Title and image testing (Shopify)
Title and image testing shows different product titles and images to different visitor groups, so you can measure which name or photo earns the most revenue per visitor. Your Shopify products stay unchanged while the campaign runs.
Available as: A/B test · Personalization
Available on: Shopify
Test or personalize: run it as an A/B test to compare a random traffic split, or as a personalization to show a title or image to a specific audience.
How it works
- You pick the products and, for each variation, a replacement title, replacement images, or both. A variation can also change prices, in the same campaign.
- Each visitor is assigned to a variation once and keeps it on later visits.
- The snippet replaces the title and images on the storefront and keeps them hidden until they are replaced, so the original doesn't flash.
- A visitor counts as having seen the campaign when an element the campaign changes appears inside one of its products. Replaced images outside a product, such as in a cart drawer, don't count.
- The cart and checkout show the variation's title and image, depending on the strategy. See Cart and checkout.
Set up
- Go to Campaigns → New campaign → Product, choose Experiment or Personalization, and select your products.
- On a variation, click Edit and choose Title & images.
- To change a title, click the product's row, type the Replacement title and click Apply.
- To change an image, expand the product, click the image row and select a Replacement image, or upload a new one.
- If you change titles, add a Title selector under Settings → Campaigns → Product selectors. See Price selectors.
- Set your goals, preview each variation and start the campaign.
Option | What it does | Values / default |
|---|---|---|
Replacement title | Replaces the product's title | Up to 255 characters. Empty by default, which leaves the title unchanged |
Replacement image | Replaces one product image, in every size the theme loads | An image you uploaded in Personizely, which stores it in your Shopify files. Pick one or upload a new one. Images uploaded before this feature can't be picked, upload them again |
Clear | Removes the replacement from the variation | The original shows again |
The Edit menu shows what each part of a variation changes, for example "2 adjustments" under Prices and "Changes title & images" under Title & images.
Cart and checkout
The cart depends on the strategy your store uses.
Strategy | Title | Image |
|---|---|---|
Cart transform (Shopify Plus) | The cart, checkout and order notification emails show the replacement title | The cart and checkout show the replacement of the product's featured image. Replacements of other images don't reach the cart line. The image isn't saved to the order, so order emails show the original |
The duplicate has the replacement title | The duplicate has the replacement images |
The snippet also swaps replaced images outside product elements on your storefront, such as in a cart drawer.
On cart transform, your theme and notification templates must show the line item's title:
- In the cart templates, use item.title, not item.product.title. item.product.title reads the product itself, so it keeps showing the original title. Some themes, including versions of Dawn, use item.product.title and need this one change.
- In the order notification emails (Shopify admin → Settings → Notifications), use line.title.
Behavior details and limitations
- Titles change only in elements matching your Title selector, inside a product root. When a title is replaced, the browser tab title is updated too if it contains the original title, for example "Merino Wool Socks - Your Store". Meta tags and structured data keep the original title.
- The selector should target the element that holds only the title. If the title is split across inline markup, the replacement goes into the first piece of text.
- Images are matched by file name, in any size Shopify generated for them. A different file with a similar name is left alone.
- An image of one product shown inside another product's element isn't replaced.
- A variant's own image is replaced like any other image of the product.
- Replacement images must be hosted on Shopify. Other URLs are rejected.
- Two campaigns changing the title or images of the same product give unreliable results. If both apply, the first campaign wins at checkout.
- Personalizations can't be deployed.
Deploy a winner
Deploying a variation writes its title and images to your real products. Deploying can't be undone in Personizely:
- The title on your product is replaced.
- The replacement images are added to the product in the place of the images they replace, and those are removed from it.
- The removed images stay in your Shopify files, so you can add them back to the product in Shopify.
Running it as a personalization
Add a variation per audience and set its title or images. Variations are checked in order, and the first matching audience wins. A control group sees your original titles and images.
Examples
- Benefit-led titles: test "Merino Wool Socks" against "Socks That Stay Dry All Day" on your best sellers.
- Lifestyle or studio photos: replace the featured image with a lifestyle shot and compare revenue per visitor.
- Audience-specific images: show a winter photo to visitors from cold regions with a personalization.
Troubleshooting
- The title doesn't change: the Title selector is missing or doesn't match, or the element isn't inside a product root that carries a product ID.
- An image doesn't change: the theme loads a different file for it. Check the file name of the image on the page against the one in the product.
- The cart shows the original title on Shopify Plus: first check your theme's cart templates: they must use item.title, not item.product.title. For order emails, the notification templates must use line.title. Then check /cart.js for the __campaignVariations attribute. If it's there, make sure the campaign is running, since preview mode doesn't reach the cart.
- The cart shows the original image on Shopify Plus: only the replacement of the featured image reaches the cart line.