Google Optimize and Optimize 360 will no longer be available after September 30, 2023. Your experiments and personalizations can continue to run until that date. Any experiments and personalizations still active on that date will end.
This came as an unwelcome surprise for anyone working in the experimentation industry. Even if you didn’t use the tool itself, it was the first tool most newcomers used to get themselves into experimenting on their websites.
For a while, Google Optimize going away was everything people talked about on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Exporting Experiment Data From Google Optimize
Since several of our existing clients asked for it, we built Google Optimize Data Exporter to store your experiment data for as long as you need it. It supports almost any data destination, including popular ones like Google BigQuery, Amazon S3 and Snowflake.
Google Optimize Data Exporter runs on the same robust and scalable Reflective Data Infrastructure that you hopefully already know and love.
We’ve made the process of exporting your Google Optimize data as simple as possible. Here’s a quick overview.
1. Planning and scoping
Get in touch with one of our data analysts to plan your Google Optimize Data export. The main questions to answer are the list of experiments, dimensions, metrics, time frames and the data destination you wish to use for your Optimize data export.
2. Data export and storage
Executing the plan. Our data analyst will configure Reflective Data Export System to pull the requested data from your Google Optimize instance and store at your chosen data storage destination.
Most exports use Google BigQuery as a data destination.
3. Reporting and consultation
Why is Google Optimize being sunset?
Official statement
We remain committed to enabling businesses of all sizes to improve your user experiences and are investing in A/B testing in Google Analytics 4. We are focused on bringing the most effective solutions and integrations to our customers, especially as we look toward the future with Google Analytics 4.
Optimize, though a longstanding product, does not have many of the features and services that our customers request and need for experimentation testing. We therefore have decided to invest in solutions that will be more effective for our customers.
At Reflective Data, we’re sad to see Google Optimize go. Especially because it enabled so many smaller teams to get started with experimenting with their site.
On the other hand, this will create a big opportunity for the other, dedicated experimentation vendors, to fill this cap in the market.
We’re quite sure, GA4 will improve its experimentation reporting capabilities but running the experiments themselves will likely stay outside of Google’s ecosystem.
Either way, if you have run experiments on Google Optimize, you should export your data ASAP. If you need help, we’ve got you covered.
Google Optimize Alternatives
While we don’t directly partner with any of the testing tools vendors, we do have extensive experience using most of them. Including Optimizely, VWO, Convert, Adobe Target, Sitespect, AB Tasty and Mutiny – to name a few.
Choosing your alternative to Google Optimize depends and various factors like your company’s experimentation maturity, budget and tech stack.
Instead of promoting any of the more traditional testing tools, we would like to encourage you to learn more about an open-source alternative GrowthBook.
We’ve helped several companies implement GrowthBook and would be happy to discuss this option with you, too. Below are some of the reasons why you might want to consider GrowthBook as your Google Optimize alternative.
- Free and open-source
- Full data ownership
- Sits on top of your data warehouse (i.e. BigQuery)
- Supports both client-side and server-side testing
Conclusion
Google Optimize as we knew and loved it is going away on September 30, 2023.
If you ever used Google Optimize to run experiments on your website, you should export this data for future reference.
While you can attempt exporting Optimize data manually using Google Analytics Reporting API but it’s much easier done using Reflective Data’s Google Optimize Data Exporter.