Personalization Rules

Our Personalization tools work on a system of triggers and actions. When the conditions of a trigger are met, an action occurs that personalizes the site for that visitor. Use Personalization to create 1-to-1 conversion driving experiences for site visitors based on time of day, device type, geolocation and more.

To access and create personalization rules, in the side panel of the editor, click Personalize.

Note

• You will need to republish your site for changes made to your personalization rules to be reflected on the live site.
• Personalization is not supported on multi-language sites.

To learn more, see the following video:

Personalization Triggers

Triggers allow you to define a set of conditions that, when met, automatically execute a specific action on your site. Combine a variety of triggers like time, device-type, or location to create a very customized experience for your site's visitors.

Choose a Trigger

You can choose one or more of the following triggers:

• Device: Which device a user is visiting from (desktop, tablet, or mobile)
• Location: What location a user is visiting from
• Time: What time/date the user is visiting on
• Visits: The number of times the user has visited
• Campaign URL: Whether the user gets to the site from a URL with specific parameters in the query string
• No trigger: This rule will always be active

Note

• Rules will only trigger for the same user once every 30 minutes, or until they clear their browser cache, even if that user still meets the trigger requirements.
• If a user comes back more than 30 minutes after the first visit, we update the number of visits cookie.
• Website Builder uses cookies for first-time users when using personalization rules. One cookie is used for timestamp, another cookie for number of visits.
• We only show pop-ups once for the current browser session.

Personalization Actions

Actions allow you to personalize your visitor's experience, lead them to information they may have missed previously, or present them with opportunities to help complete a sale or get them to visit.

Action Types

• New Row: Creates a new row in your site which only displays when the conditions for the trigger are met. You can also use this to hide rows or content.
• Notification Bar: Triggers a notification bar at the top of the page.
• If the Responsive Tablet toggle is on and both the desktop or tablet have hamburger menu headers, or if the desktop has a top navigation header and the tablet has a hamburger menu header, the notification bar appears at the bottom. If both the desktop and tablet have top navigation menus, the notification bar appears at the top. For more information, see Responsive Tablet.

Note

If you choose the Expandable Menu layout on desktop, the notification bar will appear at the bottom.

• Popup: Triggers a popup to display on your site, grabbing your user's attention.
• JavaScript: Custom JavaScript can create a huge variety of effects. We recommend this feature for advanced users familiar with JavaScript only.

Warning

We cannot troubleshoot custom code.

• Special Effects: Special effects are a variety of decorative effects, like fireworks, falling hearts, or snowflakes, which can give your site a different mood. Add this to your homepage, or to the entire site.

Rule Editing Mode

When you use the new row action, you will enter Rule Editing Mode in the Responsive Editor.

This is a special mode in which you can only edit the new row created by this action. You can also:

• Move this row up and down the page by clicking the Row button in the upper left of the row and clicking the up and down arrows.
• Hide other rows on the page by clicking the eye icon.
• View the personalization rule in different views so that you can be sure it will look how you want it to on different devices.

Special Effects

Personalization rule special effects add animations to your site; for example, floating hearts or falling leaves. Use these special effects to celebrate events or add a touch of color.

Choose a Special Effect

1. Click on the special effect you would like to select.
2. Click the magnifying glass icon to get a quick preview of what the effect looks like.

Effect Settings

1. Toggle whether the effect displays on the home page or all pages.
2. Set for how many seconds the effect should play (or whether it should play forever).

Build Your Own Personalization Rules

You can build your own personalization rules from scratch. Select and customize the triggers and actions for your personalization rule instead of selecting a pre-made rule.

1. In the side panel of the editor, click Personalize.
2. Click Build your own.
3. Select one or more triggers. Each trigger defines a condition under which the associated action will take place.
4. Customize the triggers you have selected.
5. Click Next.
6. Select an action to display. You can only use one action per personalization rule.
7. Click Next.
8. Customize the action you selected. Click next.
9. Preview and save your rule. Click Preview to see what your site will look like with the rule activated (click the Back button in the top right of the site to get back to the Rule Editor).
10. When the rule is customized, give it a unique name, then click Save Rule.

Once you publish or republish your site, the rule will be activated. When someone visits the site and the trigger conditions are met, your selected action will appear for that visitor automatically.

Personalization Rule Priority

While you can have multiple personalization rules on your site at one time, only one of each action can be active at the same time. Understanding rule priority will help you understand how your site decides which action to take. If two rules with the same action type are both triggered at the same time, on the same page, whichever is listed highest on the list of rules will take effect.

Different Actions

Two rules with different actions can, however, display at the same time. For example, if one rule creates a notification bar and the other a row, and both trigger at the same time, both the notification bar and row will appear.

Different Pages

Two rules with the same action can display at the same time so long as they are on different pages. Only duplicate actions on the same page will not display.

Managing Personalization Rules

Editing Rules

To edit a rule, click the gear icon to the right of the rule name, then click Edit and select whether to edit the action or the trigger.

Activate/Deactivate Rules

To activate and deactivate your rules, click the gear icon next to a rule, and select activate/deactivate.

Deleting Rules

To delete a rule, click the gear icon to the right of the rule name, and then click Delete.