A/B Tests of SMS Campaigns: What Affects Deliverability And How to Choose The Best Tool? 

SMS Roman Kozłowski 7 min June 26, 2025

The data clearly show that SMS has firmly established itself in modern business communications. 52% of marketers plan to increase budgets for this channel 1, seeing that as many as 70% of consumers are eager to sign up for text messages 2, and more than half have already made a purchase after receiving such messages. Click-through rates as high as 35% 3 show that SMS can engage the recipient in a way that emails often can’t.

However, high engagement will be difficult to achieve without a guarantee of delivery. An SMS sent does not always mean an SMS delivered. Only the best platforms provide assurance that your message will actually reach the recipient. Also, without accurate and reliable data, evaluating ROI becomes difficult. A successful SMS campaign requires combining both these aspects in a single tool.

Varying capabilities of SMS marketing tools

Not every SMS marketing solution works the same way. Differences in deliverability, effectiveness in specific markets, delivery times or throughput can be significant, especially in large-scale communication.

Various SMS sending tools often try to build their advantages based on specific features or integrations with other platforms. However, this does not automatically translate into what is most important to the user – high message deliverability, for which direct connections with GSM operators play a key role.

direct connections with gsm operators ensure high sms deliverability
Direct connections with GMS operators ensure high SMS deliverability.

If you’re considering a number of platforms, it’s a good idea to run a comparative A/B test that will show which of them will actually perform better for you and ensure the highest effectiveness of your SMS messages.

What affects the efficiency of your SMS campaigns

Due to varying local conditions, the target country of your campaign is crucial. MessageFlow works with providers in foreign markets to ensure the highest campaign performance. This results in:

1. Reliable deliverability

Messages reach their recipients with no delays, which is essential especially with transactional communication.

2. Higher security

Your communication becomes less prone to spoofing or unauthorized viewing.

3. Legal compliance

You’re operating in accordance with communications law, not having to worry about any fines. 

4. Trusted sender reputation 

You’re viewed as a verified and trustworthy sender which positively affects your deliverability rates. 

💡 In summary, to run effective SMS campaigns you should choose a platform that uses direct and official links with operators in your target markets. This allows you to achieve high message deliverability and receive reliable and accurate reports.

Why is high SMS deliverability so important?

Superior deliverability and the ability to rely on the SMS channel – having confidence that the message will actually reach the recipient – is of particular importance in a number of cases:

  • one-time-passwords (for instance to complete a transaction)
  • unique tokens (used in the process of verification or authentication)
  • login notifications (for instance from a new device)
  • password or user profile changes confirmations
  • scam attempt notifications (the recipient can take relevant action)
  • visit, meeting or booking confirmations (applicable across multiple industries)
  • payment deadline or service termination reminders (ensuring continuous provision)
key role of deliverability
Why SMS deliverability plays such an important role?

All of these SMS use cases have 3 things in common: they have a trigger (something that causes them to be sent – a compelling reason), they are time-driven (urgent or near-term oriented), and they are crucial to the recipient (helping them take an important action or providing peace of mind).

The reliability and effectiveness of the SMS delivery system is absolutely essential in all of these cases to build trust in the business or organization and to help the recipient achieve a goal that is important to both him and the company, often in the shortest time possible.

Why you may want to run a test

In addition to the technological issues described above, other factors can also influence the decision to choose one specific tool over another for sending SMS campaigns.

One of the main ones is, of course, the cost of the SMS campaign and the return you want to receive from it. When deciding to communicate in this channel that offers the opportunity of reaching the recipient quickly and directly, you want to make sure that your messages actually reach them. Therefore, high campaign deliverability becomes an essential factor in your decision.

Another reason may be that you are operating in an organization that requires the selection of a specific supplier in a centralized manner, which does not always mean an optimal solution.

Perhaps you are facing unsatisfactory campaign results thus far and are looking for an alternative.

Whatever the reason, you can run our suggested comparison test to help you make an objective decision and get the highest possible ROI from your SMS campaign.

Description of the test

Here’s a brief description of our original test designed to help you assess which solution will serve you best.

1. Picking test target groups

From your database of contacts, select two groups of equal size, for instance 20,000 unique cell phone numbers each. Group A and Group B should consist of randomly chosen contacts, while maintaining consistent selection criteria.

2. Stage one 

Stage one of the test is based on a simple assumption:

  • Group A receives an SMS sent via platform X.
  • Group B receives an SMS sent via MessageFlow.

💡 Make sure to keep the same message contents, date, and time.

3. Stage two 

After the previously set time frame, switch the contacts data bases (the selected customer groups). This time:

  • Group A receives an SMS sent via MessageFlow.
  • Group B receives an SMS sent via platform X.

This will ensure that every number in both segments receives a message from both systems. This allows for a fair and meaningful comparison of the effectiveness of campaigns carried out under identical conditions.

💡 We leave the details of segment size, message content or the exact time separating the two send-outs to the client. We believe that the brand in question has the best knowledge of how to target both campaigns most effectively. The most important thing is to be consistent between them.

4. Test results analysis

Once both send-outs have been completed and the appropriate time has passed for each, it’s time to compare the results. For each campaign, it’s worth looking at the results in two key areas:

  • Deliverability report, presented by the platform sending your message. It will indicate what number and percentage of messages were successfully delivered to recipients.
  • Analytics data held by the company doing the comparison. We’re talking about metrics such as link clicks, overall conversions, use of individual discount codes, or other signals the company is able to measure in connection with a given campaign.

What you need to keep in mind

The relatively simple SMS campaign performance test described here allows for maximum objective evaluation of the effectiveness of a given platform and provides a basis for further business decisions.

Both technological efficiency (effective delivery of a large number of messages in a short period of time) and business efficiency (the effect and return that a given campaign brought to the company) are taken into account.

efficient sms platform capabilities
What makes an efficient SMS platform?

Cost is also an important factor when evaluating the effectiveness of an SMS sending tool. There are situations in which comparable claimed campaign deliverability goes hand in hand with significant price differences. This can raise questions about the actual technological performance – there is a risk that the presented data does not fully reflect the actual level of effectiveness.

💡 If this is the case, a lower cost, especially for marketing vs. transactional communication, may mean a compromise in quality, which in the long run may negatively affect the effectiveness of your communication efforts. Your messages, although sent, may simply not get through to the clients.

The internal data we have, based on such tests, indicates that the use of tools better adapted to local markets can lead to a difference in monthly revenues reaching tens of thousands of dollars.

A summary of the SMS campaign split test

If you’re in doubt about which solution to choose for a large-scale SMS campaign, it’s worth running the A/B test described here comparing the effectiveness of the platforms.

Regardless of the reason you’re looking for the best mass SMS messaging tool, we’re ready to proceed with the comparison at any time to help you make a data-driven decision. Contact us to discuss the details of the test.

In order to ensure the highest effectiveness of our clients’ campaigns, we rely on both the technological infrastructure and experience of our team, built up over the years, as well as direct cooperation with mobile operators.

MessageFlow ensures SMS deliverability of 99.99%. If you are operating or planning to expand overseas, consider using our platform to effectively reach your audience in local markets. Fast, efficient and without intermediaries – the success of your campaigns is our priority. Contact us to arrange a test or learn more.

Data source:1, 2, 3 https://adamconnell.me/sms-marketing-statistics/