Multivariate testing in marketing is a method for simultaneously evaluating multiple versions of several variables. Unlike A/B testing, which focuses on a single variable at a time, multivariate testing is more common in digital marketing due to the ease of manipulating digital variables and their lower cost. In traditional marketing, these tests can be used to evaluate various elements of an advertising campaign, such as the headline, visuals, or incentives.

Multivariate testing is frequently used to evaluate elements such as emails, landing pages, product pages, forms, and more. The variables tested simultaneously typically include button text, button colors, button shapes, images, headlines, incentives, prices, or discounts, among others. Due to the large number of possible combinations, these tests require substantial sample sizes to ensure the relevance and reliability of the results.

For example, a multivariate test on an e-commerce website's shopping cart page might involve various variables such as button text, images, and colors. This type of test allows for the exploration of interactions between variables, a dimension absent from traditional A/B testing. Due to the exponential number of possible versions, a large number of visitors is needed to obtain statistically significant results.

American web marketers have identified the most commonly tested variables on a website, thus illustrating the importance of multivariate testing in optimizing online performance.