How to demo experimentation, audiences, and campaigns in Document Authoring

This demo is designed for pre-sales teams showing how authors can run A/B tests, personalize content for different audiences, and serve targeted campaign experiences — all from the authoring environment. No code changes, no developer tickets, no tag manager configuration.

Use this scenario for any brand that needs to optimize content performance, personalize by audience segment, or coordinate campaign-specific landing pages.

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Demo environment

This demo uses the AEM Experimentation plugin, which is already instrumented in the project codebase. Solution Consultants only need to work in the DA authoring environment and preview on the `.aem.page` environment.

The plugin provides three capabilities configured entirely through page metadata:

Feature
What it does
How it is triggered
Experiments
A/B test content variants with random traffic split
Automatic — random traffic split
Audiences
Serve content based on user segment (mobile, geo, etc.)
Automatic — conditions defined in code (e.g. device type, geography)
Campaigns
Serve content based on a marketing campaign
URL parameter — ?campaign= or ?utm_campaign=

Key value propositions to call out early:

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Part 1: Experiments (A/B Testing)

What to emphasize

Steps

  1. Show the control page — open the live page in the browser and point out the current hero content. This is the "control."

  2. Create a variant page — in the authoring environment, duplicate the control page, rename it (e.g. my-page-variant-1), make a visible change to the hero (swap the headline, change the CTA text, or use a different image), and preview to confirm.

  3. Instrument the experiment — open the control page in the authoring environment, scroll to the Metadata block at the bottom, and add these rows:

    • Experiment: hero-test
    • Experiment Variants: https://{branch}--{repo}--{owner}.aem.page/my-page-variant-1

    Explain: the control page gets 50% of traffic, the variant gets 50% — split evenly by default.

  4. Show custom split ratios — to give the variant less traffic, add a row:

    • Experiment Split: 30

    This gives 30% to the variant and 70% to the control (100% minus variant splits = control).

  5. Preview and simulate — preview the control page on the .aem.page environment. Point out the experimentation overlay pill at the bottom of the page. Click the pill to expand — it shows the experiment name, all configured variants with traffic splits, and Simulate links to preview each variant directly.

  6. Time-bound experiments — mention that authors can set start and end dates:

    • Experiment Status: Active
    • Experiment Start Date: 2026-04-01
    • Experiment End Date: 2026-04-30

  7. The experiment only runs within the specified window. Status supports Active/Inactive.

Close with: "The author just set up a full A/B test without writing a single line of code. The experiment is privacy-compliant out of the box, and performance data flows automatically through AEM RUM."

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Part 2: Audiences (content personalization)

What to emphasize

Steps

  1. Audience definitions (talking point only — no live action) — audiences are defined once in the project codebase by a developer (e.g. mobile, desktop, us, eu). Once defined, authors can use them freely across any page. Common examples: device type, geography, new vs. returning visitor, connection speed.

  2. Create audience-specific content — in the authoring environment, create a variant page for mobile (e.g. my-page-for-mobile). Make mobile-appropriate changes — simplified layout, larger CTAs, less text.

  3. Instrument audiences — open the main page's Metadata block and add:

    • Audience: Mobile: https://{branch}--{repo}--{owner}.aem.page/my-page-for-mobile

    • Audience: Desktop: https://{branch}--{repo}--{owner}.aem.page/my-page-for-desktop

      The notation is flexible — Audience: Mobile, Audience (Mobile), or Audience Mobile all work.

  4. Simulate audiences — preview the page on .aem.page. The overlay pill shows Audiences with all configured segments. Click Simulate next to Mobile to force the mobile experience. This appends ?audience=mobile to the URL.

    For reference checkout:

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Part 3: Campaigns (targeted experiences)

What to emphasize

Steps

  1. Create campaign-specific content — duplicate the landing page and create a holiday variant (e.g. my-page-for-holiday). Add the seasonal content — promo banner, special offer, updated hero.

  2. Instrument the campaign — open the main page's Metadata block and add:

    • Campaign: Holiday: https://{branch}--{repo}--{owner}.aem.page/my-page-for-holiday

    You can define multiple campaigns on the same page:

    • Campaign: Holiday: https://{branch}--{repo}--{owner}.aem.page/my-page-for-holiday
    • Campaign: Back2School: https://{branch}--{repo}--{owner}.aem.page/my-page-for-back2school

  3. Show how campaigns are triggered — campaigns activate via URL parameters:

    • ?campaign=holiday
    • ?utm_campaign=holiday (industry-standard UTM parameter)

The marketing team simply appends the campaign parameter to the links in their emails or social posts.

  1. Simulate campaigns — preview the page on .aem.page. The overlay pill shows Campaigns with all configured variants. Click Simulate to preview the holiday experience.

  2. Campaign with audience targeting (optional talking point) — campaigns can be restricted to specific audiences by adding:

    • Campaign Audience: mobile

    This means only mobile visitors arriving via the campaign link see the variant. Combines campaign activation (URL parameter) with automatic audience resolution.

For reference check out:

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Combining features

For more advanced demos, show how the three features compose together:

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What to emphasize

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Common questions

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Reference documentation

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keywords
demo, usecases