---
title: Creating and Sending A/B Tests with Indie Email
description: Learn how to create an A/B test for your newsletter campaigns from start to finish. This guide walks you through setting up audience distribution, timing your test correctly, and picking email winners.
---

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October 27, 2026

# Creating and Sending A/B Tests with Indie Email

## Learn how to create an A/B test for your newsletter campaigns from start to finish. This guide walks you through setting up audience distribution, timing your test correctly, and picking email winners.

A/B testing is one of the best ways to learn what truly resonates with your audience. By comparing two versions of an email, you can see which subject line, layout, or call-to-action drives the most opens and clicks before reaching your full subscriber list. Setting up a test takes only a few minutes and helps you make data-driven decisions that grow your readership.

### **How to create an A/B test**

1. In your Dashboard, go to **Campaign \> A/B Test**
2. Click the **+** icon in the top right corner to **start a new test.**   
   Give your test a name, select the Mailing List and a Segment (*optional*)  
     
   **![Screenshot 2026-10-15 at 12.56.00 PM](https://help.indiegraf.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Screenshot%202026-10-15%20at%2012.56.00%20PM.png?width=611&height=344&name=Screenshot%202026-10-15%20at%2012.56.00%20PM.png)**
3. On the left side menu, be sure to be on the **Edit A/B test** tab, then select the **second block** on the journey titled "Test the following 2 emails..." to open its settings:
   
   ![2026-10-15 13.11.11](https://help.indiegraf.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2026-10-15%2013.11.11.gif?width=609&height=509&name=2026-10-15%2013.11.11.gif)
4. Configure your **Distribution Settings**:
   
     1. **Email Distribution -** By default, your test emails are split 50/50 between Version A and Version B.
     2. **Test Distribution -** When setting up an A/B test, your subscriber list is automatically divided into two main phases: **Test Group** (which gets the initial variations) and the **Winner Group** (which holds back contacts until a winning email is chosen):
        
        | **Test Group Size** | The percentage of your audience that receives the initial test split. For example, a 40% test size means 20% gets Version A and 20% gets Version B right away. |
        | --- | --- |
        | **Winner Group Size** | The remaining percentage of your list (e.g., 60%) held in reserve. These subscribers only receive the winning version once the test finishes. |

**👀 Note:** If you set your Test Size to 100%, Version A goes to half your audience and Version B goes to the other half immediately. This skips the automated winner phase because your entire list receives an email right away, though you can still track analytics for both versions

**📚 Example:** *If you have a total list of 10,000 contacts and configure a distribution of 40% Test Size + 60% Winner Size:*

Phase 1: The Initial Send (40% / 4,000 contacts)

- **Version A:** Sent immediately to **2,000 contacts** (20% of total list).
- **Version B:** Sent immediately to **2,000 contacts** (20% of total list).

Phase 2: The Winner Send (60% / 6,000 contacts)

- **6,000 contacts are placed on hold** while open/click rates are tracked.
- Once the specified test end time is reached, the higher-performing email (or the default fallback option if the end date has passed) is automatically sent to those remaining 6,000 contacts.

5\. Configure the **Winner Selection:**

Select when the test stops collecting data and picks the winner in the calendar.

***"If no significant winner is determined"***

1. 1. This section allows you to pick a default backup option (**Email A** or **Email B**) for the remaining contacts.
     2. Its used for: **ties** (both emails performed identically), **expired test dates** (the campaign launched after or without a valid future end date), and as a **safeguard** (ensures remaijning contacts always recieve an email on schedule).
        
        ![Screenshot 2026-10-22 at 4.33.10 PM](https://help.indiegraf.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Screenshot%202026-10-22%20at%204.33.10%20PM.png?width=362&height=327&name=Screenshot%202026-10-22%20at%204.33.10%20PM.png)

⚠️ **Timing Rule:** The winning email always requires a **48-hour buffer** before sending to gather accurate engagement data. Even though the calendar lets you select an earlier date, **your End Test Date must be set at least 2 full days after your launch date.**

**🧠 Why can you select a past date in the calendar?** Allowing a past end date is an intentional feature designed to let you end an active test early. If your campaign reaches its performance target ahead of schedule—or if it is underperforming and you need to wrap it up—adjusting the End Test

Date to a past time immediately concludes the experiment. The system will then route the remaining audience to the current leading version, or send your default fallback email if a clear winner has not yet emerged.

6\. Save your changes and go back to the A/B test creation flow \> select the Email A's block to open its settings \> click **Edit** to modify the email:

![2026-10-15 13.35.27](https://help.indiegraf.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2026-10-15%2013.35.27.gif?width=610&height=510&name=2026-10-15%2013.35.27.gif)

 

**💡TIP:** You can easily reuse the same content from Email A to Email B (and still add variations) by clicking on the "Copy Content from email A to B" button located at the top right corner of the Email A editing view. 

7\. Follow the same procedure to edit Email B.

8\. When you are happy with the email variations and ready to begin the test and launch the campaign, click on the **Start test** button located in the upper right corner of the journey view page

![Screenshot 2026-10-15 at 1.41.49 PM](https://help.indiegraf.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Screenshot%202026-10-15%20at%201.41.49%20PM.png?width=670&height=324&name=Screenshot%202026-10-15%20at%201.41.49%20PM.png)

 

Congratulations! Your test creation is now complete! 🎉

You can find it on the A/B test drafts and analyze its results.

---

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