Create your first trigger automation
Need help creating your first trigger automation? Here are all the steps you need to follow.
Trigger automations allow you to respond to user actions or events in real time with personalized messages. They’re ideal for onboarding sequences, re-engagement flows, or any scenario where timing matters. This guide will walk you through setting up your first trigger automation in Batch, covering targeting, scheduling, and message composition. Let’s get started! 🚀
Here is a short guide to help create your first omnichannel trigger automation on Batch following the 4 steps of the automation builder:
Set up entrance: which event triggers the campaign, its lifetime, its target, etc;
Manage the first delay and cancellation events: when to send the email and which event can cancel it;
Compose your message: the content of the campaign that will be sent to the user;
Add a second message sent after a delay.
First, go to Automations > New automation, start a new Omnichannel trigger, and name it:
Optional: you can add labels to your automation (up to 5):
Then, let's set up your trigger automation! 💪
Automation Settings
It is time to define when to send your automation and who to send it to!
1. Entry
First, you need to choose your trigger type. You have the choice between two:
Event: the triggering of a custom or native event
By clicking on the Event frame a new modal opens. There, you will be able to choose the right trigger event and add filters on it if needed.
💡 Let's take the example of a cart abandonment scenario! The idea is to bring in all users who have reported the “added_to_cart” event with a value of 50 euros or more:
Parallel automations
By default, if the user fires the trigger event of the automation multiple times, it will be reset.
You may want to parallelize automation flows and allow the user to trigger several times the same automation. You can do that by activating the Parallel automations mode.
The Parallel automations mode allows you to trigger an automation each time the user fires the trigger event with a new event parameter (Ex: Trigger an email for each trip booked by the user based on the trip ID parameter). This ID must be one of the attributes attached to the event or the event label and can only be a String.
Attribute change: a change in the value of a custom profile attribute
By clicking on the Attribute Change frame a new modal opens. There, you will be able to choose the right attribute and set the old attribute value (optional) and the new attribute value (mandatory).
💡 Let's take the example of a loyalty status change scenario! The idea is to bring in all users who have went from “silver” to "gold" in their loyalty_status attribute:
Once you're ready, click Continue to Targeting to move on to the next step of your automation setup!
2. Targeting
You can access the targeting settings either by clicking on the Continue to targeting button or on Add targeting in the automation builder right under the trigger you chose.
There, you will be able to select the type of your communications: Marketing or Transactional.
By default, Batch considers that you will target your entire audience. First, you can add one or more countries and/or languages.
Then you can refine your segmentation by clicking:
'Add Condition': from then on, you will be able to select native targeting elements (Email domain, etc.), but also profile attributes (data specific to your app business and selected thanks to the tagging plan).
'Use Segment': this will allow you to call Segments as blocks in the targeting and combine segments (inclusions and/or exclusions) by calling up to 10 segments in your targeting. When a segment is linked to an orchestration, you can access / view the segment by clicking on the eye icon 👀
Also, note that if you focus sendings on opt-in contacts (which will happen for all non-transactional use cases), the opt-in status will be checked before each message sendings, to make sure the user is still opted-in. If, along with an automation, the person opt-out, it will continue its progress but not be messaged (until the user potentially re-optin).
Play with AND/OR option
You can add up as many conditions as you want, and create specific scenarios by clicking on 'AND/OR':
When you are satisfied, click on the Continue button!
3. Other settings
After finishing your targeting, there are 3 other settings you can play with:
Re-entry rules
Capping
The capping is the limit on the total number of entrances followed by at least one message sent to the user.
If you put “2”, it means the user will not enter more than twice an automation that sent him at least a message.
🔎 More examples
If the capping is “2” in an automation that has 5 messages steps:
case 1: the person enters, waits in a delay step and ends up being excluded from the automation by a cancel event before being addressed by a message, it’s not counted for capping.
case 2: the person enters once and receives 5 messages, it counts as “+1”
case 3: the person enters and receives only 2 messages and then is excluded due to a cancel event, it counts as “+1".
By clicking the toggle button you will be able to define that limit 👇
Grace period
Use the grace period to set a minimum delay in hours or days for a user to re-enter an automation after exiting it. A user can exit an automation for two reasons:
Because of an exit event
He arrived at the end of the automation.
