Edit triggers, filters, or frequencies in live campaigns
UpdatedLearn how changes to triggers, filters, or frequency settings in live campaigns would impact your customers.
Both trigger and filter conditions must be met for people to start moving through your campaign’s workflow.
Some campaigns types — event, form, important date, legacy segment, and attribute or segment — have a frequency setting which controls how many times the same person can enter a campaign. By default, it’s once.
If you edit a trigger or filter and expect people to re-enter a campaign, make sure you check your frequency setting.
Event-triggered campaigns
Change the trigger event
If you change the trigger event, people currently in your workflow will continue their journey.
Moving forward, the campaign will only trigger based on the new trigger event.
Change the trigger’s event data filter(s)
If you change the trigger’s event data filter, people currently in your workflow will continue their journey.
Moving forward, the campaign will trigger when the trigger event is performed and matches the new trigger event data filter.
Change the segment filter(s)
If you change which segment is the filter or the conditions of the segment filter, we re-evaluate people currently in your campaign based on its exit conditions.
So if you change the segment filter from “In Signed Up” to “In Paying Customers” and the exit condition is “They stop matching the filters,” we’ll re-evaluate the segment filter before people’s next actions (message, update action, delay, etc). People who don’t match the campaign’s new segment filter will exit the campaign. People who do match your campaign’s filter will continue the campaign.
Moving forward, after an event triggers the campaign, people will only begin your workflow if they match the new segment filter conditions.
Legacy segment-triggered campaigns
If you’re editing a trigger and you can only add/remove segments, then you are editing a campaign using our legacy segment trigger. Otherwise, you’re editing a campaign using the attribute or segment trigger.
Change the trigger or filter segment(s)
Only future matches will trigger the campaign. Only people who match the new trigger conditions AFTER the changes are saved will trigger the campaign. People must also match any new segment filter conditions to start your workflow.
You can stop your campaign if you want to trigger for current matches
You can stop the campaign, change the trigger, and restart your campaign. When you restart, you’ll have the option to trigger your campaign for people who already match your new conditions. Learn more about force matching with stop and restart.
If you change the segment (assign a different segment or change the underlying conditions of the segment), the campaign only re-evaluates people currently in your campaign if the trigger or filter is part of your exit conditions. If the exit condition is “They match the conversion criteria,” and you change which segment is assigned to the trigger or filter, then people who don’t match your trigger or filter could still complete the campaign.
Change the frequency
You can change the frequency with which people re-enter a campaign while a campaign is live. Frequency changes work the same for both legacy segment-triggered campaigns and campaigns triggered by attributes or segments.
| Change | Impact |
|---|---|
| One time to Every re-match |
|
| One time to At fixed intervals |
|
| Every re-match to One time |
|
| Every re-match to At fixed intervals |
|
| At fixed intervals to One time | People who are scheduled to re-enter this campaign will not do so, but those who are already in the campaign will follow your exit conditions. After they exit, they will not re-enter. |
| At fixed intervals to Every re-match | People who are scheduled to re-start your campaign will not do so. They will need to stop matching the trigger conditions and re-match them to enter again. |
| The time of a fixed interval | This immediately changes the time when people can start their next journeys. For example, if you change the interval from 7 to 9 days, people will re-enter the campaign 9 days after their initial entry. After day 9, the person will re-enter the campaign if they finished their previous journey and match the trigger/filter conditions. Otherwise, we will recheck their eligibility to re-enter the campaign after another 9 days, and so forth. |
| The minumum wait for Every re-match | This immediately changes the time when people can start their next journeys. For example, if you change the minimum wait from 7 to 9 days, a person can re-enter after 9 days have passed since the last time they entered the campaign. If a person re-matches while in an active journey, they will not immediately start a new journey after exiting the campaign. Rather, the person must exit the campaign and pass the minimum wait time then re-match the conditions to re-enter the campaign. |
Force people to re-enter a campaign after making changes
If your campaign is triggered by segment membership, attribute changes, objects, or relationships, changes to campaign triggers and filters aren’t retroactive: only people who match your new conditions after you make changes will enter your campaign. If you want to re-evaluate everybody in your workspace against your new conditions, you can stop and restart your campaign.
Use with caution for live campaigns
We don’t typically recommend making changes to live campaigns as it can cause some unexpected sending behaviors. Always test your changes carefully and consider the frequency settings before forcing a match.
- Stop the campaign.
- Edit your triggers and filters—this might mean editing a segment.
- Restart the campaign.
- Choose Current People and future additions to include people who match your updated conditions.
Impacts of stopping and restarting a campaign
Before you stop and restart your campaign, you should consider:
Who should enter the campaign: Choose Current and future matches if you want people who already match your conditions—and aren’t currently in the campaign—to enter the campaign. (Re-entry is subject to your campaign’s frequency settings.)
