Why Optimizely is best placed to fill the experimentation gap left by the sunsetting of Google Optimize

Google announced on Friday 20th January that it will sunset Google Optimize at the end of September this year.

Any experiments and personalisations still active on that date will come to an end.

Whilst Google is committed to moving its A/B testing function to Google Analytics 4, it hasn’t yet made clear which optimisation features it intends to integrate. Thousands of organisations worldwide use the product and will already be considering their options given that GA4 is known as a powerful but more generic tool.

So, what will that mean for owners of the product and what are the best alternatives for organisations that use A/B testing and personalisation to boost revenue and conversions?

What is experimentation?

Web experimentation is used by marketers and product teams to gather insights and continuously optimise experiences by adopting a scientific approach to every customer touch point.

It is used primarily to drive incremental revenue and improve experimentations key metrics: conversion rate and revenue.

Organisations use experimentation to eliminate the need to guess. They do this by testing and measuring how touch points are impacted by the experiments.

What is Google Optimize?

Google Optimize was launched by the company in 2012 to allow its customers to test variants of web pages against a specified objective. It enables the user to experiment with different ways of delivering content. Ultimately, its objective is to help organisations to optimise conversion rates.

Google has taken the decision to sunset Google Optimize at the end of September because, it says, the product no longer meets the needs and demands of its customers, and so will shift focus to provide effective user experience improvement tools in Google Analytics 4 and other integrations.

Why Optimizely Experimentation?

The world’s leading experimentation platform, Optimizely Web Experimentation, is the most obvious and logical alternative to Google Optimize because, conveniently, Google recommends Optimizely and it integrates seamlessly with all Google products. Added to that, Optimizely was named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms. Here’s why:

First class performance

Optimizely Experimentation is chosen by more than 20 of the Fortune 100 companies for their own experimentation programs and is a high-performance tool that does not compromise user experience for speed. Unlike other A/B testing platform, Optimizely customers benefit from Performance Edge as standard, a super-fast Experiment Delivery Network built on Cloudflare’s Edge Network. It allows customers to run hundreds of web experiments with a median load time of 50 milliseconds, or experiment across all applications with Feature Experimentation SDKs, making it the best in industry on performance.

Optimizely stats engine gives accurate results

Optimizely’s Stats Engine offers real-time sequential statistics for accurate and fast results. Error controls and exclusion groups allow for multiple comparisons and experiments to run effortlessly. The Enriched Events Export and data services provide even more options for analysing and understanding the experiment data.

One platform for web and product testing

Optimizely delivers better collaboration by bringing developer, product, and go-to-market teams together on one platform. Optimizely Feature Experimentation includes an enterprise feature management platform that enables experimenting on the impact of a feature and iterating on it.

Personalise for key audiences

By combining machine learning and human expertise, Optimizely enables targeted messaging, personalised offers and can recommend content to users based on preference. Every personalisation campaign can also run as an A/B test.

Powerful integrations for building powerful experiences

The data platform provides one-click integrations to bring data from several sources into a single format that allows for synchronised data across browsers, devices and channels. Optimizely seamlessly integrates with best-in-class tools to maximise value for clients.

Support from a dedicated community of experts

Optimizely has a dedicated customer success team to ensure client value, so it will provide assistance in the transition from Google Optimize to setting up and growing an experimentation program.

Major brands endorse Optimizely

Broadcaster Sky is among many major brands to use Optimizely Web Experimentation. It benefits from advanced server-side and mobile experiments to improve customer experience and has since established a data-driven culture where decision making is powered by reliable data and insight.

Meanwhile, Australian software company Atlassian runs over 25 experiments per month for marketing purposes and optimisation. Atlassian uses Optimizely to experiment across all phases of the buyer journey for its 100,000+ customers, and has credited experimentation as critical to the company’s ongoing success.

Other well-known brands that are currently using Optimizely Web Experimentation include Salesforce, IBM, Mailchimp, Discovery, Cancer Research UK, Fitbit, HP and Visa.

The ultimate replacement for Google Optimize (at a discounted price)

Optimizely is offering an exclusive one-time-only platform + migration services discount that is worth checking out.

Why dotcentric?

As an Optimizely Gold Partner, dotcentric has the experience and expertise to help you transition from Google Optimize to Optimizely Web Experimentation.

To find out more, or to set up a session, call: +44 0203 8650705 or email: info@dotcentric.co.uk.