Overview:: Description of Interactions triggers and nodes – Emarsys

This article lists all the triggers, Channel and Action nodes available in the Interactions.

Triggers

Web Extend event

By using this trigger, you can respond to your customers' behavior observed on your website.

You can choose from one of the following Web Extend events that will trigger your program by double-clicking the Web Extend event trigger node:

Purchased event,
Viewed product page event,
Viewed category list event,
Updated cart event.

Only logged-in contacts can trigger Interactions programs starting with the Web Extend event trigger.

Mobile event

By using this trigger, you can respond to your customers' behavior observed in your mobile applications. As a prerequisite, you need to have an up-and-running Mobile Engage implementation.

You can select a resource by double-clicking the Mobile event trigger node.

If you have multiple apps using the same event, then that event will be listed in this node only once and it will trigger the program regardless of which app it was coming from.
Unidentified contacts can also trigger Interactions programs starting with the Mobile event trigger. Although Emarsys stores data related to these contacts; however, data associated with unidentified contacts will not be merged even if a contact becomes identified.

Product catalog updates

For more information, see Interactions - Product catalog updates trigger.

External event

By using this trigger, you can respond to your custom API events.

You can select a resource by double-clicking the External event trigger node.

Channel nodes

CRM Ads

To use the CRM Ads channel, CRM Ads needs to be activated on your account.
There is a 1-hour delay before the audience is synchronized between Interactions and CRM Ads to make sure that Emarsys is aligned with certain limitations (e.g. according to a Facebook requirement, the audience should contain a minimum of 1000 contacts).
You can add multiple CRM Ads - add and remove nodes to a program depending on the specific use case (e.g. you would like to remove contacts from the CRM Ads audience after a Wait for a purchase event to reduce the costs of the ad). It is also possible to have a single CRM Ads - add and multiple remove nodes in a program if the CRM Ads - remove nodes use the same asset within the journey.

CRM Ads - add

This node adds contacts who pass through it to the selected CRM Ads audience.

You can select only CRM Ads campaigns if their asset type is Automation Center Audience.

CRM Ads - remove

This node removes contacts who pass through it from the selected CRM Ads audience.

You can select only CRM Ads campaigns if their asset type is Automation Center Audience.

Send email

In the Send email node, you can select an email that will be sent to contacts as soon as they arrive at the node.

Please consider the following when using Send email nodes:

Interactions uses Triggered Email mail streams to send messages to your contacts.
Triggered Email ignores the opt-in status of the contacts it sends to. If you would like to send emails to only those contacts whose opt-in status is TRUE, place a Decision node using the type Included in segment before the Send email node and set it accordingly.
To avoid reducing the efficiency of email deliverability, we recommend adding the Email valid Equal yes contact criteria to your segment used by the Decision node before the Send email node.
You can only activate your program if the selected Triggered Email mail stream is activated and if its Trigger source is Interactions event.
You can use the same Triggered Email mail stream in multiple programs or multiple times in the same program.

After selecting a Triggered Email mail stream, you can switch to the email editor by clicking the Edit Campaign button.

Mobile Engage push message

You will see this node if you are using the Mobile Engage channel. If you double-click this node, then you can select a push message which will be sent to contacts as soon as they arrive at this node.

You can select only Mobile Engage campaigns using the Automation Center recipient source in this node.

After selecting a Mobile Engage push campaign, you can switch to the push campaign editor by clicking the Edit Campaign button.

Send SMS

You will see this node if you are using the SMS channel. If you double-click this node, you can select an SMS campaign that will be sent to contacts as soon as they arrive at this node.

You can select only SMS campaigns with the Using an Automation Center program recipient source in this node.

Web Channel

To use the Web Channel - add and remove nodes, Web Channel has to be activated on your account.
To use a Web Channel campaign in Interactions, select the Interactions recipient source.

Limitations:

Personalization does not work for Interactions Web Channel campaigns.
The status of Interactions programs and Web Channel campaigns are handled independently of each other. Therefore, it could happen that you have an active Interactions program with an inactive Web Channel campaign.
If a contact enters an audience consecutively before it is removed first (i.e. the contact is still at the Wait node), then it can happen that it will be removed prematurely once it reaches the Web Channel - remove node. For example:
- 17.00.01 - Viewed product page event
- 17.05.00 - Viewed product page event
- In this case, the second event will be added to the audience around 17.05.00 and the first event will be removed from the audience at 17.05.01. So, the second event will be removed from the audience at the same time as the first one.

