How do I use Motiva AI to test email variations?

Replace an existing Eloqua Email component with a Motiva Message Testing AI

Scott Gutelius avatar
Written by Scott Gutelius
Updated over a week ago

To illustrate how to use Motiva AI, we’ll walk through an example of updating an existing Eloqua campaign step to use Motiva Message Testing AI to test multiple versions of an email.

Before you begin, make sure your Eloqua account has the proper permissions. Learn more about what permissions are required here.

The following screenshot shows an Eloqua campaign that sends an email to 10,000 contacts, waits 3 days, and then sends a follow-up email to anyone that did not open the first email. 

Replace Existing Eloqua Email Component

We will replace the first email with a Motiva Message Testing AI component that will figure out the best email option from four message variations.

The first step is to delete the first Email in the campaign and replace it with a Motiva Message Testing AI component by dragging it on the canvas and reconnecting it, as seen below:

Configure the Optimizer

Next, double-click the Optimizer to open its configuration dialog. In that dialog, you'll see the following screen:


You can ignore the Scheduling tab. Click the “pencil button” to open the Optimizer's configuration screen, as seen below:

There are several options, and we will go through them all below.

Name - The name, which can be different than the Eloqua campaign. You might have more than one Motiva Message Testing AI component on the Eloqua campaign canvas.

Choose which emails to use - This is where you select the message variations. When you click the Select Eloqua Emails button, you will see a list of the existing email assets in your Eloqua instance, as below:

Select the variations for this Motiva Message Testing AI component and press OK. The emails will now be attached to the Optimizer.

Note: Try running more than two variations of an email. You'll see much better and more interesting results! See Tips and Tricks for the reasons why and other tips.

Choose what to optimize for

In this section, we first configure the optimizer criterion. This configures the optimizer to find the best performing email with respect to either Unique Open Rate or Unique Click Rate.

  • Select Opens when testing only subject line variations.

  • Select Clicks when testing email content (and subject line) variations.

In our example, we will select Opens.

In this section, we can also configure the Confidence threshold. The Confidence Threshold is the level of confidence that any given message variation is the single best option among all other variations. 

Once Motiva AI reaches that threshold, it will automatically invest all future sends in that “winner”, and stop sending other versions. The default is high (99%), but if you prefer to can select a lower value - either 95% or 90%. Lowering the value basically tells Motiva to act more aggressively in trying to find a single winner among your emails.

Choose when this email should be sent

In this section, you can configure several settings related to when the email should be sent. The first setting asks Does this email need to be sent by a specific date?

The default is "No", which means there is no date by when this email must be sent. This is like a continually running drip campaign. In this case, Motiva AI will process contacts as soon as they arrive from Eloqua to this step.

Examples of when not to use an end date are:

  • Nurturing Leads

  • Onboarding / Welcoming

  • Training Courses

Eloqua Note: In this case, the Eloqua segment feeding into this Motiva AI step should be configured to “Add members regularly until campaign is deactivated”, and the segment’s Re-evaluation Frequency can be set to whatever you want.

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Selecting "Yes" here means the email must be sent by a specific End Date. In this case, you will also need to select the end date. Motiva AI will schedule email sends for all contacts received from Eloqua between now and that end date.

Examples of when to use an end date are:

  • Newsletters

  • Product Updates

  • Reminders / Invitations

Eloqua Note: In this case, the Eloqua segment feeding into this Motiva AI step should be configured to “Add members once when the campaign is first activated”.
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In our example, we're sending a Webinar reminder, so we will be using an end date. We'll select yes and choose a date as seen below:

When using an end date, the option to Immediately Go All-In also becomes available. When this option is turned on, Motiva will schedule all remaining contacts to receive the winning email in the next time slot after a winner is found. See this article for more information.

This section also allows restricting sends to certain days and hours as seen below.

If you're using an end date, and enough contacts are received, Motiva will automatically schedule hourly sends inside the send time window you configure. This will allow Motiva to discover optimal hour slots for your segment.

There is also Timezone setting. If using an end date and/or send time restrictions, they will be in the selected timezone. Reporting will also be displayed using the selected timezone.

Additionally, we'll make sure the Eloqua segment feeding into this step is configured to “Add members once when the campaign is first activated”, as seen below:

Frequency management settings

In this section, you can configure Frequency Management and Email Priority settings.

If you are not using an end date, you will have the option to change the Frequency Management evaluation period. If you are using an end date, the evaluation period runs up until the end date.

Eloqua settings

The Eloqua settings mimic the options for Eloqua's email component and will be passed through to Eloqua when sending the email.

Once Motiva Message Testing AI is configured, activate your Eloqua campaign as usual, and that's it. You are now using a Motiva AI-optimized email.

When contacts flow into the Motiva Message Testing AI component, they will be processed by Motiva AI and emails will be sent as configured above.

Good Hunting!

Note:
The example above has an Opened Email? decision service component, which should also be replaced with a Motiva AI component, since the Eloqua Opened Email? component only checks a single email.

To see how, please see this article:
Replace an Eloqua Decision Service

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