While setting up an subject line A/B test in ExactTarget, a potential issue dawned on me: What happens if one of the test groups has a much larger share of Gmail addresses? As we know, Gmail downloads images on it’s servers automatically and therefore those email addresses will count as opens. If one test group had a disproportionally larger share of Gmail addresses, then the results would be skewed.

However, I’m happy to report that this wasn’t the case.

After the A/B test went out, I exported the two separate lists. For this test, there were a total of 94,0002 email addresses.

Here’s the breakdown of the more popular email domains:

Gmail: 12,885 vs. 13,026

Yahoo: 8,818 vs. 8,847

Hotmail: 4,377 vs. 4,321

Gmail still had a 141 difference, which could cause a potential swing of 0.15%, but this is not significant.

In ExactTarget, by default, the local time may not be set to your local time. For me it was set to CMT. Although you still have the ability to select the correct time zone before you send an email, this can be confusing in reporting.

In Automation Studio, the progress will state the Completed time in the wrong time zone. In the Email tab, under Sends, it will show a SENT ON time in the wrong time zone.

I live in Boston, so I can just mentally add 1 hour so it equates to EST but it can get a little annoying and potentially problematic.

In order to change your default local time, follow these steps:

In the top right, go to the drop down from your username and select “Cloud Preferences.”

Under the “User Settings” tab, click “Edit” then go to the “Time Zone” drop down and select your correct local time zone.

And, that’s it! You may need to log out and back in for the change to take effect.