You can react to the behavior of your website visitors by using the Web Channel - add and remove nodes.

Web Channel - add

This node adds contacts passing through it to the selected Web Channel campaign.

Web Channel - remove

This node removes contacts passing through it from the selected Web Channel campaign.

Mobile in-app

The Mobile in-app channel is in Pilot phase. To use the Mobile in-app channel, you need to have the new Mobile Engage SDK version. For more information, please contact your Client Success Manager.

You can react to certain behavioral patterns within your mobile application or share important moments with your customers by using the Mobile in-app channel. To mention a few examples, you can encourage your contacts to sign up for the trial period, congratulate them for their achievements, motivate them to push their limits, provide them with information that is relevant to their progress or ask for their opinion.

To use a mobile In-App campaign in Interactions, select the Audience recipient source.
The Display When scheduling settings of your In-App campaign determine when the campaign will be shown to your contacts.
When configuring the Frequency settings of your In-App campaign, please consider that these settings can stop an In-App campaign being shown to your contacts even if the campaign is part of an Interactions program.

If your In-App campaign's audience is a segment and a contact within the Interactions program reaches the Mobile in-app - add node, then this contact will be added to the audience even if they were not included in the original segment.

Mobile in-app – add

This node adds contacts who pass through it to the selected in-app campaign.

You can select only in-app messages that are activated and use the Audience recipient source.

Mobile in-app – remove

This node removes contacts who pass through it from the selected in-app campaign.

You can select only in-app messages that are activated and use the Audience recipient source.

Action nodes

Decision

By using this node, you can define conditions determining whether contacts will proceed along or will be excluded from your program.

You can configure the following settings in this node:

Name - The name of the action taken by this node.

We recommend giving descriptive names to your programs.

Type - The decision will be made based on the selected type. The available fields and parameters depend on the chosen type. The following types are available:

Type - Messages not sent

By using this type, you can determine how contacts will proceed along your program based on messages that have not been sent to them.

The following fields are available:

Channel - The message was sent through the selected channel. You can choose from the following options:

◦ Email

◦ Push

◦ SMS

Message(s) - The message that was not sent to the contact. You can select a single or multiple messages.

You can also select messages used in the current or other Interactions and Automation Center programs. Although you can select campaigns used in recurring Automation Center programs, Interactions cannot check whether or not those messages have already been sent.

Timeframe - The selected messages were not sent to contacts during the selected time period. You can choose from the following options:

◦ In the last - The message was not sent to contacts in the last x days, hours or minutes.

If you set the Timeframe to In the last 1 day(s), then only those contacts can pass through this node to whom the selected messages were not sent in the last 24 hours.

◦ Between - The message was not sent to contacts between the specified interval.

◦ Since the trigger - The message was not sent to contacts since they have entered this program.

The Timeframe is limited to the last 90 days.

Type - Event happened

The Event happened Type is available for: Essential Advanced Max AI

By using this type, you can determine how your contacts will proceed along your program based on their past behavior.

The following fields are available:

Event - Here you can:

Select the source of the event,
Select an event,

You can select only one event.
To check the last 20 Mobile Engage events received, click the SDK Events icon next to the specific app on the Mobile Engage menu > Apps tab. You can see the attribute names in the Request column.

Add attribute filter - Your contacts will be filtered based on the selected attributes. To add attribute filters, click this button. Here you can specify the following values:

Due to technical limitations, you cannot add attribute filters if you have selected the Web Extend event source.

You can add a maximum of 20 attribute filters.
When you are adding multiple attributes, they are linked by the AND operator.

