How does Pathmonk ensure it runs on 50% of my traffic?

Pathmonk assigns each new visitor to a test group before anything loads on the page. This ensures that the A/B test is fair, unbiased, and scientifically valid. (Learn more about what is a Pathmonk A/B test).

How the assignment works

When a new visitor lands on your website:

1. Pathmonk instantly creates a unique fingerprint for that visitor. This fingerprint stays with the visitor for their entire lifetime — even across different sessions and different devices — thanks to our vectorial fingerprinting technology.

2. Before showing anything, Pathmonk assigns the visitor to one of the two groups:

   • Pathmonk group (Enabled)

   • Control group (Disabled)

3. The assignment is random, based strictly on the traffic split you have configured (e.g., 50/50, 95/5).

• No user behavior, attributes, or external signals influence this decision.
• Nothing from Pathmonk loads until the group is determined.

Why this method ensures fairness

This logic guarantees that:

• Experiences only load after the visitor’s group is locked.

• The split is fully random and unbiased.

• The experiment respects the exact % split you set.

• Visitors in both groups experience the same external conditions (traffic, campaigns, website changes, etc.).

This is what allows the Buying Journey report to compare both groups reliably and measure the true conversion uplift contributed by Pathmonk.

Example on a 50/50 split

Imagine your experiment is configured to 50/50.

• Visitor A arrives → Pathmonk fingerprints them → they are randomly assigned to the Pathmonk group → they will see micro-experiences and the Pathmonk menu during their visit.

• Visitor B arrives a few seconds later → fingerprinted → randomly assigned to the control group → they see the standard website with no Pathmonk elements.

Across hundreds or thousands of visitors, this process produces a statistically even 50/50 distribution.

Do returning visitors change groups?

No. Once assigned, a visitor can never switch groups. Pathmonk’s vectorial fingerprint technology detects when the same visitor returns, even if they:

• clear cookies

• switch devices

• come from a new browser

If a visitor was originally assigned to the control group, they will always remain in the control group on every visit. The same applies to the Pathmonk-enabled group.

How you can verify this

1. Log in to your Pathmonk account.

2. Go to Analytics → Visitors Journey → All visitors. You’ll see each visitor listed with:

• their fingerprint

• their position in the buying journey

3. Click on a fingerprint to open the full visitor profile. In the profile, look for the AI Acceleration field:

• Enabled → Visitor is in the Pathmonk display group
• Disabled → Visitor is in the control group
• Not measure → Micro-experiences were not running (e.g., not published yet, disabled, or unexpected issue). If you ever see Not measure unexpectedly, contact support@pathmonk.com immediately so we can investigate.

In the example above, this prospect was allocated to the Pathmonk enabled group and remained there across their entire journey.

Why do I see 49/51 instead of 50/50 on the Buying Journey report?

Small variations are completely normal. A 50/50 split does not guarantee a perfect 50/50 count at every moment on your Buying Journey report. Slight differences happen when:

• your traffic volume is low

• you are looking at results from only a few days

• randomness creates short-term variance

Over time, as more visitors arrive, Pathmonk automatically compensates, and the distribution moves to the configured split.

Learn more about how to check your Pathmonk A/B test results on your Buying Journey report.

Still need help analyzing your results?

If you're unsure how to interpret your results or want us to review your data, email support@pathmonk.com and our team will guide you through everything.