Sequence triggers

Configuring a sequence trigger

You configure triggers in the Journey MapA visualization of messaging components that can be connected to create a continuous user experience. You can also create and edit from the map. . Select a sequence, then you can add, edit, or remove triggers.

If a sequence does not have a trigger configured:

1. Click its trigger card.
2. Click  .
3. Select and configure a trigger.
4. (Optional) Under Conditions, build a SegmentA grouping of audience members selected by unique or shared identifiers. Multiple identifiers can be combined within a segment. to filter the audience members entering the sequence. Creating a segment here uses the same segmentation data and procedure as in the Segment builder. Conditions are not available for the Inactivity or Manual Entry triggers.
5. Click Save.

To add another trigger, click   below a configured trigger. Adding more triggers to an existing sequence does not require publishing changes. To delete a trigger, click its card, then click  .

You can configure up to 10 triggers unless you are using the Inactivity trigger.

You can also edit the trigger for draft and paused sequences:

1. Click a trigger card.
2. Click  .
3. Make your changes.
4. Click Save.

Triggers

Supported triggers per channel:

Custom Event

The Custom Event trigger initiates an automation or sequence when a custom event associated with members of your audience occurs. See: Custom Events.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Custom Event trigger.
2. Use the Events box to find an event, then click to select from the listed results. The search shows events that occurred in the last 30 days. If the event name you search for does not appear, click Use [search term] to use the event name as typed.
3. (Optional) Click Add Another to add more events. Airship handles multiple events as a boolean OR.
4. (Optional) Follow the Filtering Custom Events steps to add custom event filters.
5. (Optional) Set the maximum age for the events. If an event is received after it is older than a certain age, the automation or sequence will not start.
   1. Enable Event Expiration.
   2. Enter a value in minutes, hours, days, months, or years.

Filtering Custom Events

When configuring the Custom Event trigger you can filter custom events using numeric values associated with those custom events, or by key/value properties attached to the events. Filtering events this way can help you more precisely target your audience.

Example

If you have a custom event named “Purchase”, with a purchase category fedoras and a value 125.0 representing the dollar amount of the purchase, you can add these criteria to the Purchase event so that your message is only seen by users spending at least $125 on fedoras.

1. Click Add event properties for the custom event.
2. Click Add property and search for a property, or click Add event value.
3. If applicable, select the operator you want to use to evaluate the value or property.
4. Enter or select the value you want to filter for.
5. (Optional) Click   to add an alternative for a filter.
6. (Optional) Click Add property or Add event value to add more filters.
7. Select ALL/ANY to determine how to evaluate multiple filters and alternatives within each filter.
   • ALL = all criteria must be met (boolean AND)
   • ANY = any criteria must be met (boolean OR)
8. Click Save.

Filtering custom events using file upload

You can use file upload to provide multiple values to match against a specified event property’s value. For string properties only.

For example, for a point-of-sale system that emits events when a sale occurs, an event might have the following data:

name: "sale-completed"
properties:
   customer_id: 234234
   store_id: 103843
   region: "northwest-usa"

To trigger only when sales occur in the regions of northwest-usa and southwest-usa but not midwest-usa or any other region, you would do the following to filter your custom events:

1. Search for or enter the property name region.
2. Select operator File upload (is one of).
3. Upload a .txt file containing values northwest-usa and southwest-usa.

Provide your values in a line delimited .txt file. Each value must be on a separate line. 100KB maximum file size.

Date Attribute

The Date Attribute trigger initiates a sequence for your entire audience or for a specified segment based on the month and day of a date attribute. You can enter your selected audience into the sequence on the next occurrence of the actual attribute date or a number of days before or after the date. See also: See also: Segmenting your audience and AttributesMetadata that you can use for audience segmentation. Attributes differ from tags in that when evaluating users with attributes, Airship uses operators, e.g., equals, less than/greater than, contains, before/after, to determine whether or not to target a user. Supported attribute types are TEXT, NUMBER, and DATE. .

