A/B Testing a site-wide feature with Google Analytics

Question

I am considering a major adjustment to the search-input feature on a website.

This search feature appears on many pages.

I do have e-commerce operating in Google Analytics.

I have glanced at Google Analytics Experiments, but this seems to be more for individual pages and I am looking to measure the performance of a site-wide feature.

What is a clean way to A/B test this new search-input feature in Google Analytics, measured by e-commerce conversion rate?

Answer 1

A simple way to show one of two options is using PHP:

if ( rand(1, 2) == 1 ) {

  // show test feature
  // Google Analytics tag or event

}

else {

  // show default feature
  // Google Analytics tag or event

}

This will show each option evenly over time. Personally I would trigger Analytics events to track the results, but there are probably many tracking options available.