About delayed actions

How it works

A delayed action is a connector action that is delayed based on a set of conditions or time criteria.

Delayed actions are configured in an AudienceStream connector when the trigger is set to In Audience at the end of visit, as shown in the following example:

To learn more about audience connectors and the trigger setting, see Add a Connector.

There are two types of delayed actions:

• Scheduled - Scheduled delayed actions trigger at a later date if a scheduled condition is met.
• Triggered - Delayed actions trigger based on conditions met at a later time.

A delayed action is scheduled only if the visitor is in the audience at the end of current visit and the delayed action is triggered only if the visitor is still in the audience at the scheduled time.

Visit attributes not supported

Delayed actions only work on audiences with conditions that use visitor scoped attributes and can only send visitor attribute data. Visit attributes are not supported because they are out of scope when the delayed action fires. Delayed actions recheck audience conditions at the time of triggering, but if the audience condition includes visit attributes, the delayed action does not trigger because these attributes are out of scope. To avoid this, configure the audience condition using visitor attributes.

DELAY Action for X Hours/Days

When selecting DELAY Action for 1 Days, if a visitor is in the audience when the visit ends, a delayed action is scheduled for 1 day later.

AND was not a member of this Audience at start of visit

The In Audience at the end of visit condition is easily met, often classifying visitors as part of an audience when the visit ends regardless of their status at the start of the current visit. AND was not a member of this Audience at start of visit ensures that the the delayed action is only triggered if a visitor was not in the audience at the start of the current visit.

Selecting AND was not a member of this Audience at start of visit results in:

• Scheduling a delayed action for one day later if a visitor is in the audience when the visit ends but was not in the audience at the start of the current visit.
• The delayed action is triggered if the visitor is still in the audience after one day.
• Better control over the scheduling and triggering of delayed actions with the cooldown mechanism.

FAQ

What happens when a visitor returns before the delayed action has triggered?

In the DELAY Action for 1 Days example above, a delayed action is scheduled 1 day (24 hours) later at the end of the visitor’s first visit. If the visitor returns for a second visit 12 hours after the first visit ended AND the visitor meets the condition In Audience at end of visit when the second visit ends, then the original delayed action will be rescheduled to 1 day (24 hours) after the second visit ends. In other words, the delayed action is now scheduled to 36 hours after the first visit ends.

What happens when a visitor returns after the delayed action has already been triggered?

In this case, the visitor returns for a second visit after the original delayed action has been triggered. If the visitor meets the condition In Audience at the end of visit when the second visit ends, then a new delayed action will be scheduled.

Can I use decimals in the “DELAY Action for Hours/Days” text field?

No. The value is stored as an integer. So you can only use whole numbers like 1, 2, 3, et cetera. Number values like 0.25, 0.75, 1.5 are not allowed. The lowest value you can use is 1.

What is the longest time period that a delay action will work?

365 days or 8760 hours