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Date Attribute trigger.
2. Select your audience: all users or a segment.
3. (Segment audience only) Search for and select a segment. You can click View segment details to confirm the audience in a new window.
4. Set when the audience should start the sequence.
5. Search for and select a date attribute.

After saving, you can click the trigger card to view the segment name and scheduled send time relative to the attribute date. Click the name to open the segment in the Segment Builder.

First Seen

The First Seen trigger initiates an automation or sequence when members of your audience opt in to notifications or open your app for the first time. The behavior of the First Seen trigger varies by channel:

• Apps: Triggers the automation or sequence when users first open your app.
• Web, SMS, and open channels: Triggers the automation or sequence when users opt in to notifications.
• Email: Triggers the automation or sequence when users opt in to commercial notifications.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the First Seen trigger. No further setup is required.

Inactivity

The Inactivity trigger initiates an automation or sequence when a member of your audience does not use your app or website for a period of time. The inactivity period begins the later of a) the creation time of the automation or sequence, or b) the last app or website activity by the user.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Inactivity trigger.
2. Enter the period of inactivity in days.

Location

The Location trigger initiates an automation or sequence based on an audience member’s device location. You can select a maximum of 20 locations per automation or sequence.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Location trigger.

2. Click Select a Location.

3. Enter a search term. Results, if any, display on the map and are listed on the Results tab. There are two types of locations available for selection: geofences and beacons.

   Click a result for a detailed view of a location.

   

   If selecting a geofence, the map will zoom to the selected location. Click and drag, and use the +/- zoom controls to change the displayed area.

   

4. On the Results tab, check the box next to the locations you want to use as the trigger.

5. Review the Selections tab, then click Save and continue.

6. (Optional) Click Select a Location to add more locations.

7. Choose whether to trigger your automation or sequence when the user enters or exits a location.

Location Attributes

The Location Attributes trigger initiates an automation or sequence based on key/value pair metadata associated with a particular location. You can add a maximum of 50 location attributes per automation or sequence.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Location Attributes trigger.

2. Enter a key/value pair for the location you want to use as the message trigger.

   

3. (Optional) Click   to add an alternative location attribute.

4. (Optional) Click Add Another to add more location attributes.

5. Select ALL/ANY to determine how to evaluate multiple location attributes and alternatives within each location attribute.

   • ALL = all criteria must be met (boolean AND)
   • ANY = any criteria must be met (boolean OR)
    Note

   By default, the automation or sequence is triggered if the audience meets ALL the location attributes. For example, if you selected ALL, with attributes half_off and has_cafe, you’d only reach users who enter or exit locations that meet both conditions. If you select ANY, you’d reach all users who enter a location running a half-off campaign as well as all users who enter a location that has a cafe.

6. Choose whether to trigger your automation or sequence when the user enters or exits a location.

Manual Entry

The Manual Entry trigger initiates a sequence for the audience members in a specified segment. See also: Segmenting your audience.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Manual Entry trigger.
2. Search for and select a segment. You can click View segment details to confirm the audience in a new window.

After saving, you can click the trigger card to view the segment name. Click the name to open the segment in the Segment Builder.

Next, you must enter the audience into the sequence before they can start receiving messages. In the journey map, locate your sequence, then:

1. Click the trigger card for the sequence.
2. Click Enter and confirm entering the audience into the sequence.
   • Enter is not available unless the sequence has been started.
   • If you enter a segment into the sequence more than once, the users may receive messages from the sequence more than once.
   • Click   on the trigger card to change the selected segment.

Predicted to Churn

The Predicted to Churn trigger initiates an automation or sequence when Airship predicts an audience member’s likelihood of becoming inactive, or churning. Predictive Churn analyzes your audience for users that exhibit behaviors indicating they are likely to become inactive, and tags the users as High, Medium, or Low Risk.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Predicted to Churn trigger.

2. Select a risk profile.

   • High risk: Users most likely to become inactive.
   • Medium risk: Users who exhibit signs of potentially becoming inactive.
   • Low risk: Users least likely to become inactive.

