Optimizely Web Experimentation vs. TargetBay

I think it can serve the whole spectrum of experiences from people who are just getting used to web experimentation. It's really easy to pick up and use. If you're more experienced then it works well because it just gets out of the way and lets you really focus on the experimentation side of things. So yeah, strongly recommend. I think it is well suited both to small businesses and large enterprises as well. I think it's got a really low barrier to entry. It's very easy to integrate on your website and get results quickly. Likewise, if you are a big business, it's incrementally adoptable, so you can start out with one component of optimizing and you can build there and start to build in things like data CMS to augment experimentation as well. So it's got a really strong a pathway to grow your MarTech platform if you're a small company or a big company.

Incentivized

TargetBay is perfect for users who need a platform that offers automated abandoned cart emails and/or pop-ups on your website to incentive users to provide their email address. TargetBay integrates well with most commonly used website platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, and Volusion. TargetBay is not well suited for the user who is not tech-savvy and/or who is not familiar with already fairly familiar "automated" emails and processes.

Incentivized

• The Platform contains drag-and-drop editor options for creating variations, which ease the A/B tests process, as it does not require any coding or development resources.
• Establishing it is so simple that even a non-technical person can do it perfectly.
• It provides real-time results and analytics with robust dashboard access through which you can quickly analyze how different variations perform. With this, your team can easily make data-driven decisions Fastly.

Incentivized

• TargetBay has amazing chat support.
• TargetBay has a great onboarding process.
• TargetBay is very affordable compared to other programs that offer similar solutions.

Incentivized

• The results view is dense and difficult to package easily for leadership, and when filtering by segment it's hard to read comparative outcomes without clearing or swapping filters
• The organization of experiments and statuses is a cluttered list and the search is limited in use - would love to see that improve with time
• There are so many other MarTech products out there, would love to see more dedicated integrations so we don't have to invest in something like Zapier or Tray to build hacky automations

Incentivized

• There is always room for improvement, however, I find Target Bay to be cost effective.

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.

Optimizely Web Experimentation's visual editor is handy for non-technical or quick iterative testing. When it comes to content changes it's as easy as going into wordpress, clicking around, and then seeing your changes live--what you see is what you get. The preview and approval process for sharing built experiments is also handy for sharing experiments across teams for QA purposes or otherwise.

Incentivized

TargetBay, while it is a great tool and more than pays for itself, is not the most user-friendly and/or easy to use. Even our very tech-savvy employees have struggled through figuring out some of the work flows. While TargetBay's technical support team on chat is amazing, they are not always available and documentation on "how-to" user and or do XYZ on their platform needs improvement.

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

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.

If I could rate their chat support separately than their phone support, I would rate their chat support at an 8 or 9. Their chat support team, when online, can usually answer most any questions quickly and clearly. If they can't find the answer right away, they always follow up with an email providing you the help/assistance you need. However, their phone support is another story. I would rate the phone support a 4. Most of the times, while not all of the time, that we've had to talk with someone on the phone, we typically are left with more questions and/or not the answer we were looking for. I think this may be partially due to the language barrier, but either way it has pushed us to want to only use that chat option for support which, unfortunately, is more time-consuming.

Incentivized

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).

The implementation through the tag management system took a bit of trial and error at first, mostly due to the asynchronous nature of the TMS. We had to manipulate the implementation to assure that the Optimizely code was written to the page at the right time to allow the experiment content load in the browser without showing any of the original content first. We also needed to make some adjustments to the TMS code to get the integration with Site Catalyst timed appropriately.

The ability to do A/B testing in Optimizely along with the associated statistical modelling and audience segmentation means it is a much better solution than using something like Google Analytics were a lot more effort is required to identify and isolate the specific data you need to confidently make changes

Incentivized

We have used other customer review services in the past. I did not have the level of involvement with them like I do with Danielle and TargetBay. Email marketing is a major plus. And the PPC ads have been cost-effective. I am pleased with TargetBay and the results we have been getting since working with them.

It's incredibly flexible and adapts well to organizations of all sizes, whether you’re running a single site or managing multiple departments and platforms. The ability to deploy experiments seamlessly across different environments is a huge plus, especially for growing businesses. While it’s highly scalable, the last point would depend on the right team leveraging its full potential.

Incentivized

• we saved money by not implementing certain copy/design
• we learned that customers from different states react different to a variation
• we are slowly learning where conversion happens and where to fix the frictions
• Testing shorter vs longer journeys increased funnel conversion in some states - we avoided implementing this nationwide

Incentivized

• We have seen a positive ROI with TargetBay. Once we get through Covid-19, it will be even better.
• I know we are communicating with our customers on a regular basis, keeping Sign Art Etc in their minds as in-person events start happening again.
• Emails we send are professional and creative. Much better than I would do.
• PPC with TargetBay is better than what we see with Google Ads.