Creating Push Notifications Campaigns

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Push Notifications automatically send a message to users at a schedule time or if an event is triggered. For example, you can send a notification to users who left the application without completing a purchase. This allows you to engage your consumers wherever they are with rich, relevant and compelling content and bring them back to your app.

Note: Rich push notifications require iOS 10 or higher, or Android 4.1 or higher.  

Triggers or Schedules

Push notifications are sent based on the trigger or schedule you select. The trigger can be an out-of-the-box trigger event, or a custom event.

  1. Schedule
    The push notification is sent at a specified time with no visitor behavior required. To enable schedule push notifications, speak to your Customer Success Manager.
  2. Abandoned Cart View
    A user who has added items to the shopping cart without completing a purchase will receive a push notification including items in the cart and a call to action to complete the purchase.
  3. Abandoned Product View
    A user who has viewed a product in the last session without completing a purchase will receive a push notification with recently viewed items and a call to action to complete the purchase.
  4. Abandoned category view
    A user who has viewed a category page in the last session without completing a purchase will receive a push notification with relevant content and a call to action to complete the purchase.
  5. Custom event
    A user who triggers any event you specify will receive a push notification that you define.


Creating Push Notifications

  1. Prerequisite: Enabling Triggered Push Notifications.
  2. Go to Push Notifications › Add New and select the trigger or schedule type.
  3. Configure the settings depending on your trigger type. Some of the settings cannot be changed depending on the trigger type you selected.
    1. Settings for Scheduled Push Notifications
      • Send Notification. Specify the date and time to send the notification, or select Immediately to send the notification as soon as you click Send.

        The status will be active until the notification is sent, at which point the status becomes sent and the notification is no longer editable. 
    2. Settings for Event-Based Push Notifications
      • Trigger. Select your trigger and specify it’s properties.
      • Delay send. The time between the trigger and sending the notification. If the trigger is fired more than once before the message was sent (e.g. multiple ‘add to cart’ events), the delay timer is reset after each trigger.
      • Cancel send. Set a condition that occurs after the trigger but before the message is sent that will cancel a push notification. For example, you can decide to suspend a cart abandonment message if the user purchased a product.
      • Frequency Capping. The max number of messages (of this type) that a user will receive within a specific time interval. For example, you can decide to send cart abandonment notifications at most once per week.
  4. Click Next to define the Targeting settings as you would for any Experience.
  5. Define Variations based on a template. Save your Experience and Save and Publish the Push Notification to activate it on your app.


Variations for Push Notifications

Dynamic Yield provides different templates for push notification Variations. In addition you can configure a custom template using JSON code. Each template has a different set of configurable fields. In some cases, configuration can be slightly different between iOS and Android templates.

As you edit the Variation fields, a preview is automatically updated on the right in real time.

push_note_variation.png

Notes:

  • In some cases, you can add dynamic text fields and emojicons by clicking the  icons.
  • The Tap Action determines what happens when a user taps the push notification. If left empty, the default action is used which opens your app in the default screen. Alternatively, you can add a deeplink to launch your app in a specific screen or together with a specific action.
  • Images are added by entering a url to the desired image. A full image will be displayed when the push notification is expanded; when collapsed, a thumbnail will be displayed.
  • You can add up to two action buttons in some templates that will appear below the main image.
  • Single product and Product Slider templates take products from a feed based on a strategy you specify. You can use dynamic attributes in the text fields to refer to product attributes.
  • In the slider template, tapping on the notification area will always activate the tap action for the entire variation content, regardless of the product that was clicked. You can define different deep links for the individual action buttons below the image in the example above.


Previewing and Simulating Push Notifications

To view a preview of a push notification on your device,  click the preview icon next to the desired variation when creating or editing a Push Notification. Follow the on-screen instructions and select your device.

triggered_push_preview_button.png

Simulations can also be performed that allow you to test the trigger and view the full notification workflow. Use the Simulation button from the Push Notification list page.
push_simulation.png

If the strategy and filters would result in no items from your feed, the push notification would not be sent. In this case neither the preview nor the simulation will work.   

Troubleshooting Push Notifications

If you are not receiving push notifications, and have configured them according to the procedures here, use these steps to try to resolve the issue.

  1. Make sure that you have enabled push notifications.
  2. Disable other push notification providers on the app.
  3. Check the device logs to verify that an opt-in message was sent. For example: 
      DYLogger:  <DYDeveloper> trackEvent called with: Push Notification
  Opt In and props: {
          cuidType = pushID;
          dyType = "message-optin-v1";
          pushID = edd73de9ceb7df77b7eb4ef4d3571edfadddef5ef5e7cd1d735f36f7a6f8777f;
      }

If the issue persists, contact Customer Support.  

Templates

You can select one of the following templates to control the look and feel of your notifications. Additionally, upon request a custom template can be created using JSON.


Basic Text Message

A push notification comprise of a basic text content.

template_basic.png


Image

A rich push notification comprised of a custom image and (optionally) action buttons.

template_image.png

template_image2.png

Single product

A rich push notification comprised of a dynamically selected product and (optional) action buttons. The product selection is based on the chosen strategy and may include the product’s image and name, price and any and other property available from the product feed.

template_singleProduct.png

template_singleProduct2.png

Product slider

A rich push notification comprised of multiple products and (optional) action buttons within a carousel. The product selection is based on the chosen strategy and may include the product’s image, name, price and any and other property available from the product feed.

template_productSlider.png

template_productSlider2.png


How Triggers Work for Notifications Triggered by Events


User Identification

The user is identified by syncing Dynamic Yield ID with a unique push ID assigned by the mobile operating system. Dynamic Yield assigns a unique identifier to every app user – DYID. This ID is stored within the device’s local storage and is used to track all of the user’s app activities. To send a push notification, the push ID provided by the operating system and the DYID must first be associated. This ensures that Apple and Google servers push the right message to the right user across all known devices and apps. The association is done using a dedicated API call handled by the SDK.


Trigger 

The user triggers an event within the application that makes him eligible to receive a push notification. While Dynamic Yield tracks all events triggered by the app user, certain events are defined as ‘triggers’ and can be set to activate push notification messages. For such events, relevant data is automatically stored within Dynamic Yield servers and is later accessible for the creation of the message. For example, the ‘add to cart’ is defined as a ‘trigger event’ and can be set to activate the ‘cart abandonment’ push notification. The actual items that were left in the cart (the stored data) are available to be used within the message.


Send time

The notification’s ‘send time’ is determined. Until send it remains pending. Send time can be configured by setting a delay between the triggered event and the actual push. The push notification remains pending during this period.


Cancellation Conditions

Message cancellation conditions are monitored while the message is pending. A set of conditions can be defined to cancel the actual push. A purchase event, for example, will suppress the a cart abandonment notification. Note: Frequency capping conditions as well as other settings might also result in suppressing a message.


Message Assembly and Send

When send time arrives, the push notification is assembled with its corresponding dynamic content. Rich push notifications can include images and product metadata relevant to the specific push notification type. For example, a ‘cart abandonment’ message can include one or more products in the user’s cart; a ‘win back’ notification may include one or more recommended products personalized for the user. Send is done by Dynamic Yield firing an activation API to Apple or Google notification servers. The API call includes the recipient Push ID, the push notification message text.