Depending on how your particular A/B testing tool works, it may impact GA Connector tracking capabilities.
If your A/B testing tool doesn’t use a redirect, it shouldn’t impact GA Connector at all. If the tool is dynamically changing web page content with JavaScript, or if it’s making its test modification on the server side, it shouldn’t impact GA Connector at all.
However, if your A/B testing tool utilizes redirects, it will impact GA Connector (and Google Analytics as well). When the redirect is performed, the referrer information is lost. And if there is no referrer information in the HTTP request, GA Connector (and Google Analytics) have to resort to UTM parameters only. In case there are not UTM parameters (and no referrer information), GA Connector will consider such visits as direct visits (without a source).
If you want to A/B test your website without hurting the tracking, we recommend that you use tools that:
- either do all the test changes on the server side (example);
- or make the changes to the web page DOM dynamically, without the redirect.
Plus, using a redirect increases page load time and can sometimes have a negative impact on SEO.