Automatic Main Variant Selection

To access the automatic main variant selection page for a given A/B-split job on the A/B-split job details page, click the Edit link in the Automatic Main Variant Selection section.

Note: The A/B-split job must have been defined with type "Sampling A/B-Split" and with "Let LISTSERV Maestro select the main job automatically", and the sampling variants must not have been delivered yet.

On this screen you define how the main variant for an A/B-split job with sampling (with automatic main variant selection) is picked by Maestro.

First, define how LISTSERV Maestro shall select the winning variant. Depending on your choice, the winning variant will be the one with the highest open rate, click rate or share count. Note that only those choices are available that are supported by all sampling variants.

In addition, specify the period after delivery of the sampling variants from which the events shall be considered when the winner is selected. You can specify this period as a number of hours or days. Note that for each sampling variant, this period starts at the moment of delivery and ends the specified number of hours or days later. If all sampling variants are delivered at the same time, then this period also starts and ends at the same time for all variants. But if the sampling variants are delivered at different times, then even though the period will have the same length for each variant, it will start and end at a different time.

The length of this period also effectively determines the moment at which LISTSERV Maestro actually selects the winning variant, which is exactly at the time when this period ends for the sampling variant that was delivered last.

Now that you have defined how and when LISTSERV Maestro shall select the winning variant, you also need to specify when to deliver the main variant. For this you have four choices:

Send Immediately: LISTSERV Maestro will start the delivery of the main variant immediately after it has selected the winner.
This is usually the choice to use if the delivery time is not important and you want the main job to go out as soon as possible.
Send at Winner's Delivery Time: After LISTSERV Maestro has selected the winner, it will look at the original delivery time of the winner and will start delivery of the main variant at the next occurrence of this time, which may be either today or tomorrow.
This is the choice to use if the time of the day is important for your delivery, but the actual day is not, and you want to use the same time as was used by the winner. It implies an additional delay of the main variant of up to 24 hours.
Send at Winner's Delivery Weekday and Time: After LISTSERV Maestro has selected the winner, it will look at the original delivery weekday and time of the winner and will start delivery of the main variant at the next occurrence of this time on the same weekday, which may be today or whenever is the next occurrence of the same weekday.
This is the choice to use if both the time of the day and the weekday are important for your delivery and you want to use the same weekday and time as was used by the winner. It implies an additional delay of the main variant of up to 7 days.
Send at the Next Occurrence of the Following Time: After LISTSERV Maestro has selected the winner, it will wait until the next occurrence of the specified time, which may be either today or tomorrow, and will then start delivery of the main variant.
This is the choice to use if the time of the day is important for your delivery, but the actual day is not, and you want to use a specific time that may differ from the delivery time that was used by the winner. It implies an additional delay of the main variant of up to 24 hours.

Once you have prepared these settings and have completed the definition of all sampling variants, you then only have to authorize the delivery of the sampling variants and the rest will automatically be handled by LISTSERV Maestro, without further input from you:

Each authorized sampling variant will wait in the outgoing mail jobs list until its delivery time has come. LISTSERV Maestro will then start its delivery. The finished sampling variants are then moved to the completed mail jobs list.
After the delivery of the last sampling variant, LISTSERV Maestro will wait for the specified amount of time to allow tracking events to collect, as described above.
Once the waiting time as elapsed, LISTSERV Maestro will use the tracking data collected to select the winning sampling variant by picking the one with the highest value for the specified metric, as described above.
When the winning variant has been selected, LISTSERV Maestro will automatically copy its message and tracking definition to the main variant and will then schedule the delivery of the main variant according to the specified schedule setting, as described above, and will also immediately authorize the main variant for delivery.
The main variant will then wait in the list of outgoing mail jobs until its delivery time has come, at which point LISTSERV Maestro will start its delivery and move it to the completed mail jobs list after delivery has finished.