Both tests can yield great testing results for your business but with multivariate tests, it's better than a more experienced marketer should use these.

This is because a multivariate test is considerably more complex and tests a number of small variables.

Multivariate tests, however, do allow for more fine-tuning of the elements on a web page.

A/B testing is meant to test two different web pages that are supposed to be different from one another.

You can also test three and four different web pages, in those cases, it would be an A/B/C test or an A/B/C/D test.

3 Key Takeaways:

  1. Through A/B testing, two copies of a web page are tested with equal amounts of traffic each.
  2. With multivariate testing, different elements are changed minutely within a single web page and are tested for traffic and interaction.
  3. A/B testing is more useful for large format design decisions, and multivariate testing is more useful for smaller design decisions such as word choice or image formatting.

“Yes, there is a difference, and yes, it will affect the integrity (and thus usefulness) of your results if you choose the wrong test.”

Source: http://bit.ly/38xokkr