◦ Attribute name

If you have selected a Mobile event, please always add the prefix event_attributes. to the attribute's name, otherwise the specified attribute will be invalid. For example, event_attributes.yourCustomAttribute.
If you have selected a Mobile event and would like to filter contacts based on the time when an event happened, then use the event_timestamp attribute.
If you would like to personalize the content with details of your event, then enclose them as follows:
- {{ event.yourCustomAttribute }}, for example, {{ event.destination_city }}
- For campaigns using Mobile events, use the format {{ event.event_attributes.yourCustomAttribute }}, for example, {{ event.event_attributes.distance }}
If you would like to send timestamp attributes to your custom Mobile or External events, then please consider that we use the ISO 8601 date format.
All the available attributes of the selected event are listed in the drop-down if you click the attribute_name field. You can enter attributes that you would like to use in the future manually.

◦ Operator

The recommended operators are automatically detected based on the attribute type. All the recommended operators that belong to the detected attribute types are listed if you click the Operator field. If you have entered an attribute manually, then all operators are listed in the drop-down.

The following examples show you how some of the operators work:

between 1 and 5 - includes the values 1 and 5 as well,
at most 10 - includes values that are smaller than or equal to 10,
at least 5 - includes values that are greater than or equal to 5.
is one of the following (text)/is not one of the following (text) - the defined values should exactly match the values contained by the incoming events, as the underlying text operator is "equal" (i.e. the received value should be identical with the defined value) and not "contains". The listed values are linked by the OR operator. For example, if you expect to receive events with the attribute weather that could contain the attribute values heavy rains and mostly sunny, then the values specified in the Decision node have to be identical with those values. If you specify the values rain or sunny in the Decision node, then the incoming attribute values heavy rains or mostly sunny will not fulfil the conditions set by this node and as a result, this decision will not be taken as expected.

◦ Value

Values are case sensitive. Make sure that the required values are entered case-sensitively, otherwise those will not be recognized by the system.

In the following example, we would like to filter for contacts who ran between 10-20 km in rain. Therefore, we have added the following attributes:

Operation - Here you can choose from the following options:

Count events - The event should occur as many times as specified.

The upper limit of the event counter is 20.

Sum of event attribute values - The sum of values related to the specific event attribute collected during the given Timeframe.

If you have selected a Mobile event, please always add the prefix event_attributes. to the attribute's name, otherwise the specified attribute will be invalid.

Timeframe - The selected event occurred during the selected time period. You can specify the Timeframe by using the following options:

In the last - the event happened in the last x days, hours or minutes.
Between - the event happened between the specified interval.
Since the trigger - the event happened since contacts have entered this program.

The Timeframe is limited to the last 90 days.

Type - Event did not happen

The Event did not happen Type is available for: Essential Advanced Max AI

By using this type, you can determine how your contacts will proceed along your program based on events that did not happen to them.

The following fields are available:

Event - Here you can:

Select the source of the event,
Select a single or multiple events,

To check the last 20 Mobile Engage events received, click the SDK Events icon next to the specific app on the Mobile Engage menu > Apps tab. You can see the attribute names in the Request column.

Add attribute filter - Your contacts will be filtered based on the selected attributes. To add attribute filters, click this button. Here you can specify the following values:

Due to technical limitations, you cannot add attribute filters if you have selected the Web Extend event source.

The Add attribute filter button is available only if you have added a single event.
You can add a maximum of 20 attribute filters.
When you are adding multiple attributes, they are linked by the AND operator.

◦ Attribute name

If you have selected a Mobile event, please always add the prefix event_attributes. to the attribute's name, otherwise the specified attribute will be invalid. For example, event_attributes.yourCustomAttribute.
If you have selected a Mobile event and would like to filter contacts based on the time when the event happened, then use the event_timestamp attribute filter.
If you would like to personalize the content with details of your event, then enclose them as follows:
- {{ event.yourCustomAttribute }}, for example, {{ event.destination_city }}
- For campaigns using mobile events, use the format {{ event.event_attributes.yourCustomAttribute }}, for example, {{ event.event_attributes.distance }}
If you would like to send timestamp attributes to your custom Mobile or External events, then please consider that we use the ISO 8601 date format.
All the available attributes of the selected event are listed in the drop-down if you click the attribute_name field. You can enter attributes that you would like to use in the future manually.

