Schedule

The schedule tab is where you can control when you would like your notification to be sent.

If you have a notification that you want to deliver just once to a segment of users or to all your users at a set time it is a simple process. Go to the schedule tab. The default selection on this page is Send Now.

To send a notification in the future you select Send In the Future

If you have a campaign you want to automate so it will continue to send messages as users enter a segment that is also possible. A classic example is automating a message to users who haven't opened the app in 14 days. To schedule such a campaign select Repeat.

Scheduling a Push Notification to "Send In The Future"

When you select Send In The Future you will be presented with a number of fields to complete.

• Date to Send On
• Time to Send At
• Timezone to Send By

First set the date time for your message to be sent. Then choose an appropriate timezone setting. By default your notifications will be delivered at the local time zone of your users. So for example if 50% of you users are in New York City and 50% are in London, UK and your notification is scheduled to send at 1pm by 'user timezone' it means that your notification will be delivered at 1pm GMT in London and then it will delivered to your NYC users at 1pm EST. This is done to minimise disruption for your users. If for the above example you sent your notification at 1pm without taking into account device time zone it would be delivered to your NYC users at 7am - potentially disturbing your US users, something you don't want to do. Additionally if you set a time zone i.e. +1:00 it means it will be delivered a 1pm (+1:00 GMT). It can be useful to set a specific timezone when the notification relates to an event occurring at a set time for example a football match kicking off at 19.45 UTC. For example in a case where the notification would not be relevant if it was received after the event, then you can set the timezone to match the timezone of the event.

Creating an Automated Campaign that Repeats

Usually an automated campaign is most interesting when used in conjunction with our analytical data such as when a user last opened an app, first opened an app, days since download etc. For this you will need to create a segment group. See how to create a segment group for more information about this.

Once you have a segment group based on user activity you will want to set a wide range of time to ensure that your campaign is running for an on-going period such as a month or 3 months. It is important to note that at any point you can access your on-going campaigns in 'Live Campaigns' and edit them to update a campaign.

In the image below you can see a segment group 'Downloaded 1 Day Ago' which targets users 1 day after they have downloaded the app. In the schedule you will see that the campaign is running from 18/10/2014 at 17:45 to 30/04/2015. This means that at 17:45 everyday after a user has first downloaded the app they will received a defined notification. As a marketer all you need to do it look at the Campaign Analytics to understand how this campaign is impacting on your user engagement.

In order to get this campaign to send daily to anyone who falls with into that segment you must go the schedule campaign and select that the schedule repeats.

Here you have a number of options.

• Days to Send On
• Time to Send At
• Timezone to Send By
• Date to Start On
• Date to End On

To get the campaign send a message everyday at 17:45 you would configure it as shown below. To have the campaign run indefinitely do not set a date to end on. You will have to manually stop the campaign as indicated.

Notification Expiry Settings

When users are offline when a notification is initially sent it is possible to send the notification when they are back online.

Settings for resending to users who are offline initially are found on the schedule page if sending a notification. The default is based on apple and google defaults is that the user can receive the notification if they come back online within 4 weeks.

You can set:

• a custom time to retry for such as 1 day, 12hrs, 5mins. Suitable for repeating or triggered campaigns.
• a time and date to after which the notification expires and will not be sent. This is great for scheduled notifications related to events that run at a specific time. 
• not to retry. The right choice if your notification is very time sensitive.

Inbox Message Persistence Settings

When a message is being placed in the inbox, on the schedule screen you can set how long that message will stay there for. The default is to persist the message indefinitely.

You can set:

• not to remove. Suitable when your goal is to persist a message in the inbox and have it naturally move down over time.
• a time and date at which the message will be removed from the inbox. This is great for content related to events that run at, or for a specific time for example a limited time offer that runs for a month. 
• remove after some time, such as 7 days, 12hrs etc. The right choice if your message is repeating or triggered and should only last for a certain amount of time, for example a limited time offer triggered by entering a location.