I have an automation that is triggered by an even and which sends an email to the user each time the event occurs.
I recently introduced an A/B Test on the email, and now it seems it is only sent the first time. Subsequent times are ignored.
It’s almost as though the first time it comes to the email it says: let’s work out which version to send and then send it. But the second time it says: no need, we’ve already run this test for this user.
Has anyone else encountered this when running A/B Tests within repeating automations.
In case you are wondering, the email is something like “You have a new message from X” where I use the API to populate X in a custom field.
I don’t mind if the automation sends the same version of the A/B Test to each user each time, or it if mixes it up. But I do need it to go every single time I trigger the event.
Hi There!
A/B tests in ActiveCampaign are designed to send once per contact per automation. When a contact encounters an A/B test split in an automation, they’re assigned to a variant (A or B), and that assignment sticks for that contact in that specific automation. So on subsequent triggers, they’ll skip the test decision point since they’ve already been assigned.
For your use case where you need the email to send every single time the event triggers, here are a couple of solutions:
Option 1: Remove the A/B test from this automation Since you mentioned you don’t mind if contacts receive the same version each time, you could create two separate automations—one with Email A and one with Email B—and split your audience between them. This way, each contact consistently gets the same version, and it will send every time the event triggers.
Option 2: Use a split action instead If you want to continue testing, you could replace the A/B test with a regular “If/Else” split based on a random condition or custom field. This would allow you to control the distribution while ensuring the email sends on every trigger.
The key thing is that A/B tests are really designed for one-time sends where you’re testing to find a winner, not for recurring transactional emails like your “new message” notifications.
I appreciate your answer. Bit it does seem like a lot of work to get around what should be a fairly straightforward fix to the product.