Product testing campaigns allow you to reward members by sending them products for free in exchange for their content, reviews, feedback and insights!
Product testing objectives
A product test can meet several strategic objectives:
- Acquisition: attract new members to the community and encourage them to create an account
- Activation: guide new registrants towards their first value-adding action
- Retention: bring existing members back to the platform
- Engagement and UGC production: generate reusable content (reviews, photos, videos, testimonials)
- Business impact: enrich e-commerce product pages with authentic reviews, providing social proof to future buyers
Create the campaign
Prerequisite: Make sure you have a product testing channel configured in your community. It allows you to display and list all existing product testing campaigns:
- Campaigns open for applications or awaiting responses to invitations
- Ongoing campaigns (no longer open to new participants)
- Completed campaigns
In Animation > Product Testing > Create new, follow these steps to create your campaign:
- Give your product testing campaign a name.
- (Optional) Add an Internal Tag to associate one or more internal categories with this product testing campaign (for example, by brand or division). Learn more about internal categorization.
- Add a description and format your text. Use this section to introduce the product that members will test and any other important information.
- Choose the start date of your campaign.
- Add a banner (640x200px) to the campaign so that members can view the product.
- Click Continue at the bottom of the page.
You have two options:
- Your product catalog is already imported to the community: search for the product and select it.
- No catalog imported / New product: add it manually (SKU, name, description, image, product URL). Members only see the product image and name. The other fields are simply required for technical reasons.
You can add only one product per campaign. If you want to create a campaign with several products, use option 2 to manually add your product pack or bundle.
You can use a fictitious product ID; this has no impact. However, it is important that this ID is not the ID of another existing product. It is therefore recommended that you keep a file to track the history of created IDs.
Choose the type of campaign you want to create:
- Open campaign: the product test will be visible to the entire community, and all members will be able to apply.
-
By invitation only: the product test will be visible only to selected members (and admin accounts), for a more exclusive experience. For this type of campaign, you must configure a maximum number of participants and apply Fields (for example: have at least 100 points), then click on Confirm testers.
Learn more about inviting or selecting testers.
The campaign survey is the application form that members must complete to apply.
The questions configured for the testing profile (accessible from members' profiles) will be displayed automatically, along with the delivery address. You must then select only the additional fields that can help you choose your testers later.
In addition to the default questions, you can also create a specific form for your campaign by adding new fields. It will apply only to this campaign. In this case, scroll to the bottom of the list, then click on Add a custom field, and:
- Choose the question (Label) and the question type (text, single or multiple choice, location).
- Set this field as optional or required.
- Enable Is Read only to simply display information without asking candidates for an answer.
- Choose where you want to display the field (Rank 1 to place it at the top, 10 to place it at the bottom, for example). Fields cannot be reordered after they are created.
- For single-choice or multiple-choice questions, add as many possible answers as needed.
The answers to these questions will help you filter and select your testers later, so make sure you ask the most relevant questions.
The assets you configure here determine what members must do during the product test:
- Social campaigns: ask testers to publish on social media with one or more specific hashtags. Discover more about social missions, or the applicable compliance requirements.
- Insights: ask testers to share their impressions of the product, for example through a review. They can submit text, photos, videos, tag a product, and you can also add custom fields if needed. Each item can be set as required, optional, or prohibited.
- Other: create any type of mission that testers must complete to validate their participation in the campaign. Learn more about missions.
To understand how product testing assets are displayed to members, see this article.
This step is optional and can be skipped (by clicking on Skip this step in the top right) if you do not request any action from users for the campaign.
You can configure a reminder for each campaign via notification and email. Select the number of days from the date of the first tester selection after which the reminder should be sent:
- If the selector remains set to 0, then no reminder is sent.
- If it is set to 7, for example, the reminder is sent 7 days after the date of the first tester selection.
Regardless of the time at which the tester selection is made, the reminder email is sent at 6 AM.
It is sent to all testers who have not yet submitted a contribution (those with the Testing status). A tester who has already submitted a contribution will not receive a reminder, even if it has not been validated.