◦ Operator

he following examples show you how some of the operators work:

between 1 and 5 - includes the values 1 and 5 as well,
at most 10 - includes values that are smaller than or equal to 10,
at least 5 - includes values that are greater than or equal to 5.
is one of the following (text)/is not one of the following (text) - the defined values should exactly match the values contained by the incoming events, as the underlying text operator is "equal" (i.e. the received value should be identical with the defined value) and not "contains". The listed values are linked by the OR operator. For example, if you expect to receive events with the attribute weather that could contain the attribute values heavy rains and mostly sunny, then the values specified in the Decision node have to be identical with those values. If you specify the values rain or sunny in the Decision node, then the incoming attribute values heavy rains or mostly sunny will not fulfil the conditions set by this node and as a result, this decision will not be taken as expected.

◦ Value

Values are case sensitive. Make sure that the required values are entered case-sensitively, otherwise those will not be recognized by the system.

Timeframe - The selected event did not occur during the selected time period. You can specify the Timeframe by using the following options:

In the last - the event did not happen in the last x days, hours or minutes.
Between - the event did not happen between the specified interval.
Since the trigger - the event has not happened since contacts have entered this program.

The Timeframe is limited to the last 90 days.

Type - Trigger attributes

By using this type, you can determine how your contacts will proceed along your program based on the content and details of the trigger event.

Here you can specify the following values:

Attribute(s) - Your contacts will be filtered based on the selected attributes. To add attributes, click the Add another attribute button.

If you have selected a Mobile event, please always add the prefix event_attributes. to the attribute's name, otherwise the specified attribute will be invalid. For example, event_attributes.yourCustomAttribute.
If you have selected a Mobile event and would like to filter contacts based on the time when the event happened, then use the event_timestamp attribute filter.
If you would like to personalize the content with details of your event, then enclose them as follows:
- {{ event.yourCustomAttribute }}, for example, {{ event.destination_city }}
- For campaigns using mobile events, use the format {{ event.event_attributes.yourCustomAttribute }}, for example, {{ event.event_attributes.distance }}
If you would like to send timestamp attributes to your custom Mobile or External events, then please consider that we use the ISO 8601 date format.
You can add a maximum of 20 attribute filters.
When you are adding multiple attributes, they are linked by the AND operator.
The available attributes of the selected Trigger event are listed in the drop-down if you click the attribute_name field. You can enter attributes that you would like to use in the future manually.

Operator

The following examples show you how some of the operators work:

between 1 and 5 - includes the values 1 and 5 as well,
at most 10 - includes values that are smaller than or equal to 10,
at least 5 - includes values that are greater than or equal to 5.
is one of the following (text)/is not one of the following (text) - the defined values should exactly match the values contained by the incoming events, as the underlying text operator is "equal" (i.e. the received value should be identical with the defined value) and not "contains". The listed values are linked by the OR operator. For example, if you expect to receive events with the attribute weather that could contain the attribute values heavy rains and mostly sunny, then the values specified in the Decision node have to be identical with those values. If you specify the values rain or sunny in the Decision node, then the incoming attribute values heavy rains or mostly sunny will not fulfil the conditions set by this node and as a result, this decision will not be taken as expected.

Value

Values are case sensitive. Make sure that the required values are entered case-sensitively, otherwise those will not be recognized by the system.

In the following example, the Decision node will filter for those contacts who:

ran a maximum of 10 kilometers in rain,
between 1 and 4 days ago.

Those contacts who do not meet these criteria will be excluded from the program.

Type - Included in segment

You can filter contacts based on whether they are part of a segment or not.

Please consider the following when using the type Incuded in segment:

You can select only segments that contain exclusively Contact criteria.
Contact criteria segments used in Interactions programs ignore contact list-based source lists. If you select a contact list as the source list for a contact criteria segment, then the returned results will be based on All users regardless of the chosen source list.
To check whether your segment can be used in Interactions programs, open your segment by clicking the Edit button on the Contacts menu > Segments page and check the message displayed on the bottom of this page. You can select a segment if you see this message: "This segment is ready for use in Interactions programs."

After selecting a segment, you can edit it by clicking the Edit Segment button.

Decision splitter

By using this node, you can split your program into separate paths that provide contacts with different types of treatment. Contacts will progress along the Yes or No path of your program based on whether or not they fulfill the criteria set in the Decision splitter node.

