Manage behaviors

11 min

Note

The terms audiences and segments are interchangeable. Optimizely has updated all segments to audiences on the Audiences page and is updating the UI on other pages. See Understand audiences to get information on audiences.

Behaviors are a series of customer actions that model how customers interact with your brand. Optimizely Data Platform (ODP) views them as a set of specific expressions in a particular order, such as cart abandonment:

The customer added an item to their cart within the last day.

The customer did not remove that item from their cart.

The customer did not purchase that item.

Behaviors are used to create audiences (standard or real-time) or to populate dynamic grids in campaigns.

Create a behavior

Go to Data Setup > Behaviors.

Click New Behavior.

Enter a name for the behavior.

Add the desired steps. Example behavior: Cart Abandonment

The customer added an item to their cart within the last day. The step syntax is "Everyone who matched Product Add to Cart at least 1 time in the last 1 days."

The customer did not remove that item from their cart. The step syntax is "and then did not match Product Remove from Cart linked to Step 1 with same Product Id for all time."

The customer did not purchase that item. The step syntax is "and then did not match Order Item Purchase linked to Step 1 with same Product Id for all time."

Click Save.

Apply a behavior

Note

Email and SMS channels are legacy features and not offered to new customers.

You can apply behaviors to audiences or dynamic grids to affect the content that those elements reference (like campaign emails).

Apply behavior to a standard audience

Go to Customers > Audiences.

Create an audience or edit an existing audience.

Create or add a Customers who have done something or Customers who have not done something audience expression.

Search for the desired behavior and provide any additional required information.

Click Save.

Apply behavior to a dynamic grid

Go to Activations > Overview.

Create a campaign or edit an existing campaign.

Add or edit an email touchpoint.

Add or edit a dynamic grid and select the desired behavior as the Source.

Click Save to apply the behavior to the grid.

Edit a behavior

Go to Data Setup > Behaviors.

Locate the behavior you want to edit and click the Edit icon.

Make the desired changes and click Save.

Delete a behavior

Go to Data Setup > Behaviors.

Locate the behavior you want to delete and click the Delete icon.

Click Delete to confirm the deletion.

You can copy or share the structure of a behavior between ODP accounts to use the same behavior in each.

Go to Data Setup > Behaviors.

Locate the behavior you want to share and click the Copy icon.

Select the Account and Scope with which you want to share the behavior. To create a copy instead, select the current account and scope.

Click Copy to confirm.

If you are copying a behavior, the edit view of that behavior displays after you click Copy. You must enter a name for the behavior, make any desired edits to the steps, and click Save.

If you are sharing a behavior, a confirmation message displays. Go to the account and scope to access the shared behavior.

Use product behavior to encourage a purchase

In ODP, how customers interact with your products is considered a behavior. This can help identify specific products with which a customer has interacted. This topic explains how to access and use the information from these behaviors to personalize your content.

The following example uses a browse abandonment campaign to show how to use product behaviors. Customers land on the website, view product pages, but leave without adding any items to their cart. The goal is to have the campaign remind them of some of the items that they viewed and encourage a purchase decision.

Use a Dynamic Grid element to highlight these recently viewed items in a campaign email.

Go to Activations > Overview.

Create a campaign or edit an existing campaign.

Add or edit an email touchpoint.

Drag and drop a Dynamic Grid into your web content from Elements > Layout.

Select the desired behavior as the Source, like Browse Abandonment.

Set the Timeframe.

Click Save.

You can change these settings after placing the dynamic grid. Select the grid, go to the Details tab, and click the Content value.

More dynamic grid options

While editing the dynamic grid's settings, you can expand More Options to reveal more controls for the content and the grid.

Object Feed – Select the object that you want to show in the dynamic grid.

Item Variable – Enter the specific object variable that you want to display in the dynamic grid.

Sort – Select the order of the products in the dynamic grid.

Most Frequently Engaged – Products that customers interact with (view, purchase, and so on) most often.

Most Recent – The newest products in your product feed.

Require that customers match source behavior to receive campaign – Toggle on to only include customers that match the behavior you selected as the Source.

You can also find more dynamic grid options by clicking the dynamic grid in the editor and going to the Details tab.

Item Index Variable – Name of the variable that has the index of the product in the list of products.

Row Index Variable – Name of the variable that has the index of the row you are rendering in the content.

Column Index Variable – Name of the variable that has the index of the column you are rendering in the content.

Advanced personalization

For advanced personalization, use custom liquid. You can find the reference material on the Shopify Liquid website. You should contact your customer success manager before proceeding with advanced personalization.