns article. If you don’t know which type of campaign to choose, our virtual assistant Ally can help you.

To create a Patch or Multipage Patch, go to Web Experimentation, click the Create button and select Patch or Multipage Patch.

👉 To learn about the different ways to create a campaign, please refer to How to create a campaign.

Configuration

Step 1: Main information

The Main Information page is the first step toward your new Patch campaign.

We recommend adding a description to your campaign to add useful information you want to share with your team. For example: “This patch will fix a typo error on product # 447 158”. In the URL field, enter the URL you want to load in the editor.

👉 For more information on how to configure this step, refer to How to set-up Main Information step.

Step 2: Editor

You have two ways to create content for your campaign in AB Tasty:

With the visual editor

The visual editor enables you to manage your Patch by adding or removing new variations, creating visual modifications, or adding action tracking (click tracking) to record the performance of the elements you’re about to challenge.

You can’t add trackings because patch campaigns have no reporting and are aimed at following performance.

👉 To learn how to use the Visual Editor, discover options, and dive into our widget libraries, please read the Visual Editor Guide

With the code editor

The Code Editor enables you to declare your code (JavaScript, CSS) without having to load the Visual Editor. The Code Editor is the best solution for developers who want to save time.

👉 To learn how to use the Code Editor, please read the Code Editor Guide.

Step 3: Targeting

By default, a patch is displayed to your whole audience, that’s why you can’t change the WHO section when targeting a patch.

👉 To learn how to configure targeting, please read How to setup a campaign targeting.

Step 4: Advanced options

The advanced options are not mandatory.

• Select a loading method for your campaign.

👉 To learn how to configure Advanced options, please read Campaign flow: Advanced Options.

Step 5: QA

The QA of the campaign is one of the most important steps before launching your campaign into production. The QA allows you to verify and test in real condition :

- the targeting configuration - the modifications you've made

👉 To learn how to use the QA Assistant, please read QA Mode & QA Assistant.

If you want to launch your A/B Test at a specific hour on a specific day, and/or if you want to pause it at a specific hour on a specific day, see our guide on scheduling.

In AB Tasty, you can display campaigns even if your visitors have not yet given their consent. For patch campaigns, no data is collected but, by default, they are displayed only when the visitor has given their consent. To display patches to all visitors including those who have not yet given their consent, go to Settings > Cookies > Cookie deposit and check the Patch box. For more information, refer to Managing your visitors’ Privacy.

Use cases

Use case 1: Creating a patch from scratch

You can create a patch from scratch, for example:

• To correct a typographical error

• To modify a legal mention

• To add a health message

• To hide a CTA (e.g.: when experiencing a stock shortage)

Use case 2: Transforming a winning test variation into a patch

To transform a winning test variation into a patch, apply the following steps:

1. From the dashboard, hover over the test you want to use as a reference for your patch.

2. Click and Duplicate.

3. Choose Patch from the first dropdown menu.

4. Choose the variation you want to push to 100% of your users (the winning one) and validate: Your patch appears in the test dashboard.

Your campaign set-up is imported from the source test but you can add or modify information if needed. Make sure you have a description of your patch campaign.

You can also duplicate the winning variation of a multipage test into a patch. In this case, you must create one patch per page as this type of campaign does not allow you to have several pages.