Monthly Archives: January 2013

This team has data, not opinions: A/B testing at the Romney Campaign

By on January 31, 2013

From day one, Mitt Romney’s digital campaign team understood a common truth: the campaign is not a creativity contest – what looks best and what works best for the website is not always the same.

“We tried to be very conscious that this team doesn’t have creative opinions, this team has data,” says Ryan Meerstein, a senior political analyst from Targeted Victory, the agency who ran testing and optimization for the Romney campaign. “It’s hard for the team to argue with a graph that proves what works and what doesn’t.”

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About Cara Harshman:

As a Content Marketer at Optimizely, Cara is constantly looking to tell innovative stories about how businesses are using A/B testing to become more successful. Have a data-driven story that deserves to be told? Email her at cara [at] optimizely [dot] com. Before joining the team in 2012 she was reporting the news in Madison, WI.

Kyle Rush on Surprising Results, His Major, and the Future [Part Two]

By on January 25, 2013

This is the final, ultra-optimized version of contribute.barackobama.com. Every pixel, every word, every dollar sign has been scrutinized, iterated and heavily tested. This page was the portal to Barack Obama’s $690 million online fundraising machine.

This is the second part of our interview with Kyle Rush of the 2012 Obama for America Digital Team. Click here to read part one.

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About Optimizely:

Optimizely is the world's leading website optimization platform.

Just because you can…

By on January 22, 2013

Today’s guest blog is from Kyle Duford, Director of eCommerce at Chrome Industries. Previously, Kyle managed eCommerce at Speck.

Growing up my Dad had a few choice catchphrases — mostly ones I can’t write here. “Life is like a big wheel, what goes around comes around,” he’d say at just the moment the young version of me would want to retaliate to someone who did me wrong at school or when I questioned violence on the news. He particularly surprised me when his business partner orchestrated a way to virtually steal my father’s entire company just before he retired. His response? “He must need the money more than me. What goes around, comes around.” Eventually the scum got his comeuppance.

Another phrase that stuck with me from my early years was just as simple, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

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About Optimizely:

Optimizely is the world's leading website optimization platform.

Kyle Rush on Optimizely, Testing, and Obama [Part One]

By on January 21, 2013

Kyle Rush, right, was the Deputy Director of Frontend Web Development at Obama for America.

We interviewed Kyle Rush of the 2012 Obama for America Digital Team about A/B testing at the campaign. 

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About Optimizely:

Optimizely is the world's leading website optimization platform.

What exactly is a ‘conversion’? It’s up to you!

By on January 16, 2013

The goal of any A/B test is to compare two (or more) versions of a web page and see which version performs best. What “performs best” actually means is entirely up to you and depending on the test’s goals, it could mean any number of things. But however you define “performs best,” you’ll measure this by a conversion goal, an aggregate goal, or an what I like to call an ultimate conversion goal.

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About Ryan Lillis:

Ryan Lillis is a Website Optimization and Digital Marketing strategist. Formerly with Adobe/Omniture, Ryan joined Optimizely in August 2012 because he was blown away by Optimizely's testing platform and believes it represents the future of website optimization.