Timing
Click on the Timing icon to manage the lifetime of the automation by choosing specific starting and ending dates:
Quiet times
You can add Quiet times to specify either quiet hours or quiet days, during which the profiles in this automation will not be messaged.
Click on the Quiet times icon to choose the right timeslot:
You have two fallback strategies to choose if your communication is sent during these Quiet Times:
Send at the next available time;
Skip the message and continue.
Wait and Exit events
Now that you have successfully set up your trigger event, you can manage when to send your automation and if you want to cancel the sending after the occurrence of chosen events.
Wait
There are two types of wait:
delay
wait for event
Delay - Wait for, Wait Until and Wait Until Best Time
The delay can be set to wait for several minutes/hours/days after the trigger event occurred.
For example, you set up a +2 days timer. If a user triggers your entry event the 1st of January, they will receive the next message on the 3rd of January.
You can also set your delay in order to wait until a certain time on a certain day.
For example, you can set up a wait until 11am on Tuesday. Therefore, if your user triggers the entry event on Friday, they will receive your next message on the following Tuesday at 11am.
The Wait Until Best Time allows sending messages to each user at the hour they are most likely to engage (open and/or click the message), based on their own interaction history.
Ex: If a user enters an automation at 11 a.m. and Batch IA engine has calculated that the Best Time to send a message to this user is 6 p.m., they will exit the wait until best time step at 6 p.m. the same day and they will receive the following message straight away.
A fallback hour (in profile's local time) must be configured : it applies when no engagement data is available or a technical error occurs.
An exit event can also be defined to handle status changes while a profile is waiting.
Note that a profile entering the Wait step will exit it within 24 hours at most, which is the time required to evaluate all potential optimal sending times.
Best Send Time is a priced offering. Reach out to your CSM or Account Manager to learn more.
Wait for event
The "Wait for Event" step allows you to wait for up to 4 events over a defined time period. The first event triggered is the one that will end the wait and make the user continue down its branch.
It works as follows: once the user enters the Event step, they are put on hold for a custom-defined duration. Two outcomes are possible:
The user triggers one of the expected events. They will then immediately proceed down that event's branch (without waiting for the timer to expire).
The user does not trigger any of the expected events. They will wait for the timer to expire and then proceed down the timer's branch.
The step only listens for events that are triggered after the profile enters the "Wait for Event" step.
Also, you can filter the wait events on their attributes (event filtering is optional). For example, wait for a purchase event where category = "shoes".
If an expected event occurs (e.g. puschase) but the specified attributes value does not match (e.g. category = "pants" instead of category = "shoes"), the event will be ignored and the profile will continue to wait.
It is not possible to filter on complex attributes like arrays or objects. All other attribute types are supported.
Note that the events supported are all your Custom Events (except your Automation Trigger Event) and two built-in Retargeting Events:
clicked message,
opened message.
These retargeting events can be set for a message in your current automation or any other automation or campaign.
This feature allows you to create channel fallbacks using retargeting events in the event step.
For example: you can wait 1 hour for a Push Open, if not, send an SMS.
It can also help you to manage transactional flows.
For example: wait for email validation in an onboarding scenario before processing to the next step.
Exit event(s)
By clicking the toggle button you will be able to add one or several exit events:
Users who trigger one of the exit events will exit the automation. You can use a custom event and apply filters based on additional event data (Label, Attributes, Tag collection).
If you are using Parallel automations, the exit event must have the same ID as the entry event. If the ID differs, the cancellation will not be processed.
Add further messages and delays
You can add other automation steps with delays after your first message by clicking on the + icon!
Yes/No Split
Set up complex flows in your Automations and split users based on a new targeting rule along the journey!
Imagine different scenario branches based on Profiles conditions and unlock a wide variety of sophisticated and personalized CRM scenarios without losing the simplicity of Batch Dashboard.
The Yes/No Split leverages all Profiles data to split the workflow into 2 branches:
Yes, people match the condition;
No, they don’t.
Then, you can send a different message or even a different type depending on whether the user matches or doesn't match the new rule.
Example: Here the split will depend on whether users are opt-in to marketing emails or not. If they are, they'll get an email. Otherwise, they'll get an SMS message ✅
How to use it?
