Allspice Publisher Impact Study
Readers stayed longer, came back more often, and discovered more recipes with Allspice.
Across a weighted A/B study of five participating publisher sites, Allspice treatment sessions showed stronger engagement, higher return rates, and deeper recipe discovery than control sessions. The study included publishers of different audience sizes, and Allspice was not specially promoted by participating sites during the test period.
Measured from May 21 to June 21, 2026, these results reflect Allspice as it existed during the study period. Across the aggregate metrics included in this study, no tracked publisher-facing outcome declined under treatment. Since then, Allspice has continued to improve, so we view these results as an early measured baseline.
Weighted sample overview
The study compared control sessions against sessions where Allspice was available on participating publisher sites.
| Variant | Visitors | Sessions | Pageviews | Recipe pageviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control | 265,346 | 302,538 | 370,462 | 282,390 |
| Allspice treatment | 263,882 | 302,731 | 378,644 | 290,056 |
| Total | 529,228 | 605,269 | 749,106 | 572,446 |
Why an A/B test?
Recipe-site performance can vary day to day based on traffic source, seasonality, content mix, device mix, search and social volatility, and advertising conditions. A simple before-and-after comparison can mistake normal traffic movement for product impact.
For that reason, this study compared readers during the same period: a control group where Allspice was not available and a treatment group where Allspice was available. This allowed the study to measure whether Allspice treatment sessions performed differently under the same broader traffic conditions.
Engagement improved across the weighted study sample
Allspice treatment sessions improved across key publisher-facing engagement metrics, including engaged time, hard-bounce reduction, session quality, recipe depth, and return behavior.
| Metric | Observed lift | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Average engaged time / session | +28.5% | Readers spent more time actively engaged during treatment sessions. |
| Average engaged time excluding top 1% | +5.3% | Engagement remained positive even after excluding the longest sessions. |
| Engaged-session rate | +3.0% | More sessions crossed the engaged-session threshold. |
| Quality-session rate | +2.7% | More sessions reached higher-quality engagement behavior. |
| Hard-bounce rate | 2.0% lower | Fewer sessions ended as hard bounces. |
| 90s+ engaged session rate | +5.0% | More sessions reached at least 90 seconds of engagement. |
| 2m+ engaged session rate | +4.0% | More sessions reached at least two minutes of engagement. |
Average engaged time can be influenced by unusually long sessions, so the study also reviewed engaged time excluding the longest 1% of sessions. Even after removing those outliers, engaged time remained positive.
Readers discovered more recipe content
Allspice treatment sessions showed stronger recipe discovery and return behavior, with more recipe pageviews per visitor and higher recipe-to-recipe continuation.
| Metric | Observed lift | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Recipe pageviews / visitor | +3.3% | Readers viewed more recipe content per visitor. |
| Recipe pageviews / session | +2.6% | Sessions included more recipe depth. |
| Pageviews / visitor | +2.8% | Visitors viewed more pages overall. |
| Pageviews / session | +2.1% | Sessions became slightly deeper overall. |
| Site continuation rate | +5.1% | Readers were more likely to continue exploring the publisher site. |
| Recipe-to-recipe continuation | +6.8% | Readers were more likely to move from one recipe to another. |
| 1-day return rate | +7.4% | More readers returned within one day. |
| 7-day return rate | +6.0% | More readers returned within seven days. |
Readers who opened Allspice engaged even more deeply
Beyond the randomized A/B comparison, we also looked at behavior within the Allspice treatment group. Sessions where readers opened Allspice showed substantially stronger engagement and recipe discovery than sessions where Allspice was available but not opened.
| Metric | Opened Allspice | Did not open Allspice | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average engaged time / session | 3.3 min | 43 sec | 4.6x longer |
| Recipe pages / session | 2.9 | 1.28 | 2.3x more |
| Recipe-to-recipe continuation | 40% | 11% | 3.6x higher |
Because opening Allspice is reader-selected behavior, this comparison should be interpreted as usage-associated engagement rather than a randomized causal estimate.
Designed to measure publisher-facing outcomes
This study aggregates weighted A/B results from five participating publisher sites. Public reporting uses aggregate outcomes only; site-level results are omitted to protect publisher privacy.
| Study design element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Participating publishers | 5 sites |
| Study period | May 21–June 21, 2026 |
| Total tested sessions | 605,269 |
| Publisher size mix | Different audience sizes |
| Assignment | Control vs. Allspice treatment |
| Publisher promotion | No special promotion |
| Reporting approach | Weighted aggregate results |
| Site-level results | Omitted to protect publisher privacy |
Session-level metrics were weighted by sessions. Visitor-level metrics were weighted by visitors. Count-derived metrics, such as pageviews per visitor and recipe pageviews per session, were recomputed from summed counts instead of averaging site-level ratios.
Results are based on observed A/B test data and should be interpreted as directional study findings, not a guarantee of identical future performance on every site.
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