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Work with rule sets rule-sets
Get started with rule sets gs
What are rule sets? what
In addition to global business rules that restrict the number of times users receive messages across one or multiple channels, rule sets allow you to group together multiple rules into rule sets and apply them to the campaigns of your choice. This provides improved granularity to control how often users will receive a message depending on the type of communication.
For example, you can create a rule set to limit the number of promotional communications sent to your customers and another rule set to limit the number of newsletters sent to them. Depending on the type of campaign that you are creating, you can then choose to apply either the promotional communication or the newsletters rule set.
➡️ Discover this feature in video
Global & custom rule sets global-custom
When accessing rule sets for the first time from the Administration > Business rules (Beta) menu, a default rule set is pre-created and active: Global Default Rule Set.
This rule set contains global rules that you can apply to control how often users receive message across one or multiple channels, similar to how current business rules operate. All the rules defined in this rule set apply to all selected channels, whether communications are sent from a journey or a campaign. Learn how to work with business rules
In addition to this “Global Default Rule Set” rule set, you can create custom rule sets that you can apply to any campaign to restrict the number of messages sent within that campaign. Learn how to create custom rule sets
Channel & journeys capping rules domain
When creating a rule set, you need to specify if the rules within the rule set will enforce capping rules that are specific to communication channels, or to journeys. This is done by selecting a Channel or Journey domain for the rule set when creating it. Learn how to create a rule set
- Channel domain: apply capping rules for communication channels. For example, do not send more than 1 email or SMS communication per day.
- Journey domain: apply entry and concurrency capping rules to a journey. For example, do not enter profiles into more than one journey simultaneously.
Create your first custom rule set create-rule-set
Create the rule set and select its domain create
To create a rule set, follow the steps below.
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Access the Rules sets list, then click Create rule set.
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Define a unique name for the rule set and add a description.
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Select the rule set’s domain. The domain allows you to specify if the rule set will contain capping rules that are specific to communication channels or to journeys. Learn more on channel and journey capping rules
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Click Save.
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Now you can define the rules you want to add to this rule set.
Add rules to the rule set create-new-rule
To add a rule to a rule set, access the rule set and click Add rule.
The parameters available for the rule depend on the rule set domain selected at its creation.
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Define a unique name for the rule.
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The Category field specifies the category of message the rule applies to. For now, this field is read-only as only the Marketing category is available.
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From the Duration drop-down list, select if you want the capping to be applied monthly, weekly or daily. Frequency cap is based on the selected calendar period. It is reset at the beginning of the corresponding time frame.
The expiry of the counter for each period is as follows:
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Monthly: The frequency cap is valid until the last day of the month at 23:59:59 UTC. For example, the monthly expiration for January is 01-31 23:59:59 UTC.
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Weekly: The frequency cap is valid until Saturday 23:59:59 UTC of that week as the calendar week starts on Sunday. The expiry is irrespective of the rule creation. For example, if the rule is created on Thursday, this rule is valid until Saturday at 23:59:59.
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Daily: The daily frequency cap is valid for the day until 23:59:59 UTC and resets to 0 at the start of the next day.
note caution CAUTION To ensure accuracy for daily frequency capping rules, the use of streaming segmentation is mandatory. Learn more on audience evaluation methods in this section.
Please note that the profile counter value updates once the communication is delivered. Please be cognizant of this when you are sending large volumes of communications as the throughput could result in the recipient getting the email minutes or even hours after the initiation of the communication (in the case that you are sending millions of communications simultaneously).
This matters in the case that a recipient receives two communications close together. We suggest spacing communications apart by at least two hour where possible to give sufficient time for the recipient to receive the communication and the counter value to update accordingly.
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Set the capping for your rule, meaning the maximum number of messages that can be sent to an individual user profile each month, week or day - according to your selection above.
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Select the channel you want to use for this rule: Email, SMS, Push notification or Direct mail.
note note NOTE You must select at least one channel to be able to create the rule. -
Select several channels if you want to apply capping across all selected channels as a total count.
For example, set capping to 5, and select both the email and sms channels. If a profile has already received 3 marketing emails and 2 marketing sms for the selected period, this profile will be excluded from the very next delivery of any marketing email or sms.
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Provide a unique name for the rule.
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In the Rule Type drop-down list, specify the type of capping for the rule.
- Journey Entry Cap: Limits the number of entries into the journey over a given period for a profile.
- Journey Concurrency Cap: Limits how many journeys a profile can be enrolled in simultaneously.
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Detailed information on how to configure journey capping rules is available in the Journey capping & arbitration section.
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Click Save to confirm the rule creation. Your message is added to the rule set, with the Draft status.
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Repeat the steps above to add as many rules as needed to the rule set.
Now you need to activate each rule before it can be applied to any messages. Learn more
Activate the rules & the rule set activate-rule
When created, a rule has the Draft status and is not yet impacting any message. To enable it, click the More actions button next to the rule and select Activate.
You must also activate the rule set to be able to access it in campaigns/journeys and apply it to your messages.
To deactivate a rule or a rule set, click the More actions button next to the desired item and select Deactivate.
Its status will change to Inactive and the rule will not apply to future message executions. Any messages currently in execution will not be affected.
Access & manage rule sets access-rule-sets
All created rule sets display in the Administration > Business rules (Beta) menu. They are sorted by last modification date.
Click a rule set name to view and edit its content. All rules included in that rule set are listed. The contextual menu on top right enables you to:
- Edit the name and description of the rule set
- Activate the rule set - learn more
- Delete the rule set
For each rule in the rule set, the More actions button enables you to:
- Edit the rule
- Activate the rule learn more
- Delete the rule
Apply rule sets to a message or journey apply-frequency-rule
You can apply a rule set to a message or a journey, depending on the domain selected when creating the rule set. Expand the sections below for more information.
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When creating a campaign, select one of the channels you defined for your rule set and edit the content of your message.
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In the content edition screen, click the Add Business Rule button.
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Select the rule set you created.
note note NOTE Only activated rule sets display in the list. -
Before activating your campaign, make sure you schedule its execution at least 10 minutes into the future.
This allows for sufficient time to populate the counter values on the profile for the business rule you selected. If you activate the campaign immediately, the rule set counter values will not populate on the profiles of the recipients, and the message will not be counted toward their frequency capping rules for the custom rule sets.
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You can view the number of profiles excluded from delivery in the Customer Journey Analytics report, and in the Live report, where frequency rules will be listed as a possible reason for users excluded from delivery.
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| NOTE |
| Several rules can apply to the same channel, but once the lower cap is reached, the profile will be excluded from the next deliveries. |
When testing frequency rules, it is recommended to use a newly created test profile, because once a profile’s frequency cap is reached, there is no way to reset the counter until the next period. Deactivating a rule will allow capped profiles to receive messages, but it will not remove or delete any counter increments.
To apply a capping rule to a journey, access the journey and open its properties. In the Capping rules drop-down, select the relevant rule set.
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| IMPORTANT |
| If a journey is activated immediately, it can take up to 15 minutes for the system to begin suppressing customers. You can schedule your journey to begin at least 15 minutes into the future to prevent this possibility. |