What should I use—split testing or rotators?
If you want to test your own squeeze pages, landing pages, etc. and you want to track conversions, you almost always want to use the standard Split Testing system under the Links menu.
On the other hand, if you manage ad co-ops or sell solo ads for example, you’ll want to use a link rotator under the Rotators menu.
Because the split testing system can appear to “rotate” multiple URLs in simple cases (such as when links have equal distribution), it can often be confused with a link rotator, but the two are quite different.
Let’s talk about the differences and when to use each …
First, you can’t easily track conversions with a link rotator.
Second, when split testing, a user will always see the same page if they click your tracking link multiple times. This is critical for accurate split test results. But with rotators, you typically want to distribute repeat clicks to multiple pages (URLs), ideally never showing the same page twice so you can maximize the value of each click.
Third, rotators have extra features tailored for selling clicks.
Why Split Testing does not use Rotation or Rotators
Sometimes people mistakenly describe split testing as using rotators, and this causes confusion.
In very simple split tests, like 50/50 splits, you might expect the pages to “rotate” as clicks come in, and in fact, it could even look that way, but split testing really doesn’t work like that.
Consider a 99/1 split test as an extreme. If 5 clicks came in, you would reasonably expect them to all show the first page — the one getting 99% of the clicks. It could take up to 100 clicks before you saw the second page. No rotation involved…
A more realistic 80/10/10 3-way split certainly wouldn’t rotate either.
In ClickMagick, as clicks come in during a split test they are assigned randomly to pages based on their percentages.
In a 50/50 split, it’s possible that pages could “rotate,” but it’s unlikely, just as it’s unlikely that if you flip a coin 10 times that you’re going to get heads 5 times and tails 5 times, alternating as you go…
Simply put, use split testing when you want to track conversions and want to find a “winner.” You use split tests in a funnel.
By contrast, you use rotators when you’re distributing clicks to multiple different offers, or when you’re distributing clicks to people in a co-op or when you’re selling Solo Ads.