Dynamic Yield vs. Optimizely Web Experimentation

We’re running on a Single Page Application, so we were looking to partner with a technology vendor who can seamlessly integrate with SPA environments and allow us to dynamically modify, test, and personalize various elements on our app screens. Prior to Dynamic Yield, we were working with Optimizely and encountered huge challenges integrating with our SPA infrastructure.

Where Optimizely Shines: Best for Large-Scale Operations: Optimizely is exceptionally well-suited for large enterprises with complex, multi-faceted A/B and multivariate testing needs. Its comprehensive functionality is perfect for conducting extensive experiments across various websites and products. Data-Driven Companies: For organizations heavily reliant on data-driven strategies, Optimizely's advanced analytics and detailed reporting are invaluable. It's ideal for businesses that require an in-depth understanding of user behavior to enhance user experiences and optimize conversion rates. E-commerce Personalization: E-commerce platforms aiming to personalize content and offers will find Optimizely's personalization features highly beneficial. This can significantly boost user engagement and sales. Where Optimizely May Not Be the Best Fit: Cost-Prohibitive for Small Businesses/Startups: The high cost of Optimizely can be a barrier for small businesses or startups. These entities might find the platform's advanced features excessive for their basic A/B testing needs, given their limited budgets. Overkill for Simple Testing Needs: For websites requiring only basic A/B testing, Optimizely's extensive suite of features may be unnecessary. More straightforward and budget-friendly tools could serve their purposes more effectively. Not Ideal for Short-Term Projects: For businesses planning short-term experiments or one-time projects, the investment in Optimizely might not offer adequate returns. Simpler, less expensive platforms could be more appropriate for such limited engagements. Conclusion:Optimizely is a powerful tool for web experimentation, but its suitability varies greatly with the scale and nature of the business. It offers significant advantages for large-scale, data-centric enterprises, while smaller businesses or those with simpler requirements might find it less appropriate due to its high cost.

Incentivized

• Provide fantastic support, both in relation to strategy/best practice and troubleshooting.
• An easy to use interface, as a user who is relatively new to Dynamic Yield I find that it is an intuitive platform to use.
• The ability to segment and drill down on data allows for really specific insights which, whilst not necessarily being leveraged on a testing basis, can be super valuable from a greater marketing perspective.

Incentivized

• The audience feature is easy to use and very beneficial in previewing the experiment as users would see it before launching the experiment
• Targeting individual pages or a group of saved pages is easy to do
• Metric tracking is highly customizable and easy to visualize

Incentivized

• Greater flexibility for the out of the box templates - things such as typeface are not consistent and can require developer time to ensure a seamless site experience
• Exporting datasets don't necessarily reflect the way Dyanmic Yield is implemented on site, occasionally requiring that you go through experience by experience to extract the data you want
• I would like to see a more customizable homepage dashboard with the ability to modify the content of widgets, showing trends across multiple experiences rather than just being able to update the timeframe for a widget between Yesterday, Past 7 Days, or Past 30 Days before having to deep dive into a full report

Incentivized

• Hard to use extensions without some knowledge of HTML/CSS
• Inconsistent user counts between GA & Optimizely when it comes to calculating MAUs, hard to be able to forecast budget and overages when our source of truth (GA) differs from our testing platform (Optimizely)
• Impressions model doesn't support scaling personalization experiences - hard to run a serious data driven testing program when you have to cut tests short before 14 days (ideal length to get to any statistical read) in order to save on impressions

Incentivized

implementation took a long time but also, DY has really proven that they are transforming and adapting their platform to be more user friendly and the right technology choice for their brand or company

Incentivized

Because it's an incredible and essential tool for my line of work as a conversion optimization specialist. Really couldn't do my job nearly as effectively without it. It's paid for itself many times over and I feel like I'm only beginning to unlock the tools potential.

Overall, the interface is not difficult to understand. Although to create campaigns or define strategies for recommendations, some study is required.

Also, some reports are hidden, you really need to know where to look in order to see them (e.g. strategies performance or email campaigns performance).

Also, there is a lack of context help that would improve a lot the usability, especially when you face a feature or a report for the first time.

Incentivized

Usability is mostly great. I like the WYSIWYG functionality and adding in real code is simple as well. It's easy to target specific pages or audiences. I've knocked a couple of points off because of how difficult it is to set up URL redirect experiments, confusion around creating pages, and lack of data that can be further analyzed.

Incentivized

I would rate Optimizely Web Experimentation's availability as a 10 out of 10. The software is reliable and does not experience any application errors or unplanned outages. Additionally, the customer service and technical support teams are always available to help with any issues or questions.

Incentivized

I would rate Optimizely Web Experimentation's performance as a 9 out of 10. Pages load quickly, reports are complete in a reasonable time frame, and the software does not slow down any other software or systems that it integrates with. Additionally, the customer service and technical support teams are always available to help with any issues or questions.

Incentivized

Allison Schwartz, Customer Success Manager at Dynamic Yield has been nothing less than amazing and stellar! She really sets the standard for customer success and support. Their technical support is fast and reliable, and their educational resources are top of the line

Incentivized

They always are quick to respond, and are so friendly and helpful. They always answer the phone right away. And [they are] always willing to not only help you with your problem, but if you need ideas they have suggestions as well.

The tool itself is not very difficult to use so training was not very useful in my opinion. It did not also account for success events more complex than a click (which my company being ecommerce is looking to examine more than a mere click).

In retrospect: - I think I should have stressed more demo's / workshopping with the Optimizely team at the start. I felt too confident during demo stages, and when came time to actually start, I was a bit lost. (The answer is likely I should have had them on-hand for our first install.. they offered but I thought I was OK.) - Really getting an understanding / asking them prior to install of how to make it really work for checkout pages / one that uses dynamic content or user interaction to determine what the UI does. Could have saved some time by addressing this at the beginning, as some things we needed to create on our site for Optimizely to "use" as a trigger for the variation test. - Having a number of planned/hoped-for tests already in-hand before working with Optimizely team. Sharing those thoughts with them would likely have started conversations on additional things we needed to do to make them work (rather than figuring that out during the actual builds). Since I had development time available, I could have added more things to the baseline installation since my developers were already "looking under the hood" of the site.

• Oracle Maxymiser is very clunky and hard to code with. Previewing changes was a challenge and development for fixes were slow
• Optimizely - Great for coding. Fast and efficient. Everything worked great. They were limited at personalization triggers though and their costs were expensive.
• Monetate - Evaluated but their UI was hard to use.

The creation and customization of events in our AB testing is an important feature that Google Optimize does not. Because of how we prioritize our Client journey and leading to more form submissions, it's critical that we can identify pivotal moments that influence our User's decisions.

Incentivized

I think that Optimizely is a fantastic tool for a company who is serious about testing and looking to grow their understanding of their users and business. It’s great at growing your testing and helping to show the impact of testing. They are constantly working at getting more products and features to make this n all inclusive product to do the most good for your business.

Incentivized

• Most tests have had a positive impact on either revenue or conversion rate - quite often in double digits.
• Dynamic Yield has also helped us to stop some particular initiatives through direct interaction with the customer base via questionnaires or by a test proving negative quicker than rolling out a permanent feature.

Incentivized

• Customer retention: We've reduced subscription service client churn by 20%+ using optimized unsubscribe flows.
• Risk mitigation: Testing into full site redesigns has saved clients millions of dollars.
• Feature prioritization: Identifying what painted door changes add value has allowed developers to focus on changes that add hundreds of thousands or even millions to the bottom line.

Incentivized