How to Use A/B Testing Console in Firebase?

By making it simple to execute, evaluate, and scale product and marketing experiments, Firebase A/B Testing, which is powered by Google Optimize, aids in the optimization of the app experience. It allows developers the ability to test adjustments to the app’s user interface (UI), features, or engagement initiatives to determine if they truly affect the key performance indicators (such as revenue and retention) before it is made broadly available.

It can be used to compare the effectiveness of several versions only based on how well they meet the demands of the users. Running an A/B test is an excellent approach to determine the effects of any change made to the app and ensure that they are raising conversion rates and other important performance indicators. A/B testing can be used with FCM to compare various marketing messages and with Remote Config to evaluate app changes.

Let’s see what goes inside this amazing product, and like the other capabilities, discuss about it

The Feature set of A/B Testing Behavior

Particulars	Features
Utilize the Notifications composer to find strategies for re-engaging the users.	To determine the language and messaging options that will attract users to the app, perform A/B testing.
Test and refine the way to use the product.	To test which product experience is most effective at generating the outcomes that are most important, create experiments with Remote Config to make changes to the behavior and appearance of the app across the variants in the trial.
Identify user segments using Google Analytics data.	Conduct A/B testing utilizing Google Analytics data on the targeting clientele. For instance, target a subset of users who are using a particular app version, platform, language, and demography that matches a particular user characteristic in Google Analytics.
Roll out new features safely	Never launch a new feature before testing it out on a smaller group of users to see if it achieves the objectives.

Various kinds of A/B tests can be conducted using the Firebase platform. For instance, an experiment with various notification types to see which texts or icons compel users to click on the push more. Testing different In-App Messages to see which one generates the most engagement.

Working of A/B Testing

When you design an experiment, you try out one or more variations of a testable activity and gauge how well the variations contribute to the achievement of your desired results (such as boosting in-app purchases). With Remote Config, the Firebase A/B test tool divides your users into various groups and assigns a different value to the chosen parameter based on which group the user is a member of. Following that, you may evaluate each value’s effectiveness in the Firebase Console and select the one you want to keep. 

Once you’ve made a decision, you can end the test and roll out the selected variant to all of your users by entering the winning value in the corresponding parameter in Remote Config. This implies that all of your users will instantly receive the version with the best performance, without having to update their app. You can limit the group to users of a specific app version who are both members of an Analytics audience like “crashing users” and match a specific Google Analytics user property supplied by the client by chaining multiple criteria using the “AND” logic.

Whether your experiment makes use of Remote Config or the Notifications composer, you may keep track of it until you have a reliable set of results, at which point you can choose the variation that best meets your objectives as the leader. You can begin your trial with a little proportion of your user base and gradually raise that proportion. If your initial trial does not provide a variant that more effectively achieves your goal than your current app, you can do more testing to determine the best course of action.

Implementing A/B Testing in a Project

Step 1: Enhancing the App with Remote Config or Firebase Cloud Messaging

You can move on to the next stage if your app already makes use of Remote Config or Cloud Messaging (or both).

Step 2: Establishing the Variants wanted to Test using an A/B comparison

If you can control your modification using Remote Config, you may use A/B Testing to test several variations of it, regardless of how subtle it is or whether it involves the inclusion of a new UI or feature.

Step 3: Defining the success criteria

You can combine an Analytics event with an experiment that makes use of the Notifications composer to specify the experiment’s objective and contrast different experiment iterations. You can specify the experiment’s objective with a Remote Config experiment using either an Analytics event or a conversion funnel.

A/B Test Configuration in Firebase Console

You can launch a Firebase experiment now that Remote Config is enabled in your app and you understand how to obtain values. Click on Create an experiment under A/B Testing in the Console. Choose a Remote Config test.

You can add an Activation event in the Targeting area after entering the test’s information (name, etc.). If you set one up, only those who have participated in this event will be able to access your experiment. Your results won’t account for any of the other users.

Image #1: Creating a new Notification.

Next, all of your users, including those who have previously registered, will be in your test and their photo postings will be included in your results if you do not employ an activation event like “start registration.” But since they are the ones who will be impacted by your experiment, what you really want are simply the postings from the new users who are now registering. Take a time to consider the experiment you have in mind and whether you ought to include an activation event.

Image #2: Creating the campaign.

You’ll then be prompted to enter a success measure in the Goals section, such as finishing another event or seeing an increase in retention. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, I believe that an A/B test’s analysis component has limitations, so I now use another Analytics tool called Amplitude to conduct a more in-depth analysis.

I urge you to check it out because it’s a really effective tool and offers a free plan up to a set number of monthly events. The completion of each step of the experiment in my example of the registration flow is something I would like to know (but that Firebase can’t give me).

Image #3: Specifying the goal.

Conclusion

I hope that this article has assisted you in setting up an A/B test for your Android application. Regardless of the size of your team, investing time and money in an A/B Test culture is worthwhile because it is a very useful tool to utilize to better understand how your app’s customers act and how to make their experience as positive as possible.