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 - Triggered delayed actions trigger based on conditions met at a later time.

Only vistor attributes can be sent in a delayed action. Visit attributes are out of scope by the time the connector action fires.

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.

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

More often than not, we find the condition In Audience at the end of visit is too easily met. Thus, we added a new option to the In Audience at the end of visit condition called AND was not a member of this Audience at start of visit.

The results of selecting AND was not a member of this Audience at start of visit are:

• If a visitor was not in the audience at the start of the current visit AND is in the audience when the visit ends, a delayed action is scheduled for 1 day later.
• After 1 day, if the visitor is still in the audience, the delayed action will be triggered.
• With this new option, along with cooldown, you have better control when delayed actions get scheduled and triggered.

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