Please consider the following:

If contacts’ attributes contain invalid or empty values, or data that does not meet the criteria set in the Decision split node, then these contacts will proceed along the No path of your program instead of being excluded from it. For example, if the criteria set in the Decision split node contain the attribute event_attributes.distance at least 6, then those contacts whose attribute values are invalid, empty or less than or equal to 5 will proceed along the No path of the program. To exclude contacts with empty attribute values from your program, use the
On the Program Summary page, those contacts who proceeded along the No path of the program because their attribute values were invalid or empty or contained data that did not meet the criteria set in the Decision split node will be counted as Continued.

To exclude contacts with empty attribute values from your program, use the operator is not empty when adding attributes.

You can configure the following settings in this node:

Name - The name of the action taken by this node.

We recommend giving descriptive names to your Decision and Decision splitter nodes.

Type - The decision will be made based on the selected type. The available fields and parameters depend on the chosen type. The following types are available:

A/B test

You can split a program into separate paths and experiment with differently scheduled Wait nodes, various contents or targeting by using this node.

How does it work?

Contacts are randomly assigned to each path according to the percentage value you set. Distribution takes place on a per node basis and is based on the unique identifier of contacts, which means that all events belonging to a single contact will follow the same path when they arrive at the A/B test node.

You can change the percentage value after you have activated the program but you cannot add or remove branches.

To prevent further contacts from entering a path, reduce the percentage value to 0.

Wait for event

You can schedule this node to wait for an event to occur within the specified timeframe and split your program into separate paths based on that. Those contacts who fulfilled the conditions will proceed along one path and those who do not meet the criteria will continue their journey on another one.

The following fields are available:

Event to wait for - Here you can:
- Select the source of the event and
- Select an event.

The selected event does not affect the original trigger event of your program. You can only use the original trigger event to define conditions applied by Decision or Decision splitter nodes using the type Trigger attributes and personalize content with the original trigger event's details.

Timeout - The node will wait for the specific event to occur within the specified timeframe.

A contact will progress along the Yes path immediately when the selected event occurs, otherwise they will continue their journey on the timeout path after the specified time limit.

For example, the Wait for event node comes in handy when you sent a special offer to your customers that is valid only for 48 hours and after 36 hours you would like to send a reminder for those contacts who have not purchased anything yet. In this case, we have set the Wait for event node to wait for the Purchased Web Extend event for 36 hours. As a result, customers who triggered the Purchased event will continue their journey immediately on the Yes path, and contacts who did not trigger this event will progress along the timeout path after 36 hours. We can send them a reminder that the offer will expire by adding a Mobile Engage push message node to the timeout path.

Wait

When using the Wait node, you can specify the delay in seconds, minutes or hours before the next step is taken in the program.

Participation check

This node checks whether or not contacts are eligible to continue their journey in your program. Those contacts who fulfill the defined criteria will proceed along the Yes path, those who do not meet the conditions will be directed to the No path.

We recommend inserting the Participation check node right before your channel nodes (i.e. a Send email, Mobile Engage push message, Send SMS, Mobile in-app - add, custom node etc.)

Typical use cases

Refer-a-friend campaign

For example, you can use the Participation check node if you have a refer-a-friend campaign in which you would like to offer a more valuable incentive after the first friend of a contact joins the campaign and a less valuable incentive after another friend of the same contact joins the campaign.

Such a program would look like as follows:

In the example above, the Frequency of the Participation check node is set to Only once ever. As a result, the contact can only proceed along the Yes path when the event happens for the first time and this contact receives the 40% discount only once. Each time the contact triggers the same event again, the contact will be directed to the No branch and will receive the 20% discount.

Sending post-purchase vouchers

The Participation check node may come in handy if, for example, you have a delivery update program and you would like to send a voucher based on the value of the order with varying frequency after the purchased product is shipped.

Such a program would look like as follows:

In the example above, the Decision splitter node checks if the value of the order made by the customers is above or below 80€ and the Participation check node ensures that:

Those contacts whose order exceeds that value will receive a 20€ voucher only once in every 2 months.
Those contacts whose order value is below 80 will receive a 10€ voucher only once in every 3 months.

