In App Message Campaigns Overview

To use In App Messaging you must be using version 3.0+ of the XtremePush mobile SDK (Currently iOS only) and have enabled In App messaging by tagging some events in your App. At a minimum you need to turn on the default session start event. See the download and integration guide links below.

• Mobile SDK Downloads
• Adding In-App events in iOS

When added the necessary event tagging to your app you will be ready to create an In App Messaging Campaign.

Creating an In App Messaging Campaign

To create an In App Messaging Campaign go to create campaign in your app home. On the Create Campaign Home page click on In-App Message Campaign and you will be taken to the campaign creation work flow.

The first option in In App campaigns is to select a template. There are 3 styles:

• Banner
• Full Screen
• Custom html

Select the type of template you want to use by clicking on it.

Will now appear another row to define the orientation of the message:

• Portrait
• Landscape
• Responsive (Portrait and Landscape)

(Note: If the type selected is HTML the orientation will be only Responsive!)

Once selected the orientation is the moment to build the message.

Content

The Content Area includes:

1. Selector to change the message orientation (appear only when Responsive is selected)
2. Device screen sizes menu, to test the message in different popular devices
3. The build area, where you can upload images and assign actions to every part of the message
4. Preview, to check the results and to place the buttons with your mouse

The device selection menu offers many preview choices:

Banner and Portrait

If you selected Banner or Portrait, after selecting the orientation you easily create your message by just:

• Uploading your background image
• Uploading your button images
• Placing the buttons
• Assigning actions to background and buttons

Take a look at our In App Message Creative Guidelines to learn how to create all the message images!

Here an example of In App Portrait Message as it would appear on an iPhone5

Actions

The possible actions are the following:

• None (no action assigned)
• Install (redirect to app store)
• Deeplink (redirect to a section inside the app)
• URL (redirect to an URL)
• Dismiss (close the message)

HTML

If the type selected is HTML the content section will show a text area in which write or paste the custom HTML. On the left a preview will show how the message appear on the device.

An example of a simple in App message with some HTML text, a background colour and an action button is shown below.

Triggers

When the creative for your message is ready, you must then select the event that triggers it. These are set on the events section of campaign creation work flow. The options are:

• On session start
• Or based on a custom event e.g. a game over event in a game

Custom events are set by tagging events in your app when integrating. They may be triggered when sections of the app are opened, buttons are pressed or more complex events occur such as purchases or the completion of goals.

You must select an event that will trigger the message so the message will be sent when that event occurs while the app is open.

Limits and Advanced Triggers

If you want to set limits on the number of messages a user can receive per day or over the duration of the campaign you can do so in Advanced In-App options. The default limit is one per day. But you could for example reduce this to one per campaign, or increase it to two per day.

You can also set a number of repeat events before a message is received. By default messages are triggered on the first occurrence of an event. But using the Number of events before trigger setting in Advanced in App Options you can make it so multiple occurrences of an event are required in a day or over the duration of the campaign before a message will trigger. For your trigger event is session start and you set this parameter to be 5 per day then your message will only be triggered when a user opens the app five times in one day.

Segments, Scheduling and Starting your Campaign

In App messages differ from push notifications in style and in that they only appear when triggered by an event, while the app is open. Another important difference between Push Notifications and In App Messages is that In App Messages can be sent to all your users even those who have not opted into push notifications.

However, adding segments and scheduling an automated in app messaging campaign works just like automating a push notification campaign. This is covered in the docs on automated campaigns.

Once you have decided on your target audience you must ad a schedule. On the schedule screen in the campaign creation workflow there are a number of options.

• Days to Send On
• Time Window to send during
  • Time From
  • Time To
• Timezone to Send By
• Date to Start On
• Date to End On

The days your message send on allow you to have a campaign that is for Mondays, weekdays, weekends etc. The time window where a message will be sent in response to an event can be all day or between specific hours such as 9am to 5pm. The timezone associated with that time window can be set to use each users local time zone or a specific timezone. The Start and End Date of the campaign sets the duration. Once these scheduling parameters are setup the final step is to go to the platforms page and choose wether you are running the campaign for iOS or Android or both. Then you are ready to start your campaign. Click "Preview and Schedule" and then "Schedule Campaign" to start your In App Messaging Campaign.

Video Tutorial

Take a look at how to use this section from the image design to the campaign launch!