Once you have chosen the trigger event, you can add the Yes/No Split at every step of an omnichannel trigger automation. Click on the + button and then select Yes/No Split:
Then, choose a new segmentation rule to set up the split and give it a name or let our AI smart naming feature do it for you:
It can be through Segments (more information on user Segments here), or Custom Audiences (more information on Custom Audiences here).
Be aware that entry event information cannot be used as split targeting rules.
Random Split
The Random Split allows you to divide the users of an automation into 2 to 4 groups based on algorithms. You may choose the percentage of users entering each group according to your use case and customize everything on the branch such as delays or exit events.
This allows you to test and optimize use cases. Try different series of messages, various delays and times of sending, other content and types of messages. Learn more about use cases in our Blog's article 👈
Let's now see how to create these branches! 💪
How to use it?
Once you have chosen the trigger event, you can add the Random Split at every step of an omnichannel trigger automation. Click on the + button and then select Random split:
Choose between 2, 3 or 4 branches and adjust the percentage of users of each of them. Just keep in mind that the sum of branches must always be 100%.
Then customize the branches as you wish! By clicking again on the '+', add messages, delays, exit events or even another split on the branches.
Move your steps if you need to
You can move your step messages one by one:
When you add a split (Yes/No or Random) to an Automation that already has steps after it, a modal appears allowing you to choose what to do: keep the steps below, move them to the first branch, or move them to the second one. Illustrations help you to choose the best option.
Automation quick analytics
Entry and Exit data
The automation builder interface clearly shows the number of profiles that have entered and exited the Automation.
This data is displayed for three key periods: 7, 30, and 90 days.
A trend indicator shows performance change over the previous period.
Messages
Message editors vary from one channel to another. To learn more about composition, visit the following sections:
Run your Trigger Automation
Now that your trigger automation is ready, you can either run it or keep it as a draft and launch it later 🌟
Once your campaign is live, you can track its performance in the Analytics section.
Impact of modifying your trigger automation while it is running
Here's an overview of how modifications to a live Trigger Automation affect users already in the queue versus new users entering after the change.
Stopping and restarting the Automation
If you stop and restart the Automation, it is treated as if it had just been created. All users must go through the entry event again. Any user who was mid-journey is removed from their current state.
⚠️ Note on the queue display: After a stop/restart, users who were in a delay queue may still appear in the counter. This is a known display limitation: those users will no longer progress through the Automation. The counter will clear once the data retention period expires.
Modifying its parameters:
Trigger: Users who already performed the trigger event remain in the queue. New users must perform the new trigger.
Exit events: New exit events apply immediately to all users, including those already in the queue.
Timer (increase): The new duration applies immediately to all users, including those already in the queue.
Timer (decrease): Users already in the queue will receive their notification based on the original duration. The new (shorter) duration only applies to new users entering the Automation.
Timer (delay timing): The new timing applies to new users entering the Automation, as well as to users currently in the Automation who have not yet passed the relevant delay step.
Wait until date attribute - changing the attribute: If the new attribute did not exist in the original trigger event, affected users may be stuck (no exit, no progression). The only resolution is to stop and restart the Automation.
Targeting: Targeting is re-evaluated before each message is sent. If users currently in the Automation no longer match the targeting criteria after a modification, they will remain stuck at their current position in the journey.
Splits: New split logic applies immediately to all users.
Frequency capping: Applies the next time the user enters the Automation.
Step name: No impact on users or message delivery.
Message content (email, push, in-app, SMS…): Changes apply to all users still in the queue, regardless of when they entered.
Extending the end date:
Less than 367 days since the original end date: events are listened to again, and users retain their current position in the scenario.
More than 367 days since the original end date: events are listened to again, but all users are evicted and must re-enter through the entry event.
Deleting a step
When a step is deleted, any users waiting at that step are immediately removed from the Automation. Their data (sends, opens, clicks) recorded before the deletion remains visible in the Analytics report, shown as "Deleted step."
And for a full overview of how to monitor your Automation's performance after making changes, refer to the Analysing Automation with Analytics section above, or explore your results directly in the Analytics view of the Batch dashboard.
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