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This guide takes you from a new CROForge account to a Running A/B test on a real page. In everyday terms: you sign in, pick a project space, put a small script on your website, then create a campaign that changes something for some visitors and measures whether it worked.

Words used on this page

WordEveryday meaningMeaning in CROForge
WorkspaceThe project room your team shares.Everything you create (campaigns, events, Data Vista, websites) belongs to one workspace.
Smart CodeThe snippet you paste into a website so a tool can run there.The init.js script copied from Configurations → Websites and Apps.
CampaignA named test you launch.The UI name for an experiment. Create it from the A/B menu.
URL targetingChoosing which web addresses a test may run on.Include and exclude URL rules on the campaign Pages step.
Traffic splitHow you divide people between versions.Equal or custom percentages per variation. Assigned visitors stay sticky.
Live PreviewA forced look at one version, without waiting for random assignment.A generated preview URL that tells Smart Code to show a specific variation.
RunningThe test is live.The only status Smart Code applies on the real site.

Screenshots to upload later: quick-start.png, websites-apps.png, create-ab-test-modal.png.

Why this order matters

You can design a beautiful campaign in the app and still see no change on the live site. That happens when Smart Code is missing, the domain is not allowlisted, the campaign is still Draft, or the current page fails URL targeting. The checklist below installs the runtime first, then builds the test, then turns the status to Running so Smart Code has something eligible to apply.

Checklist

  1. Create an account or log in.
  2. Create or open a workspace.
  3. Add a website under Configurations → Websites and Apps.
  4. Install Smart Code from that website’s Code tab (this is the primary install path; Settings → Installation is legacy).
  5. Verify the installation on a real URL of that domain.
  6. (Optional) Define custom events if a standard page view or click is not enough.
  7. Create a campaign from A/B.
  8. Configure Pages (include and exclude URL targeting).
  9. Add or edit variations (JS/CSS) and the traffic split.
  10. Choose an audience segment (or leave All Traffic).
  11. Attach metrics from Data Vista.
  12. Open Review, use Live Preview, then set status to Running.
  13. Read results on the campaign Report tab.

Step-by-step for product users

1. Sign up or log in

Open the app and choose Register or Login. Confirm your email if the product asks you to. If an invitation brought you here, the register flow can attach that invite so you join the right workspace instead of creating an empty one by accident.

2. Open a workspace

A workspace is the isolation boundary for your team. Use the workspace selector or create a new workspace. Campaigns, Data Vista objects (attributes, segments, metrics), events, and website configurations all live inside that one workspace. Switching workspaces is like walking into a different project room: you will not see the other room’s tests.

3. Register the website and install Smart Code

Go to Configurations → Websites and Apps, add your site (name, domain, type), then open the Smart Code (Code) tab. Copy the snippet into your site’s <head> so it loads on every page that might run a campaign. The number in the script URL is your Account ID, which is the workspace id.

<link rel="preconnect" href="https://app.croforge.com" />
<script src="https://app.croforge.com/YOUR_WORKSPACE_ID/init.js?ver=1.0.0" id="cro-forge-experiments-js"></script>

Start with the default Async snippet unless your engineers ask for Sync. After deploy, use the product’s URL verification on the same tab so you know the domain allowlist and snippet are actually loading.

4. Create a campaign

Open sidebar A/B and create a campaign. Give it a title that states the hypothesis and the surface (for example, “Homepage hero — green CTA”). The new campaign opens as Draft. Drafts never change the live site, which is why you can configure safely.

Work through Configuration in this order: Pages → Variations → Metrics → Audience. Then open Review. When the summary looks right, use Live Preview to force a variation on the real URL, and only then set status to Running.

5. Measure and read the report

Metrics are not invented on the campaign from scratch. You create or reuse them in Data Vista → Metrics, then attach them on the campaign Metrics step. After the campaign is Running and events fire, open the Report tab. Filter by date range if needed. The traffic source control on the report (direct, referral, social, search, paid, and similar) only slices the numbers. It does not change who entered the test—that was already decided by Audience.

Step-by-step for developers

Use this path when you are installing CROForge locally or confirming that Smart Code is really assigning visitors.

  1. Clone the frontend, copy .env.local, then run npm install and npm run dev (Node.js 20+).
  2. Ensure the backend serves init.js for the workspace.
  3. Point a test site at Smart Code and open browser DevTools → Network / Console.
  4. Confirm visitor UUID and session UUID storage (cookie or localStorage, plus sessionStorage for the session) and that impression events fire for Running campaigns.

Common first-test ideas

A first test should change one obvious thing and measure one obvious action. That keeps the hypothesis honest and the metric aligned with the variation.

IdeaVariation changeMetric idea
Hero headlineCSS color or JS text swap on the main headingClick on “Book demo”
CTA buttonCSS background (and keep the same button text for a clean click condition)Click event whose text matches that button
Form layoutCSS spacing so the form is easier to completeForm submit or a custom event

Launch checks before you set Running

  • Include/exclude URLs validated against sample addresses.
  • Audience segment is the one you intended (or All Traffic on purpose).
  • Variations QA’d on desktop and mobile, including Live Preview on the real target URL.
  • Traffic split sums to 100%.
  • At least one primary metric is linked.
  • Smart Code verified on the allowlisted domain.

Related reading

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