What is an event-triggered campaign?
Also known as: Triggered message
Used in a sentence: Let's make the insurance upsell an event-triggered campaign that fires after a flight booking, not a Friday blast to everyone.
How it works
Every campaign has three parts: a trigger event, an audience and a message. The app’s analytics or engagement SDK records events such as “added to cart” or “completed KYC”. When an event arrives, the SDK checks whether the user is in the target audience and whether any rule should hold the message back, such as a frequency cap.
If everything matches, the message shows immediately. Triggers can also be negative, firing when something has not happened, for example no second order within a week. Delays are possible too, such as waiting a few seconds after a screen loads.
Example
A travel app wants more users to add trip insurance. Instead of a weekly banner, the team sets a campaign that fires the moment a user completes a flight booking. A bottom sheet offers insurance for that trip with one tap to add it. Users who already bought insurance, or who booked using a corporate account, are excluded.
Event-triggered vs time-based campaigns
| Event-triggered | Time-based | |
|---|---|---|
| Fires when | A user does something | A scheduled date or time |
| Relevance | Matches the current moment | Same for everyone in the segment |
| Best for | Intent, drop-off, milestones | Sales, announcements |
Time-based campaigns suit news everyone should hear. Event-triggered ones suit moments specific to each user.
Best practices
- Pick events close to a decision, not generic ones like app open.
- Add exclusion rules so converted users stop seeing the message.
- Cap frequency across campaigns, not just within one.
- Compare against a holdout to confirm the trigger drives the outcome.
How to do this with Digia Engage
A growth team picks a trigger from events already tracked in CleverTap, MoEngage or WebEngage, sets the audience and exclusions, and builds the message in Digia’s no-code builder. Campaigns fire on the user event in under 100ms, so the message lands while the user is still on the screen. Everything goes live without an app release. See the trigger and format options on the Nudges product page.
Frequently asked questions
- What events should trigger in-app campaigns?
- Events that signal intent or a stall: viewing a product without adding it, leaving a form halfway, finishing a first transaction, or not using a key feature after a set time. Start with the points in your funnel where users drop off most, and pair each event with one clear next action.
- How fast does an event trigger need to be?
- Fast enough that the message appears while the user is still on the screen where the event happened. If it arrives after they have moved on, it feels random and loses its context. That usually means the SDK must evaluate the event on the device, in real time, rather than waiting for a server batch.
Related terms
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Part of the In-app engagement glossary.