Abandonment is when a contact clicks a campaign's "call to action" link but then does not complete the associated goal in the specified time frame. It is assumed that the contact has abandoned the campaign.

When the abandonment option is enabled and configured, you can set up a distinct message or series of messages (abandonment messages) that will be sent to only those contacts who abandoned the campaign.

EXAMPLE: Assume your campaign's "call to action" is registering for a webinar via a link in a message, and that when the link is clicked, the contact is expected to complete the registration within five hours (this is the wait time period).

The contact receives the campaign message that has the registration link and clicks the link but does not register for the webinar within the five hour wait time period. The contact is considered "abandoned" and the abandonment messages that have been configured will start being sent according to their own wait time period settings.

NOTE: The wait time period that is set for abandonment messages is different than the send interval that is set in the Select Messages and Send Interval section for standard campaign messages. It is described in Set Up a Campaign Messages Send Interval.

Set up Abandonment

The Abandonment option is conveniently built in to the campaign builder. As you're creating or editing a campaign, you can enable Abandonment by simply checking a box and then configuring a few settings.

TIP: If you plan to use the Abandonment feature regularly, you can save time by creating several generic abandonment-specific messages.

To set up Abandonment:

1. While setting up and scheduling the campaign messages in the Select Messages and Send Interval section of the campaign setup page, check the Optional: Enable Abandonment box.

The Configure Abandonment section displays (the Integration Options section gets bumped down).

2. Configure your Abandonment settings using the information below. The lowercase letters refer to the three steps in this section.

TIP: Click the icon next to the section title to open a dialog with helpful information.

Abandonment settings

a. Use the check boxes to choose which messages will include Abandonment and then click Select Link(s) to open the message in a popup and choose which links will trigger the Abandonment tracking.

NOTE: Which messages and how many are available here is dependent on how many and which messages were configured in the Select Messages and Send Interval section.

As you select links in the message, they are added to the Selected Links panel of the popup. You cannot select email address and subscribe links. Click Select when you are finished. The link updates to link to indicate that links have been configured; click this to make changes.

b. Click time period and then, in the popup, set how long to wait (days, hours, and minutes) after a contact has clicked the link but has not yet completed the goal to then consider the contact as abandoned.

c. Specify the number of Abandonment messages to include (click Go) and then select the messages and configure a time period to wait between when each message gets sent.

NOTE: All "message" links (a message, another message, and last message) invoke an identical dialog, Configure Send Action, and all time period links an identical Select Wait Time dialog.

Remember, this message or series of messages will be unique to contacts who are deemed to have abandoned the campaign; the messages that are added here should be designed for that specific audience.

End Stage

Abandonment messages are designed to get abandoned contacts back on track with the campaign, so an abandoned contact could, in fact, complete the goal and satisfactorily complete the campaign.

If the contact has not reached the goal after receiving the "last message," then, after the specified wait time period, the contact will be automatically transitioned to the campaign End Stage and will not be sent any more campaign messages.

Next steps...

When you have finished setting up Abandonment, continue with the other setup options on the page or scroll down and click Next to review your campaign setup.

Related articles

• Create & Edit Campaigns walks through the campaign-creation process.
• Manage Your Campaigns describes how to manage your campaigns on the Campaigns list page.
• Campaign Goals dives into how to set a goal and define its triggers.
• Stop & Restart Campaigns provides information about how and why to stop a campaign and, if you do, how to restart it.