Where exactly a control group is used in Marketing Cloud?

[sandeep1621]

Hi Team,
I would like to know the usecase of control group in SAP Marketing Cloud with an example and what we are trying to achieve with this app?

[SCHNEIDERT]

Hi sandeepkumarc,

you can use control groups to analyze your marketing effectiveness. The members of a control group are not contacted while the members of the target group are.

So for example you split a segment randomly into a target group and a control group. After that you start a campaign and send an email to the target group members (e.g. with a 10% coupon). Now you can for example compare the volume of the sales orders of the two groups.

Depending on your use case you can alternatively use A/B-Testing for email campaigns.

BR Tobias

[former_member619184]

Hi Tobias,

Thanks for your example above.

From the segmentation model; once the control group and target groups have been created from splitting randomly, they appear as to separate segments within the model. Do you then create target groups for both and add them to the campaign, and if so, how?

Thank you,

Priyen Maistry

[SCHNEIDERT]

Hi priyen_7,

in the Segmentation Model you click on "create target group" and in the pop-up you switch the type from Target Group to Control Group for creating a Control Group. For Target group you choose Target Group of course.

In the "General Information" tab of your created Target Group you can then click on Edit and assign the Control Group to your Target Group.

Best Regards

Tobias

[former_member619184]

Hi schneidert

Thank you very much for your help and also for the screenshots! I don't have 'Control Group' block on my UI but it may be auth-related or not visible. At least I know now where to find it. Much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Priyen

[SCHNEIDERT]

Hi priyen_7,

you're welcome. Make sure that the target group is "In Preparation". I'm not aware of the possibility to handle the access to control groups by authorization.

BR Tobias

[Kunal_Bansal]

Hi Sandeep,

Aditiionally, please refer to SAP Help Page - https://help.sap.com/viewer/b88f770e4b7c4ecead5477e7a6c7b8f7/2005.500/en-US/88bf15520b48ba64e1000000...

best regards,

Kunal

[sandeep1621]

Hi all,
Thanks for your responce, what do mean by "the members of a target group are contacted " how its evaluated in practically? I dont see any reference documentation for usecase.

Thanks,
Sandeep

[hakan_kose]

Hi sandeepkumarc

If you check out help documentation and official explanation of control groups here, it reads like:

"Control group is a target group with the same functionality as a target group, for example, target group operations, status, and so on, but with the specific purpose of analyzing the effectiveness of marketing measures.

Control groups can be distinguished from target groups by the fact that, during a marketing event, the members of a target group are contacted, and the members of the control group are not."

Frankly speaking, although the description is clear enough to understand, examples given are far away from providing a practical use case, thus leaving everything sound very theoretical.

The best and real use case of target groups, in my humble opinion, is when you measure the success of a predictive model with a campaign (Conversion Rates). You can refer to here for the explanations of the metrics. That's where you can make the best of control groups.

Kind Regards,

Hakan Köse