Using the same Participation check node settings in a single program

If you have a promotion that you would like to show your contacts who finished their workout under different circumstances, then you can use the same Participation check node settings within the same program. For example, let’s imagine that you would like to:

Use the same trigger event in both cases but a different campaign will be displayed depending on the attributes.
Advertise different products depending on the temperature for contacts:
- Who ran when the temperature was above 25 °C.
- Who ran when the temperature was below 10 °C.
Display the campaign every 30 days regardless of the temperature.

Such a program would look like as follows:

This is how the Participation check node would look like:

Using the same Participation check node settings in multiple programs

You can use the same Participation check node settings in multiple programs in the following cases:

Abandoned use cases: You can use the same Participation check settings in multiple programs to make sure that a contact receives only one abandoned campaign a week to avoid marketing fatigue or unsubscription. In this case, you can insert the same Participation check node (called Abandoned use cases in the example below) before the channel nodes in your abandoned browse, abandoned cart and abandoned checkout page campaigns. This is how such a Participation check node looks like:

Sending a valuable voucher once in a month: You can use the same Participation check settings referring to the same limited audience in multiple programs to make sure that a contact can only receive one valuable voucher once in every 30 days.
Back in stock and price drop campaigns: You can use the same Participation check settings in multiple programs to make sure that your contacts only receive either the back in stock or price drop campaign a week.

Configuring the Participation check node

Here you can see the following options:

Frequency: You can define how often customers can proceed along your program. You can choose from the following options:

You can use multiple Participation check nodes with different Frequency settings in the same program.

◦ Only once ever - Contacts will be able to proceed along the Yes path of your program only once.

◦ If the following time has passed since this contact last proceeded along the Yes path - Contacts can proceed along the Yes path of your program again after the specified time period.

If contacts reach the Participation check node again before the specified time period, the node will direct them to the No branch.
The timeframe is limited to a maximum of 13 months.

Make this check available in other programs - You can save your Participation check settings and the audience referred to by this node to make them available in other programs or you can use an already existing configuration. You can choose from the following options:

◦ To create a new Participation check, proceed as follows:

1. Switch the Make this check available in other programs toggle and select Create new from the drop-down.

2. Give it a name, then click OK.

◦ To use an already existing Participation check configuration, proceed as follows:

1. Switch the Make this check available in other programs toggle and select an existing Participation check you would like to use from the drop-down.

If the Participation check settings are used in multiple programs, then these will be listed in the bottom of the pop-up window.
To edit the configuration of an existing Participation check node, click the Edit button next to it. If you modify the settings of a Participation check node that is used in multiple active programs, then the same changes will be applied to those programs when you click Save & Apply.

2. Once you are ready, click OK.

If you would like to copy a program to change its structure but you would like to keep your restricted audience, then we recommend following the instructions below:

Save the Participation check settings used in your outdated program.
Create a new version of your program and use the saved Participation check settings.
Activate the new program.
Deactivate the outdated program.

Editing the Participation check node in active programs

You can only edit the Participation check node in active programs if you have previously activated the Make this check available in other programs switch. Otherwise, you can only edit the Participation check node after freezing your program.

You can modify the following settings in the Participation check node:

You can change the Frequency from If the following time has passed since this contact last proceeded along the Yes path to Only once ever. In this case, the Interactions program stores the timestamp when the contact passed through the Yes branch the last time, so those contacts who have already proceeded along the Yes path cannot pass it through again if you set the Frequency to Only once ever.
You can change the Frequency from Only once ever to If the following time has passed since this contact last proceeded along the Yes path. In this case, the Interactions program compares the current timestamp to the one that was saved when the contact passed through the Yes branch the last time (while the Frequency was set to Only once ever).

If, for example, a contact proceeded along the Yes path on July 4 when the Frequency was set to Only once ever, and you set it to If the following time has passed since this contact last proceeded along the Yes path after 7 days, then:

◦ A contact who proceeded along the Yes branch on July 4 can pass it through again on July 11.

◦ A contact who passed through the Yes branch on July 19, can only proceed along that path again on July 26.

Finish node

The Finish node is added to the last nodes automatically, so you don't have to add it to your program manually.