Before pushing an Embed to your users, verify that it renders correctly at the target element, appears on the correct pages, targets the right audience, and handles dismiss behavior as expected. There are three testing methods — use whichever fits your setup.

Choose a testing method

Preview in extension

Use this to visually check placement and refine your CSS selector.

1. In the Embed builder, open Experience Settings (gear icon) and click Open in Extension. The Appcues Builder Chrome extension launches on the page specified in your Build URL.
2. The Embed renders inline at the target element using the CSS selector and placement you configured. Verify:

• The Embed appears at the correct location in the page layout.
• Content blocks display correctly in the layout.
• The theme, colors, and fonts match your product.
• If you added multiple steps, walk through them to check each screen.

3. Check the CSS selector validation. A green checkmark with "Selector is unique and valid" confirms the selector targets exactly one element. If the selector is invalid or matches multiple elements, use the Refine selection tools to narrow it down.

Preview does not test page targeting, audience targeting, or trigger rules. For those, publish using one of the methods below.

Publish to a staging environment

This is the most thorough testing method. It puts the Embed live on an internal environment where real targeting, triggers, and dismiss behavior all work — without any risk to your end users.

1. Add your staging domain to the Available Domains list. Go to Settings > Domains and enter your staging URL (e.g., staging.yourapp.com). You need admin permissions. See Manage Available Domains for details.
2. Open the Embed's settings page and go to URL Targeting.
3. Under Environment targeting, select Only the domains I choose and pick your staging domain only. Deselect production domains so end users don't see the Embed during testing.
4. Click Publish.
5. Log in to your staging environment as a user who matches the audience targeting.
6. Navigate to a page where the Embed should appear and run through the verification checklist below.
7. When testing is complete, update the environment targeting to include your production domain and republish.

Publish to internal testers

If you don't have a staging environment, publish the Embed to production but restrict the audience to your team.

1. Open the Embed's settings page and go to Audience targeting.
2. Select Specific users and add a condition that isolates your testers:

• By email domain: email → contains → @yourcompany.com
• By specific user IDs: userId → equals → your test user's ID. To find your user ID, open the Appcues debugger on any page where Appcues is installed — your user ID is displayed at the top.
• By segment: Create a "QA testers" segment with your team's user IDs or email addresses, then select Users in a Segment → your QA segment.

3. Click Publish.
4. Log in to your production app as one of the targeted testers.
5. Navigate to a page where the Embed should appear and run through the verification checklist below.
6. When testing is complete, update the audience targeting to your intended end-user audience and republish.

While this method puts the Embed live in production, only users matching your restrictive audience see it. No end users are affected as long as your targeting conditions are correct.

What to verify during testing

After publishing to staging or internal testers, walk through these checks systematically.

Placement and appearance

• The Embed renders inline at the correct target element — not overlaying or floating.
• The placement mode (Append, Prepend, or Replace) positions the Embed as expected relative to existing content in the target element.
• Content blocks display correctly: text is readable, images load, buttons are clickable, iframes render their content. Verify layout show content as expected.
• The Embed's theme, colors, corner radius, and spacing match your product's look and feel.
• If using Fill Container, the Embed expands to the full width of the target element.
• The close button (X) appears or is hidden based on your step settings.

Page and audience targeting

• Navigate to a URL that should show the Embed — confirm it renders at the target element.
• Navigate to a URL that should not show the Embed — confirm it's absent.
• If possible, log in as a user who does not match the audience targeting and confirm the Embed doesn't appear.
• Click Test URL targeting on the settings page and enter test URLs to confirm your rules match.
• Click Check eligibility and enter a user ID to verify targeting conditions.

Trigger and frequency

• If the trigger is set to "When the user reaches the page," confirm the Embed appears on page load without any additional action.
• If the trigger is set to "When an event occurs," fire the event and confirm the Embed appears.
• If frequency is set to "Show once," view the Embed, then reload the page and confirm it doesn't reappear.
• If frequency is set to "Show every time," reload the page and confirm the Embed reappears on each load.

Dismiss behavior

• If Show close button is enabled, click the X and confirm the Embed disappears.
• If Dismiss permanently is enabled, close the Embed, reload the page, and confirm it doesn't reappear.
• If Dismiss permanently is disabled, close the Embed, reload the page, and confirm it reappears.

Multi-step behavior

• If the Embed has multiple steps, walk through each step and confirm navigation works correctly.
• Verify that content on each step displays as configured.

Reset your profile for repeated testing

After dismissing an Embed during testing, you may need to reset your user state to test again — especially if Dismiss permanently is enabled or frequency is set to "Show once."

1. Go to the Users page in Studio.
2. Search for your test user.
3. Open the user's profile and click Reset User Profile.

This resets all Flows, experiences, and tracked events for that user. The next time the user loads a page with Appcues installed, their profile is recreated in an empty state.

This resets everything for the user — not just the Embed you're testing. All Flow history, event history, and experience interactions are cleared. If you're testing alongside other live experiences, be aware they'll also reset.

4. Return to your app and reload the page. The Embed should appear as if the user is seeing it for the first time.
5. Walk through your test cases again.

If something isn't working during testing

• Embed doesn't appear after publishing. Open the Appcues debugger and verify all installation checks pass. The most common causes are a domain mismatch (published to staging but testing on production, or vice versa) or an audience condition your test user doesn't meet. Use Check eligibility on the settings page to diagnose.
• Embed doesn't render but targeting is correct. The target element may not exist on the page when the Embed tries to render. If the element is loaded dynamically by JavaScript, the Appcues SDK may not detect it in time. Check with your developer whether the element is in the initial DOM or loaded asynchronously.
• Embed overlaps or breaks the page layout. Check the placement mode. Replace removes existing content inside the target element, which may cause layout shifts. Try Append or Prepend instead. Also check the step height and Fill Container settings — an oversized Embed can push surrounding content out of position.
• Embed doesn't reappear after reset. Make sure you reloaded the page after resetting the user profile. The reset takes effect on the next Appcues.identify() call, which typically fires on page load. If it still doesn't appear, check that the user's refreshed profile still matches the audience targeting — the reset clears properties, so property-based conditions may no longer match until properties are re-sent.

If it's still not working, collect:

• Embed ID (from the URL on the settings page)
• User ID of the test user
• The URL where you're testing
• Screenshot of the Embed's CSS selector and placement settings
• Screenshot of the debugger showing installation status

Then contact Appcues support.