If a reminder is configured and the tester selection has already been completed, the reminder sending date is displayed on the reviews page.
Manage the campaign
1. Edit the campaign
You can edit your campaign at any time after creating it. To do so, in Animation > Product Testing, click on the campaign you want to edit. Click on Edit campaign in the top right.
2. Close the campaign
Closing a campaign categorizes it under the Closed status. You have 2 options to close a campaign:
- Click End campaign: this is possible at any time, even if you have not yet selected the testers or received all the reviews. Neither candidates nor testers are informed of this action.
- Validate all testers' contributions: when all testers have submitted their reviews and you have approved them all, the campaign automatically changes to the Closed status.
Even if a campaign is closed:
- Testers who have not yet submitted their contribution can still do so.
- Admins can still validate tests that have not yet been approved.
- Testers and admins can still use the discussion thread on the campaign detail page.
3. Delete the campaign
In Animation > Product Testing, a red trash icon is displayed to the right of each campaign. Click it and then confirm the deletion. A confirmation message is displayed when the deletion is successful.
It is important to know that:
- Only admins with the
UpdateProductTestingpermission can delete a campaign. - This action is irreversible: even though it is a soft deletion, there is no recover option.
- Deleted campaigns no longer appear in the campaign dashboard.
4. Remove a tester
Regardless of the campaign status or type, it is always possible to remove a tester after the testers have been selected. In Animation > Product Testing, open the campaign of your choice.
In the list of testers for this campaign, search for the relevant user using their user ID or username. To the right of the selected tester, click the trash icon and confirm this action.
The tester will be permanently removed from this test and will no longer have access to the campaign page:
- The targeted missions for this campaign will no longer appear in their profile.
- Their activity in the discussion thread will be deleted: they will no longer be mentioned and will not receive notifications related to the discussion thread.
- The tester will no longer appear in the tester or review lists.
- This tester's contributions will no longer be included in the mission completion tracking dashboard.
No automatic message is sent. You are free to contact them by email or private message.
Track campaign progress
Depending on the campaign type, this tab displays the applications submitted for this campaign (open campaign), or the number of invitations sent and accepted by testers (invitation-only campaign).
- If you created an open campaign, you can select candidates one by one directly in the back office. Alternatively, you can export the list of candidates, sort them in Excel, and then import the file to select them.
- If you created an invitation-only campaign, you can wait until all invitations have received a response (the campaign automatically changes from Applying to Testing), or click on End invitation phase if you believe you have enough accepted invitations to manually move the campaign to the Testing phase.
All testers who have been selected for the test are displayed, along with their information and participation status. You can click on View profile or remove them from the tester list.
If you have configured one or more missions with screenshot validation (which require your manual approval to be completed), you can approve the screenshots submitted by testers directly from the campaign tracking page, in the Mission validation tab.
- If you click on Accept, the tester will be notified and will earn the points associated with the mission.
- If you click on Decline, the tester will be notified and will be able to submit a new screenshot.
This tab has several purposes:
- Track the completion rate (percentage of testers who completed all campaign mission, if configured)
- Track the completion of tasks required by each user
- Check the content of the review/contribution (configured in step 5)
- Validate test completion for each tester
This will help you decide whether it is time to end the campaign or follow up with testers.
The bottom of the Last step tab allows you to track test completion. It is divided into 2 sections:
Validate test completion using the list of all testers with the Pending and Testing statuses:
- Testers with the Pending status are displayed first by default because they have clicked on Last step to indicate that they have submitted all the contributions required for the test.
- Testers with the Testing status are also displayed. This is useful when some missions are optional or when testers forget to complete the last step.
You can see the following information in the table:
- Username: profile picture + username
- Status: Pending (all contributions have been submitted) or Testing (the tester has not yet finished)
- Review: if you configured one, a Review column indicates whether the tester has submitted their review. The Check review CTA indicates that it has been submitted and that you can view it.
- One column per mission: easily check whether the tester has completed the mission.
