Push notifications

Learn how to integrate push notifications with the Loyalty Engine using either your existing service or the WLL push notification service, and trigger notifications based on user actions.

When we talk about push notifications, we’re referring to notifications sent via a native mobile app or power web app on iOS or Android. The Loyalty Engine supports sending push notifications in two ways:

• Using your existing push notification service, or

• Using a WLL-supplied push notification service (native apps only)

The Loyalty Engine does not send push notifications directly. Instead, it triggers a push notification service to send them. This distinction is minor but important to understand.

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Client-sourced push notification service

If you already have a push notification service configured and embedded in your app or website, the Loyalty Engine can trigger your existing service to send push notifications.

• To do this, use the custom webhook reaction in a reactor. When a reactor is triggered by an event, the webhook sends a request to your push notification service.

• The content and management of the notifications should be handled within your dedicated push notification service or platform.

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WLL push notification service

The WLL push notification service provides an SDK that you can embed in your native mobile iOS and Android app, which connects with the Loyalty Engine. Once integrated, you can create and manage your push notifications directly within the Loyalty Console or via the Marketing API.

The WLL push notification service has three core components:

• Marketing Campaigns: Send push notifications on a scheduled basis.

• Marketing Webhooks: Trigger push notifications through reactors in response to events.

• Segments: Group app delivery targets based on predefined criteria. Segments differ from audiences, which are groups of Loyalty Engine users defined by specific criteria.

The WLL push notification service is for native mobile apps only, and does not support sending push notifications to websites or power web apps.

Note: The rest of this article applies exclusively to the WLL push notification service. If you are using your own push notification service, refer to the earlier section for implementation details.

Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaigns

Marketing campaigns are scheduled push notifications which you can send to a segment or audience of users. A marketing campaign does not require an event or reactor to fire, and the push notification associated with it is sent at the time you specify during setup.

If you want to send a push notification as a reaction in a reactor, see Marketing Webhooks instead.

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Creating a marketing campaign

When creating a marketing campaign, you specify the following:

• Delivery: This section specifies when the campaign should be sent.

  • Name: An internal use name for your marketing campaign

  • Repeat delivery: You can choose to send the push notification once, or repeat it on a daily/weekly/monthly basis

• Targeting: This section specifies who should receive the notification.

  • Segment/Audience: Choose which users should receive the push notification.

  • If left blank, no users will receive a notification.

  • You can choose from selecting either one or more Segments or Audiences as targets for your campaign - the system will automatically recognise if the same delivery target is specified across multiple segments and/or audiences and only deliver the notification to each delivery target once for each campaign delivery.

• Notification: This section specifies the content of the actual push notification sent to users.

  • Title: The title of the push notification

  • Message body: The message body of the push notification

  • Action URI: Optionally specify a web address that the user will be taken to when they tap on the push notification - if left blank, tapping the push notification will open the app

  • Screen link: Not supported - leave blank

When using a segment and audience for targeting, the user list is merged.

Consider how you manage consents when this occurs. If a user has not given consent for marketing communications sent via push, ensure this consent criteria is in both the segment and audience – or use one or the other.

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Campaign reporting

Once a campaign has been sent you can view the results of the campaign under the 'Deliveries' tab when viewing an individual campaign.

• Sent at: The date and time that the campaign started to be sent at.

• Total sent: The number of push notifications sent.

• Total failed: The number of push notifications that sent but were not delivered.

• Total opened: The number of push notifications that were opened. An 'open' is when a user taps on the push notification within 96 hours (4 days) from the date/time in the 'Sent At' field.

• Converted % - This is the percentage of sent push notifications that were opened.

Marketing Webhooks

Marketing webhooks

Marketing webhooks are push notifications which can be sent as part of a reactor, in response to an event occurring.

If you want to schedule a push notification to send, see Marketing Campaigns instead.

