Item: Optimizely Web Experimentation
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

There are two major use-cases.

One is for A/B tests and to see which version performs better versus another. This requires setup on the engineering side and we use multiple techniques to implement our A/B tests.

Two, for hotfixes. Sometimes we can’t deploy a fix immediately and it may be a Friday or a weekend and Optimizely can be used to put up a quick fix and allows us time to deploy at a later time.

Pros and Cons

Very easy to make changes visually in their editor
Allows us to make CSS/JS changes pretty quickly
Integration with other services to track user behavior and give us stats to make determination of the best path forward.

UI could use some improvements
Sometimes I just can’t load the site or see it to make changes on the fly, forces to use CSS/JS
Sometimes it’s very hard to track what experiments are running in a browser. More tools or extensions would be great.

Return on Investment

Increased conversion rates
Better user experience
Metric driven approach is possible

It is pretty good in comparison. The biggest difference is the metrics dashboard for experiments which gives us granular data related to the experiment being run. I think honestly there is a lot right now my company is probably not utilizing when it comes to optimizely but I do like how easy it is to setup A/B tests.

Key Insights

Do you think Optimizely Web Experimentation delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Optimizely Web Experimentation's feature set?

Yes

Did Optimizely Web Experimentation live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Optimizely Web Experimentation go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Optimizely Web Experimentation again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Visual Studio Code, DataGrip, Docker

Likelihood to Recommend

I think it’s a wonderful software with a lot of potential for A/B testing. It provides a lot of value and allows businesses to make smart decisions. However it can also be used as a crutch at times by marketing folks to deploy changes without proper process. It is also very dangerous in the hands of someone who isn’t technically aware of what they are doing. It can also be very dangerous if someone malicious gets access and is able to inject bad JS, no checks to see if the code is malicious or suspicious, GTM does that.

Experimenting Engineer

Overall Satisfaction with Optimizely Web Experimentation