Campaign Types
Cheetah Digital supports three different Campaign types, as described below in more detail.
Note: Not all of these Campaign types are utilized in every marketing Channel.
Regular one-time
Generally speaking, this Campaign type will deploy all messages to a fixed set of recipients, as indicated by the Campaign's audience Filter. This Filter will target the recipients who should receive this Campaign message. When all of the messages have been deployed to the Campaign's audience, the Campaign is considered "done."
Date-triggered
This Campaign type is sometimes referred to as "Date-driven" or "Recurring." Once launched, a Date-triggered Campaign will deploy messages on a regularly scheduled basis, using recipient date-related data or activity date-related data. A Campaign may be Date-triggered if it's required to evaluate recipients at a set point in time to determine if they qualify. The platform will then deploy the Campaign message to the qualifying recipients according to a recurring scheduled date / time. Date-triggered Campaigns use a Filter to determine the Campaign audience, just like with a Regular One-time Campaign. The key difference is that a Regular One-time Campaign evaluates the Filter once, then deploys messages to all the recipients in the Filter's result set. Conversely, a Date-triggered Campaign evaluates the Filter on a recurring schedule, and deploys to the recipients in the Filter's result set at that point in time.
Date-triggered Campaigns can run indefinitely, or be configured with a specified end-date.
Examples of Date-triggered Campaigns that use recipient date-related data might include birthday or anniversary promotions. You could set up a Date-triggered Campaign that runs the first of every month, evaluates your customer base to identify customers that have a birthday or anniversary during that calendar month, then deploy a special promotion to those individuals.
An example of a Date-triggered Campaign that uses activity date-related data might include sending the second Campaign in a "Welcome" series exactly five days after the first Campaign was deployed.
Event-triggered
An Event-triggered Campaign is deployed to recipients based on some specified action occurring. This action could be caused by a consumer (such as opening an email, or submitting a Web Form), or it could be caused by a user (such as a File Import). When the triggering action is identified by Cheetah Digital, the platform automatically deploys the message in near-real-time. Unlike Date-triggered Campaigns, Event-triggered Campaigns don't have a specified recurring deployment time or schedule. Instead, they deploy to qualifying recipients after the triggering action is identified.
Cheetah Digital supports the following trigger types:
- Any Entity Update
- API Post
- Campaign Read
- Email Bounce
- Email Submission
- Facebook Like
- File Import
- Form Submission
- Link Click
- Mobile (SMS) Response
- Open HTML
- Advanced Event Trigger
- Sent a Campaign
- Share-to-Social
- Unsubscribe
- Web Event
For an Event-triggered Campaign, you don't have to select an audience Filter, as the event itself defines who the recipients are; the default audience for an Event-triggered Campaign is "all triggered records." Optionally, however, you can select a Filter if you need to apply additional restrictions to identify and select only a sub-set of the triggered records.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: If I have a file import that contains information needed to execute my Campaign, do I have to use an Event-triggered Campaign with "File Import" as the trigger type?
No. In this scenario, you could use either a Date-triggered or an Event-triggered Campaign. However, it's important to understand the implications to using either type, in order to select the type that best meets your business requirements and marketing strategy.
If you use an Event-triggered Campaign, with a "File Import" as the trigger type, the Campaign will deploy immediately after the designated file import has loaded to the database. Variations in the time the file arrives will change the deployment time of the Campaign. For example, if the file finishes processing at 10:26 AM today and at 12:35 PM tomorrow, the recipients would receive the Campaign message at differing times, which may not be desirable. Reporting on metrics, such as open rate fluctuations, might be more challenging to analyze.
To use a Date-triggered Campaign, you would need to create an audience Filter that's configured to look for the designated file import into a particular folder within a defined period of time. This method would allow for a more consistent recurring deployment time. For example, the audience Filter criteria could look for a given import file into a specified folder ‘Today.’ With a recurring send schedule of 5:00 PM EST, it wouldn’t matter what time today's file was loaded; the deployment would still occur at 5:00 PM.
Question: For Event-triggered Campaigns, what options do I have if I need to send the message as close to real-time as possible?
If you need to deploy an Event-triggered Campaign as quickly as possible, your best options are to use either the Advanced Event Trigger API endpoint, or the Email Campaign Trigger API endpoint. Both of these endpoints will deploy the Campaign message prior to loading data into the database. This approach significantly improves deployment time, since the message doesn't need to wait in line for the database update to occur. Because these endpoints don't pull data from the database to build the Campaign content, all of the necessary content must be contained within the payload of the API request message.