- A "..." button allows you to chat with the tester from the back office or view their profile.
- A Validate full test button allows you to indicate that the tester has completed their test. This unlocks the associated rewards and changes the tester's status to Validated.
Here, you can view only the contribution details of testers whose tests have already been validated.
To export and analyze data related to product testing campaigns, see this dedicated article.
Validate a test
If a reward (points, status, badge) is linked to the completion of a product test, validating a member's test will allow them to unlock this reward. In the Last step > Ongoing tab, click on Validate full test. The member receives an email and a notification indicating that their test is complete and validated.
If an automatic reminder is configured to follow up with late reviewers, validating a tester's test prevents them from receiving a reminder.
If all testers' tests are validated, the campaign is automatically closed.
Emails & notifications
The notification text can be edited in Configuration > Wordings > Platform > product_testing_campaign.
Automatic emails are managed from Settings > Look & feel > Emails (which must have been configured during the project implementation phase).
- You can enable or disable them using the toggle.
- You can send a test email to admins.
- If you are not familiar with editing the email design, contact your CSM.
Open campaigns
When the admin selects and approves a candidate as a tester, the candidate automatically receives a notification and an email indicating that they have been selected and will soon receive the product to test.
- Email triggered by the admin clicking on Confirm when selecting testers.
- Sent to all users selected as testers.
- By clicking on the CTA, the user is redirected to the campaign detail page.
Invitation-only campaigns
When the admin launches an invitation-only campaign, all invited users automatically receive a notification and an email to respond quickly to the invitation to participate. Here are some details:
- Triggered by: The admin clicks on Launch campaign at the end of the campaign configuration.
- Sent to: All users selected as invitees.
- When clicked, it redirects to the campaign detail page.
- Triggered by: The admin clicks on Launch campaign at the end of the campaign configuration.
- Sent to: All users selected as invitees.
- When clicked, you will be redirected to the campaign detail page.
Personalized targeted email
You can send fully personalized targeted emails from a product testing campaign. To do so, click on the campaign of your choice, then click on Send out email in the top right.
Select the recipients based on the desired status: Invitation pending, Application pending / rejected, Testing, Test review pending, Test review validated.
Enter the subject and content of your email. Once the email is ready, you can:
- Test the email before sending it by clicking on Test email
- Save it as a draft to complete it later
- Schedule the email to send it at a later date and time
- Send it immediately by clicking on Send out email
- View these emails in Animation > Community emails
The date and time of the last email sent are displayed (in UTC) at the top of the recipient selection, to prevent accidentally sending multiple emails.
FAQ
If an invitation-only campaign is edited before the testing phase, the invitation email will be sent again. This doubles the number in the Testers column and may cause confusion. Do not worry: the number of testers remains the number you selected initially.
Click on your campaign to open its details, then click on Download CSV.
Make sure you have selected the testers beforehand.
No, you can add only one product per campaign. If you want to run a test with several products, manually add your product bundle or pack. Make sure that the image you upload and the campaign description represent all the products.
If you select a member to test a product and this person does not submit a review despite several reminders or messages, use the Tag feature in the User List (Statistics > Users).
You can name the tag "Bad tester" or "Do not select". You will then see this information if this person applies for a new test, so that you do not select them again.
When creating your product test, we recommend adding a dedicated custom field in Step 4 - Survey. Click on Add a custom field and configure your question directly there.
- If you have only a few shades available, you can choose a single-choice question and list your shades in the Options.
- If you have many shades and do not have time to list them all, you can create a text field. Keep in mind that this option may be less reliable because candidates may make typing errors.
Also make sure to include a link to your Shade Finder somewhere in the campaign description so that candidates can easily access it. You will not be able to add the link to your dedicated custom field.
No, all missions configured in a product test are required to complete a test. If you have a permanent mission that awards points for completing all the tasks in a product test, members can earn points only if they complete all their tester missions.
If you do not have a permanent mission that awards points for completing all the tasks in a product test, testers can still complete the tasks of their choice, and you can validate their test manually from the back office.