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Creating a marketing webhook

When creating a marketing webhook, you specify the following:

• Metadata

  • Name & description: An internal use name & description for your marketing webhook

• Notification

  • Title: The title of the push notification

  • Message body: The message body of the push notification

  • Action URI: Optionally specify a web address that the user will be taken to when they tap on the push notification - if left blank, tapping the push notification will open the app

  • Screen link: Not supported - leave blank

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Configuring a webhook to send as part of a reactor

Once you have created your marketing webhook, you can specify it as a reaction when setting up a reactor. Just choose 'Marketing webhook' as the reaction and select the webhook name from the list.

Segments

Segments

A segment is a grouping of app based on some predefined criteria. This differs from audiences, which are groups of Loyalty Engine users based on some predefined criteria.

Delivery targets vs users

A delivery target is created each time a user installs the app containing the push notification service, and gives permission to receive push notifications. As a user could do this on multiple devices, there could be multiple delivery targets per user.

Delivery targets do not always get deleted when the user deletes the app or turns off push notification permissions. Therefore it is probable that you'll see more delivery targets in a given segment than the number of users who would qualify for that audience given the same criteria.

As such, segments should not be relied upon to provide accurate statistics in terms of the number of users that match a given set of criteria.

When does a delivery target get added to a segment?

When creating a segment, the data used to evaluate each attribute is based on the information last reported by the app during the user’s most recent session.

This means that if something happens to a user’s account outside of their app session (such as earning points from a receipt submission), the updated data will not be reflected in the segment until the user opens the app again.

For example, let’s say you create a segment for all users with more than 100 points. If a user currently has 80 points, they will not be included in the segment. Later, if the user earns 50 points outside of an app session, they won’t appear in the segment until they open the app, which will trigger the reporting of their updated points balance.

Keep this in mind when creating segments that target attributes which may change outside of user app sessions, as segments will only update with new data when users next open the app.

Using a reactive refresh audience instead of a segment will allow you to target users using the most up-to-date information held for them, regardless of when they last opened the app.

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Creating a segment

When creating a segment, you specify a segment name and segment filters. Add one or more filters with the attributes you want to use. There are several attributes that are available by default, some of which are explained here:

Filter	Description
Last Active	The date and time value of the start time of the users last app session.
Vouchers Redeemed	The number of vouchers the user has redeemed.
Vouchers Unredeemed	The number of vouchers the user has in their wallet, unredeemed.
Offer Notifications Opted In	Whether the user has given permission to receive marketing push notification.
Points Balance	The users points balance when they last had the app open.
User Authenticated	Whether or not the user is currently logged in or if they’ve only downloaded the app without progressing.
Last Engagement	The date and time of the last time the user submitted a code, purchased or redeemed a reward, or claimed a receipt.

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WLL push notification service FAQs

Can I send a push notification to a single specific user?

Yes, although push notifications are not intended for one-off ad hoc communication with a single user. However, to send a push notification to a single or small group of users:

1. Create a marketing webhook containing the notification you want to send.

2. Create a custom event type like 'MANUAL_NOTIFICATION' and toggle 'omit from user activity'.

3. Create a reactor which is triggered on this event type, and make the reaction the marketing webhook you just created.

4. Report a manual event, of the event type you created earlier, against each user you want to send the notification to.

What does the 'ID' field when creating a marketing segment refer to?

This ID field refers to the unique ID of each delivery target. These ID's are not displayed in the Loyalty Console and should not be confused with the ID of a user when viewing an individual members details. This ID field is typically used internally by WLL for testing purposes.

What is the difference between a 'segment' in the marketing module and an 'audience' in the users section?

Segments allows you to create groups of delivery targets (app installations) based on selected criteria that you can then send a push notification to.

Audiences allow you to create groups of users based on selected criteria that you can then use for reporting purposes.

Both Segments and Audiences can be specified as targets for a campaign. See Segments for more information.

Can I add dynamic content to a push notifications sent using the WLL Push Notification Service (e.g. a users name or points balance)?

No.

Can I send push notifications to users of a website, or the Loyalty Microsite?

No.