3. Choose whether to apply the trigger when the risk is added or removed.

Recurring Schedule

The Recurring Schedule trigger initiates a sequence for the audience members in a specified segment periodically at specified intervals. You can also set an end date for the sequence and exclusion periods. See also: Segmenting your audience.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Recurring Schedule trigger.

2. Search for and select a segment. You can click View segment details to confirm the audience in a new window.

3. Specify the delivery interval by number of hours/days/weeks/months/years. For weeks, also specify which days of the week when the sequence will be triggered.

4. Set the initial date to trigger the sequence.

5. Set the initial time and time zone to trigger the sequence.

6. (Optional) Specify when the sequence can no longer be triggered.

   1. Enable End Date.
   2. Enter a date.
   3. Set the time and time zone.

7. (Optional) Specify dates or days of the week when the sequence should not be triggered. If you select the hours interval, you can also specify which hours of the day should be excluded. If you select the weeks interval, you can only specify which dates should be excluded.

   If the scheduled date and time fall during an excluded period, Airship waits to trigger until the next available valid time. For example, if you scheduled weekly on Thursdays but added the date for Thanksgiving Day as an exclusion, the next available trigger time would be the Thursday after Thanksgiving Day.

   1. Enable Do not send.
   2. Click Add date exclusion, enter a date, and repeat for additional dates.
   3. Click Add day exclusion and select days.
   4. Click Add time exclusion and set start and end times.

After saving, you can click the trigger card to view the segment name, interval, and initial scheduled date and time (UTC). Click the name to open the segment in the Segment Builder.

Specific Date and Time

The Specific Date and Time trigger initiates a sequence for the audience members in a specified segment at a set date and time. See also: Segmenting your audience.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Specific Date and Time trigger.
2. Enter a date in YYYY-MM-DD format and select the time and time zone.
3. Search for and select a segment. You can click View segment details to confirm the audience in a new window.

After saving, you can click the trigger card to view the segment name and scheduled date and time (UTC). Click the name to open the segment in the Segment Builder.

Subscription

The Subscription trigger initiates an automation or journey when a member of your audience opts in to or out of a subscription list. Lists enabled for Auto opt-in are not available for this trigger. See: Auto opt-in.

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Subscription trigger.
2. Search for and select at least one list.
3. Specify whether to trigger when users opt in to, or opt out of, the list.

Tag Change

Configuration steps:

1. Select the Tag Change trigger.
2. Search for a tag. If the tag you search for does not appear, click Create [search term] to create a new tag. You can select a tag group filter before or after searching.
3. (Optional) Click Add Another to add more tags. Airship handles multiple tags as a Boolean OR.
4. Choose whether to apply the trigger when a tag is added or removed.

Trigger options

1. Go to Journeys and select a sequence.
2. Click  .
3. Click Settings in the header.
4. Select the Trigger tab.
5. Configure one or more of the trigger options described below.
6. Click Next, then Save & Continue.

You will return to the Sequence ManagerA preview of the messages in a sequence, with options for editing and testing, and for running experiments. . You can start adding messages, or click Exit   » Save and exit to return to the map.

Automatic start and stop dates

Start and end dates define the times during which an automation or sequence can deliver messages to your audience.

1. Enable the Start Date and/or End Date options.
2. Click the date field and either use the date picker, or enter a date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
3. Select the time and time zone.

Frequency limits: Ignore Channel Message Limits

Enable this option to override the project-level Message LimitsLimits that cap the number of messages you can send within a specified time frame, preventing you from over-messaging your users. They are set at the project level. , ensuring that your audience will receive your message even if they’ve reached the message limit. Overriding message limits does not override Rule limits (see below).

Frequency limits: Rule Limits

Rule limits cap the number of times a named user can trigger a sequence, preventing you from over-messaging your audience, e.g., a maximum of 1 per day. Rule limits are set per sequence and apply at the named user level. Rule Limits appears in the Options section after you select your trigger.

Click Add a daily limit and/or Add an all-time limit and enter the maximum number of times a named user can trigger the sequence.