Duplicate messages: A person will only ever receive one copy of a message each time they flow through a campaign. But forcing people to re-enter a campaign they have already completed means they might receive messages they already received in the past!
Re-entry behavior (only for campaigns triggered by segment membership): when you restart your campaign, people who are already in the campaign won’t start a new journey. But anyone who has completed it can re-enter the campaign depending on your campaign’s Frequency settings:
- NOT allow re-entry: people who have already been through the campaign will not re-enter the campaign.
- allow re-entry AT A FIXED INTERVAL: people who already exited the campaign will re-enter the campaign at the next interval.
- allow re-entry: people must finish or exit the campaign and then match the trigger again before they re-enter the campaign. But people will re-enter the campaign if they continue to match the segment condition. They don’t have to un-match and re-match your conditions to enter the campaign. Make sure that your exit and trigger conditions are set up so that people don’t inadvertently re-enter the campaign.
Attribute or segment-triggered campaigns
If you’re editing a campaign and you’re only able to add/remove segments from the trigger, refer to our info on legacy segment triggers!
If you’re editing a trigger and you can add profile attributes and/or segments, then you are editing a campaign using our attribute or segment trigger.
Change the trigger attributes or segments
Only future matches will trigger the campaign. Only people who match the new trigger conditions AFTER the changes are saved will trigger the campaign.
You can stop your campaign if you want to trigger for current matches
You can stop the campaign, change the trigger, and restart your campaign. When you restart, you’ll have the option to trigger your campaign for people who already match your new conditions. Learn more about force matching with stop and restart.
If you change the attributes or segments (assign a different segment or change the underlying conditions of the segment or attribute), the campaign only re-evaluates people currently in your campaign if the trigger is part of your exit conditions. For instance, if the exit condition is “They match the conversion criteria,” and you change which segment is assigned to the trigger, then people who don’t match your trigger could still complete the campaign.
Change the frequency
You can change the frequency with which people re-enter a campaign while a campaign is live. Frequency changes work the same for both legacy segment-triggered campaigns and campaigns triggered by attributes or segments.
| Change | Impact |
|---|---|
| One time to Every re-match |
|
| One time to At fixed intervals |
|
| Every re-match to One time |
|
| Every re-match to At fixed intervals |
|
| At fixed intervals to One time | People who are scheduled to re-enter this campaign will not do so, but those who are already in the campaign will follow your exit conditions. After they exit, they will not re-enter. |
| At fixed intervals to Every re-match | People who are scheduled to re-start your campaign will not do so. They will need to stop matching the trigger conditions and re-match them to enter again. |
| The time of a fixed interval | This immediately changes the time when people can start their next journeys. For example, if you change the interval from 7 to 9 days, people will re-enter the campaign 9 days after their initial entry. After day 9, the person will re-enter the campaign if they finished their previous journey and match the trigger/filter conditions. Otherwise, we will recheck their eligibility to re-enter the campaign after another 9 days, and so forth. |
| The minumum wait for Every re-match | This immediately changes the time when people can start their next journeys. For example, if you change the minimum wait from 7 to 9 days, a person can re-enter after 9 days have passed since the last time they entered the campaign. If a person re-matches while in an active journey, they will not immediately start a new journey after exiting the campaign. Rather, the person must exit the campaign and pass the minimum wait time then re-match the conditions to re-enter the campaign. |
Date-triggered campaigns
Change the trigger conditions
People currently in the campaign will follow your exit conditions; we do not re-evaluate date trigger conditions after they enter the campaign.
People will enter the campaign when they match the new date trigger conditions.
Change a person’s value that the trigger date evaluates
- When frequency is Once, changing the value of a person’s date attribute will NOT cause them to re-enter the campaign.
- When frequency is Monthly: if a person triggered the campaign (i.e. Oct 5th), then their trigger date value is updated to a date in the future in the same month (i.e. Oct 10th), the person WILL re-enter the campaign. They will re-enter after they finish their current journey, even though it’s the same month.
- When frequency is Yearly: if a person triggered the campaign, then their trigger date value is updated to a later date in the same year, the person WILL re-enter the campaign. They will re-enter after they finish their current journey, even though it’s the same year.
Change the segment filter(s)
If you change which segment is the filter or the conditions of the segment filter, we re-evaluate people currently in your campaign based on its exit conditions.
So if you change the segment filter from “In Signed Up” to “In Paying Customers” and the exit condition is “They stop matching the filters,” we’ll re-evaluate the segment filter before people’s next actions (message, update action, delay, etc). People who don’t match the campaign’s new segment filter will exit the campaign. People who do match your campaign’s filter will continue the campaign.
Moving forward, after date triggers the campaign, people will only begin your workflow if they match the new segment filter conditions.
