> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.elevateab.com/elevate-helpcenter/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.elevateab.com/elevate-helpcenter/page-testing/reading-results-and-ending-a-page-experiment.md).

# Reading Results and Ending a Page Experiment

How to read page experiment results in Elevate A/B Testing, when to end, and what happens to your templates when you pause, complete, or apply a winning variation.

***

What to watch while a page experiment runs, when to stop it, and what happens to your theme afterwards.

For what each metric means and how a winner is decided, see the reports and statistical significance documentation. This page covers what is specific to page experiments.

### What to watch

Your chosen goal decides the winner. Everything else is context.

Page experiments change the whole experience of a page, so the funnel metrics are usually where the story is. If a variation lifts add to cart but not revenue, the page is doing a better job of generating interest and something later is undoing it. That is a useful result even though the goal did not move.

Elevate A/B Testing estimates when the experiment will have enough data to conclude. Let it get there.

### Common misreads

**Calling it early.** A variation ahead in the first days is usually noise. Page changes tend to produce smaller effects than price changes, so they need more data, not less.

**Reading a multi change variation as one insight.** If your variation moved the reviews, changed the button, and rewrote the headline, a win tells you the combination worked. It does not tell you which part did. Treat it as a decision, not a lesson.

**Ignoring scope.** An experiment set to all products reports across your entire catalogue. A lift concentrated in a few high traffic products can carry the average while most products saw nothing.

**Blaming the layout for a broken variation.** Before accepting a loss, check the variation still renders correctly. A missing reviews widget or an app that never loaded on the duplicate is a common cause of an unexplained loss.

### Editing a running experiment

A running experiment can be edited, including traffic allocation, scope, and variations.

Changing traffic allocation mid experiment is normal and safe. Changing what is being tested is not. If you edit a variation template, change the scope, or swap which template a variation points at while the experiment is running, the data collected before and after the change describes two different experiments. Elevate A/B Testing keeps recording, but the result is no longer meaningful.

If you need to change what you are testing, end the experiment and start a new one. Every change is logged in the experiment's activity history, so you can check whether an unexplained shift in the numbers lines up with an edit.

### Ending an experiment

Open **Experiment Settings** on the experiment.

| Action                   | What it does                                                                                       |
| ------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Pause Experiment**     | Stops serving variations. Traffic returns to your control template. Data collected so far is kept. |
| **Mark as Complete**     | Ends the experiment. Traffic returns to your control template.                                     |
| **Duplicate Experiment** | Creates a copy of the setup, so you can rerun it or test a refinement.                             |
| **Delete Experiment**    | Removes the experiment.                                                                            |

Pausing and completing both return your storefront to the control template. Neither one deletes your variation templates. They stay in your theme, unused, and the variation can still be applied later.

Nothing is applied to your store automatically. A winning variation only goes live when you choose to apply it and confirm.

### Applying a winning variation

The option to apply a winning variation appears in **Experiment Settings** once the experiment reaches statistical significance. Until then it is not offered, because there is no winner to apply.

Applying a winner publishes the variation template as the live template for that page type.

**This changes which file your storefront renders from.** Your original template is no longer the one visitors see. If you later open the theme editor to change that page, you need to edit the applied variation template, not the original. Anyone editing the original will be changing a file nobody sees.

If someone else maintains your theme, or an agency picks up the store afterwards, tell them which template is live.

### Cleanup

Variation templates from ended experiments stay in your theme. They do no harm, but they accumulate in the template list and make future setup harder to navigate.

Delete the ones you are sure you will not use, in Shopify under **Online Store > Themes > Edit code**. Never delete a template that is currently applied as a winner, and never delete one belonging to a running experiment.

### Next steps

* Troubleshooting Page Experiments
* Create a Page Experiment to run the follow up test