> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.extole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Testing Your Loyalty Program

> What to test in a loyalty program — earn rates, redemption thresholds, reward mix, and messaging — and how to read the result when rewards take time to accumulate.

# Overview

Loyalty programs are harder to test than referral campaigns, because the outcome you care about
happens weeks after the change. A member has to earn, accumulate, and redeem before a test tells
you anything.

This page covers what is worth testing, and how to run a test when the feedback loop is long. For
the mechanics of setting a test up, see
[A/B Testing Your Campaign](/guides/strategy-and-best-practices/campaign-optimization/a-b-testing-your-campaign)
and [A/B Testing Your Offer](/guides/strategy-and-best-practices/campaign-optimization/a-b-testing-your-offer).

# What to Test

## Earn Structure

Campaign variants can isolate settings owned by the campaign:

* **Earn rate.** Link each variant to a different Collectible Reward value and compare participation
  and cost.
* **Reward behavior.** Compare **First Action** with **Every Action** for a repeatable event.
* **Eligibility rules.** Compare which audience or event-data conditions qualify for points.

## Ways to Earn

* **Which actions to reward.** Adding a way to earn should increase the action. If participation does not move, you are paying for behavior you were getting anyway.
* **Which actions to feature.** Change which way to earn the creative promotes while leaving the
  underlying Reward Bank configuration unchanged.

## Messaging

The fastest-reading tests, and the ones to run while an earn-structure test matures.

* **Earned reward emails.** Whether leading with the balance or with the reward drives more visits to the Redemption Center.
* **Reminders.** Whether prompting members with an unspent balance increases redemption.
* **Enrollment.** How the program is described at sign-up, and what that does to join rate.

## Reward Bank Settings

The Redemption Ratio, the minimum and maximum redemption values, Redemption Options, and the
Redemption Center belong to the Reward Bank extension. Duplicating a campaign does not create a second bank or isolate those settings, and
both variants continue to add value to the same member balance.

Testing bank-level settings requires separate Reward Banks with distinct **Zone Name** values and
explicit targeting so each member reaches the correct bank. That also separates balances, so plan
the migration and member experience with your Extole team before running this kind of test.

# Running a Test

Set the test up by duplicating the campaign, changing one thing in the variant, and taking it live
as a test. Traffic splits 50/50, and existing participants continue in the campaign they are
already in.

<Warning>
  Existing participants stay with the campaign they started in, so the test reads against new
  members rather than your whole base. The result therefore describes new-member behavior and can
  take longer to reach a readable sample.
</Warning>

Compare the campaigns side by side on the
[Program Dashboard](/guides/platform-overview/program-and-campaign-dashboards).

# Reading a Result

Pick the measure before you start, and pick one that can actually move in the time you are prepared
to wait.

| Measure | Reads in | Tells you |
| :- | :- | :- |
| Enrollment rate | Earlier | Whether the offer is attractive enough to join |
| Participation in the ways to earn | After repeated earning opportunities | Whether the earn structure changes behavior |
| Time to first redemption | After members accumulate enough points | Whether the threshold is reachable |
| Share of issued value redeemed | After a meaningful redemption window | Whether points convert into something members want |
| Cost per member | After members complete an earn-and-redeem cycle | Whether the program is sustainable |

Do not read an earn-structure test on an early measure alone. A variant that lifts enrollment and
then issues points nobody redeems has not won.

<Tip>
  Message tests read earlier than earn-structure tests. Give members enough time to earn and redeem
  before deciding which structure performed better.
</Tip>

# Keeping Test Data Clean

Exclude your own testing activity from analytics, so internal redemptions do not distort a program
whose numbers are small early on. See
[Exclude Test Data from Analytics](/technical/operational-tasks/program-testing/exclude-test-data-from-analytics).

# Related

* [Choosing Your Point-to-Reward Ratio](/guides/strategy-and-best-practices/campaign-optimization/choosing-your-point-to-reward-ratio)
* [Optimizing Your Referral Program](/guides/strategy-and-best-practices/campaign-optimization/optimizing-your-referral-program)
* [Reward Bank Reports](/guides/dashboards-and-reporting/report-types/rewards-reports/reward-bank-reports)


## Related topics

- [How to Set Up a Loyalty Program](/guides/programs-and-campaigns/how-to-set-up-a-loyalty-program.md)
- [Choosing Your Point-to-Reward Ratio](/guides/strategy-and-best-practices/campaign-optimization/choosing-your-point-to-reward-ratio.md)
- [Loyalty](/product/product-overview/programs/loyalty/index.md)
- [A/B Testing](/product/best-practices/rewarding-best-practices/ab-testing.md)
- [Build a Loyalty Program](/technical/platform-integrations/extensions/reward-bank/loyalty-program-guide.md)


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