How to perform and analyze Smart Send Time tests

You will learn

Learn how to create Smart Send Time tests in Klaviyo and use the Smart Send Time reporting page to understand your results.

By carrying out a Smart Send Time test, you can gain insight into your audience to improve the performance of your campaigns. If your brand has 2 or more distinct audiences, the best time to send to one group might not be the best for another. For this reason, you can either run one or multiple Smart Send Time tests in Klaviyo.

To start testing, your account needs at least 12,000 emailable profiles, and your exploratory campaign must have at least 12,000 recipients.

Avoid using Smart Send Time for time-sensitive content, such as a flash sale or an offer with an approaching deadline. Emails are sent at different times in recipients’ local time zones.

Create a Smart Send Time test

You can create as many Smart Send Time tests as you want and request a reset of historical results to start from scratch. There are 2 ways to create a Smart Send Time test in Klaviyo: on the Smart Send Time reporting page or as you create and send a campaign.

To create your first Smart Send Time test:

1. Navigate to the Campaigns tab in Klaviyo's left-hand navigation.
2. Click the additional options (3 dots) menu at the top, then select Smart Send Time report.
   

3. In the upper right-hand corner, click Create new test.
   

4. Name the test and add notes as needed, then click Create Test.

To choose a Smart Send Time test while scheduling an email campaign:

1. Create an email campaign as normal.
2. On the review screen, click Schedule or send. Select Schedule, then choose Smart send time under Scheduling options.
3. If the Test name dropdown is shown, choose an existing test or select Create test to create a new test.

4. If creating a new test, enter its name.
5. Select an available option under Send type. For a new test, use Exploratory (spread over 24 hours).
6. Choose a send date, then click Schedule message.

Smart Send Time phases

You must complete 3 phases for each Smart Send Time test:

You must complete the exploratory step before you can run a focused send, which must finish before the optimal send.

However, during the focused and optimal phases, you can continue to run the earlier step(s) in order to gather more information for the Smart Send Time model. For instance, when an optimal send time has been reached, you can run either an exploratory or focused send.

For more information on these phases, check out our guide to understanding Smart Send Time in Klaviyo.

Smart Send Time reporting

To view the aggregate data gathered by the Smart Send Time test:

1. Navigate to the Campaigns tab in Klaviyo's left-hand navigation.
2. Click the additional options (3 dots) menu at the top, then select Smart Send Time report.
   

3. If you have multiple tests, use the dropdown under Test name on the left-hand side to find the one you want.

Below this, view the overall open rate by hour for all campaigns in this Smart Send Time test. Each hour represents the email’s send time in the recipient’s local time zone.

Smart Send Time analyzes a campaign after the account’s email attribution window has elapsed following its last scheduled send. If results are not yet available, allow time for analysis and check the report again. You may need multiple exploratory campaigns before a focused send time is available.

Select one of the campaigns in this test from either the Smart Send Time reporting page or the reporting page from the Campaigns tab. Clicking into a campaign will show you:

• How each email campaign performed (based on the time it was sent)
• The associated click and conversion rates
• If a campaign was sent as part of an exploratory, focused, or optimal send

Additional resources