Automation Logic and Timing

Overview

Using Goal, Conditional Split, or Audience Split logic and inserting wait times in your Automation is a great way to send your customers down a highly-targeted and personalized path based on their actions and preferences! Read on to learn about each logic and timing control in Sendlane Automations.

In This Guide

Adjust Timing with Wait Nodes: Start a countdown from the time Contacts last received a message from you before they receive another to prevent saturating their inboxes
Determine Next Action with Goals: Move Contacts ahead to a different point in the Automation once the goal is reached.
Create Logic Based Paths with Conditional Splits: Specify the path Contacts will take within your Automation based on conditions or rules.
Split Your Audience to A/B Test Two Paths: Split your audience into two random segments and send them down separate paths

Adjust Timing with Wait Nodes

After every message sent in an Automation, add a Wait node to prevent your Contacts from receiving too many messages in a short time.

To add a wait node:

Click the + button
Click Wait
Set your desired wait period and timing options
Click Done

Determine Next Action with Goals

When you add a goal to your Automation, your contact will jump to that step once they meet a specified condition (or conditions). Unless otherwise specified, Goals check to see if contacts meet the criteria once an hour, every hour, for one week.

Once a goal is reached, Contacts will skip any action not yet executed and proceed immediately to the following action or action you assign below the goal.

Add a Goal

To add a goal to your Automation:

Click the + button
Click Goal
Set your conditions
Click Done

Goal Options

Goal Name Enter a descriptive name for your Goal
Conditions Select conditions to trigger your Goal
Go to this action if goal is reached Select a step in your Automation to send Contacts to when they meet your Goal's conditions
If goal is not met Select an option for Contacts who have not met your Goal
- Continue means the Contact will proceed to the next node in the Automation
- Wait means the Contact will wait at this step indefinitely until the goal is reached
- End means the Goal will keep checking for met conditions until the max time has passed
Max time to check for conditions Select a length of time to check for conditions

Create Logic Based Paths with Conditional Splits

Conditional Splits provide divergent paths for Contacts to be funneled through based on a condition. Conditional Splits check to see if contacts meet the criteria once: at the time the Conditional Split action is reached.

🚨 Conditional Splits do not include automatic wait times for engagement based logic

Conditional Splits check for the conditions set in the split immediately. This means that if a Conditional Split's logic includes opened or clicked conditions, the split will immediately check for those engagement metrics without enough time for Contacts to engage.

When using engagement based logic in Conditional Splits, add a wait node of 24 hours as the first node under each path to give Contacts enough time to engage.

🚨 A condition using an integration will only pull Contacts who exist in the integration’s database into the YES side of a Conditional Split

Using an integration based condition in a Conditional Split will only pull Contacts who exist in the integration’s database into the YES side of a Conditional Split. All Contacts who do not exist in the integration’s database will be sent down the NO side of a Conditional Split, regardless of the conditions set.

Let’s say you want to create a Conditional Split that divides your audience into Contacts who have placed at least 1 order and Contacts who have placed 0 orders.

Your condition would be Customer > Total Orders Places > is greater than > 0:

The YES side of this Conditional Split will grab Contacts who exist in your store’s database and have placed at least 1 order. The NO side will grab Contacts who do not yet exist in your store’s database (because they haven’t made a purchase or an account on your store) AND Contacts who exist in your store’s database but have not yet placed an order.

Add a Conditional Split

To add a Conditional Split to your Automation:

Click the + button
Click Conditional Split
Set your conditions
Click Done

The conditions you select will funnel Contacts who meet them down the Yes branch. Contacts who do not meet the conditions specified will be sent down the No branch. It is not possible to move a Contact from one branch to the other.

Delete a Conditional Split

To delete a Conditional Split:

Click the Conditional Split
Click the trash can icon
Select a path or both paths to delete
Click Delete

Split Your Audience to A/B Test Two Paths

Use an Audience Split node to specify a percentage of your audience to be sent down separate paths.

Once Contacts reach the Audience Split, they cannot be moved from one path to another. If the split percentage is changed after the Automation has been activated, existing Contacts will stay on the path they started on.

To create an Audience Split node:

Click the + button
Click Audience Split
Use the slider to determine the percentage of the Automation's audience to send down Side A and Side B
Click Done

To determine a winning path:

Click the Audience Split node
Click the trash can icon
Select a path to delete
Click Delete