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What’s an A/B test?

An A/B test takes the guesswork out of a blast: instead of betting the whole audience on one subject line (or send time, or sender), Tented sends up to five variations to a small sample, measures which one performs best, and delivers the winning version to everyone else — automatically, or on your say-so. Every A/B test lives inside an email blast. Open a draft blast, head to the Schedule step, and find AB Test under Additional Settings. Click Add Test. A screenshot of the blast Schedule step showing the Additional Settings card with the Set as operational toggle and the AB Test section with an Add Test button.
Once a test is active, the blast’s schedule follows the test’s start time, and Send now is unavailable — a test needs time to collect results before the winner can go out.

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Choose what to test

The What should we test? dropdown offers five test types: A screenshot of the What should we test dropdown open, listing Subject line, Whole email, From address, Day of week, and Time of day.
Changing the test type starts a fresh set of variations — your existing variation setup is discarded.

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Build the variations

Variation A is always the control: your campaign’s current setup. Add up to four more with Add variation (a test needs at least two). A screenshot of the Variations section with Variation A marked Control and prefilled with the campaign subject, an empty Variation B, an Add variation button, and a Suggest variations button.

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Let AI write the alternatives

For Subject line and From address tests, click Suggest variations and Tented generates alternatives alongside your control — each with a one-line rationale explaining what it’s testing, so the test is a real experiment rather than five shots in the dark. Keep them, edit them, or Regenerate variations for a new set. A screenshot of AI-suggested variations, each with an AI suggested badge and a rationale line beneath the variation name.

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Whole-email variations

For a Whole email test, Variation A sends the approved campaign email. For each other variation, pick another approved email — or click Clone original email to duplicate the control and edit the copy in the email editor. Clones must be approved before the test can be saved. A screenshot of a Whole email test where Variation A sends the approved campaign email with an Edit control email link, and Variation B has a Variation email picker.

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Timing variations

  • Day of week — set one Send time for every variation, then give each variation its own weekday.
  • Time of day — give each variation its own local time, interpreted as wall-clock time in the test’s timezone. A Winner delivery weekdays setting controls which days the winning time may be delivered on — after winner selection, delivery waits for the winning local time on an eligible weekday.
A screenshot of a Time of day test showing per-variation local time inputs and the Winner delivery weekdays radio options.

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Split the audience

Audience allocation decides how much of the audience is the experiment and how much gets the winner:
  • Test sample (default 20%) — divided evenly across your variations.
  • Winner audience (default 80%) — held back until a winner is chosen, then receives the winning version.
The two always total 100% (editing one rebalances the other), and both must be whole percentages between 1 and 99. A screenshot of the Audience allocation section with Test sample at 20 percent and Winner audience at 80 percent, above the Winner selection radios.
The audience needs at least one more qualified contact than you have variations — every variation gets at least one sample recipient, and at least one contact is always held back for the winner send.

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Pick the winner (or let Tented)

Winning metric is how variations are ranked: Winner selection has two modes:
  • Choose automatically — at the Winner decision time, Tented ranks the variations by your metric and sends the best performer to the winner audience. On a perfect tie, the variation with more data wins, and the control wins over a challenger that merely matched it.
  • Declare manually — you pick the winner yourself from the results view once the sample has collected. Tented emails you reminders after 6 and 24 hours, and a final reminder after 48 hours. The winner audience waits until you declare — nothing is sent without your pick.

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Set the timing

Two datetime fields close out the setup:
  • Test start time — when the sample sends go out. This is the blast’s send time. It can stay blank while you draft, but scheduling requires a start at least 2 minutes in the future.
  • Winner decision time (automatic selection only) — when Tented evaluates results and sends the winner. It must land after every variation has sent. For subject-line, whole-email, and from-address tests the winner goes out right at decision time; day-of-week and time-of-day winners wait for the next eligible occurrence of the winning slot.
A screenshot of the bottom of the AB Test configurator with Winner selection radios, Test start time and Winner decision time pickers, and the Save AB test button.

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Save it, then schedule it

Click Save AB test — the badge in the AB Test header flips from Unsaved changes to Saved. Then launch from the top of the Schedule step, where the usual Schedule send button now reads Schedule test: it approves the blast and schedules the test to begin at your start time. A screenshot of the Schedule step with a saved AB test, showing the Schedule the AB test card with a Schedule test button and the AB Test section marked Saved. Back on the Campaigns tab, blasts with a test carry a violet AB TEST badge next to their status: A screenshot of the Campaigns list where the draft blast Terra Collection Launch has a violet AB TEST badge beside its Draft status.

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Watch the results roll in

Once scheduled, the campaign page gains an AB Test card that tracks the whole lifecycle — it refreshes itself, so you can leave it open: A screenshot of a completed AB test overview showing test timing tiles, the audience split, winning metric, selection mode, and the selected winner Variation C. The results table shows every variation with its recipients, opens, clicks, and your winning metric. The winner is tinted green and wears the trophy: A screenshot of the AB test results table with five subject line variations, where Variation C is highlighted with a Winner badge at a 53 percent open rate. For a Declare manually test, each row gains a Declare winner button once results are collecting. Declaring sends that variation to the winner audience — for content tests you also pick the Send winner at time. The choice can’t be changed after winner selection.
Second thoughts mid-test? Cancel winner send is available while the test is sending, collecting, or has a winner scheduled. The remaining audience simply never receives the blast, and the test completes with the sample results only — this can’t be undone.
The blast’s regular results dashboard keeps working throughout, aggregating the sample sends and the winner send together, with every metric clickable for a per-contact drill-down.
Free plan: the daily 100-email limit and 1,000-contact allowance are re-checked at each send moment — the sample sends and the winner send each count against the day they fire.

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What’s next?

Next: Track Email Performance

See how an email performed across every blast and flow it was sent in.