The main difference between these two endpoints is the type and amount of data that needs to be included within the message. The Email Campaign Trigger endpoint is designed for smaller flat structures where you're providing a handful of fields necessary to build the message content, and the content can be personalized without any additional logic. A common use case is a password reset message. Advanced Event Trigger (AET), on the other hand, allows for the use of relational data, so you're able to provide many different records across different tables. A common use case for AET is an order confirmation, where you pass a Customer record, the adjoining Order record, and potentially one or more Order Item records.
A second difference between the two endpoints is that the Email Campaign Trigger sends the API response message back to you immediately after authentication, so any errors that occur after that point are not accounted for in this response message. AET, on the other hand, sends the API response message back to you after the Campaign deploys, which provides more accurate error-handling.
Question: Can I queue my Campaign before I deploy it?
Yes. Cheetah Digital provides a few different options for queueing up Campaigns prior to deployment. When a Campaign is launched, it goes through two separate and distinct phases: message creation (which consists of message list creation, content calculation, and personalization) and message deployment. Message creation is when the messages are actually generated. Message deployment is when the generated messages are transmitted from the platform to the consumer.
By default, Cheetah Digital will begin the message creation process immediately after the Campaign is launched. However, there may be a situation where this message creation process needs to be delayed to some later date and time. For example, you may need to wait until additional data is loaded to the platform, or to allow time for additional changes to the message content. Or, perhaps you want to load records all week in preparation for a special promotion that begins on the weekend.
In these cases, you can create a custom message creation schedule (sometimes referred to as an "Advanced Queue Schedule"). When the Campaign is launched, the messages will not be created until this scheduled date and time.
In regards to deployment, by default, Cheetah Digital will begin the message deployment process immediately after the Campaign has launched and the message creation process is completed. However, you can optionally define a custom message deployment schedule. The platform will create the messages, but not actually deploy them until the scheduled date / time.
Optionally, you can use either, or both, of the above scheduling options, depending on your marketing strategy.
For example, let's say you want your email messages to be pushed to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) at exactly 9:00 AM on November 9, and you have one million recipients in the Campaign's audience. You could set a message creation schedule to execute at 7:00 AM that morning, which would run the message list creation, content calculation, and Personalization steps. You could then set the message deployment schedule to execute at 9:00 AM. Because these recipients have already gone through all the message creation steps, the platform would start pushing emails to deliver to the ISPs at exactly 9:00 AM with no delay.
Conversely, let's say you didn't set a message creation schedule, and instead set only the message deployment schedule for 9:00 AM. In this scenario, the platform would begin the message creation process at 9:00 AM. For one million recipients, the platform would need some time to finish that process. Then, at some point after 9:00 AM, the platform would push the emails to the ISPs.
For more details, please see Campaign Scheduling.
Question: Can I add ‘inclusion’ logic to an Event-triggered Campaign? That is, can I deploy a message to a recipient who wasn't part of the triggering event?
No. With an Event-triggered Campaign, the recipient must be part of the triggering event (Form Submission, File Import, etc.). You can't apply "inclusion" logic to pull in other unrelated recipients.
However, you can optionally apply "exclusion" logic to remove recipients that you don't want to send messages to.
Question: I have setup an SMS Keyword Group to handle consumer opt-ins to receive mobile offers. What type of Campaign type do I need to setup?
You would need to set up an Event-triggered Campaign with a trigger type of "Mobile (SMS) Response." Then, when configuring that trigger type, select your Short Code and your Keyword Group. For more information, please see SMS Text Channel Setup: Opt-In Welcome Campaign.
Question: Does Cheetah Digital support "Operational" or "Transactional" Campaigns?
Many clients are familiar with the term "Transactional" Campaign to describe any Campaign that needs to deploy in real-time, or as soon as possible, as a result of some qualifying action occurring. In Cheetah Digital terminology, a "Transactional" campaign is analogous to an Event-triggered Campaign.
"Operational" Campaigns have to do with the content of the message, rather than the method used to deploy the Campaign. Within any of the three Campaign types (Regular One-off, Date-triggered, or Event-triggered), a Campaign can be deemed to be "operational" or "promotional."
An "operational" Campaign in Cheetah Digital terminology would refer to the condition that an unsubscribe link is not required to be included in the message, as it meets the definitions of "transactional or relationship content," as defined by CAN-SPAM.
Conversely, a "promotional" Campaign in Cheetah Digital terminology refers to the condition that an unsubscribe link is required to be included in the message, as it meets the definition of "commercial content," as defined by CAN-SPAM.
