Smart searches
A smart search is a query which returns all users that match a set of configurable criteria – like Country = Denmark or Viewed a Product = {some product}.
There are three kinds of criteria to choose from:
- User information, such as name, country or email permission
- User audit information, such as creation date, created by, and email permission updates
- User behavior, on your website, e.g. pages visited or time spent on site, and for email marketing, e.g. has received and opened a particular email, has clicked these links in a specific email, etc.
With this you can identify users who share some properties and use them as recipient in email marketing, as groups when setting up email personalization, and so on - for example:
- Find all users who live in a certain geographical location, e.g. Denmark or the city of Copenhagen, and send them an email with a special offer in their local store
- Find all users who opened an email, and clicked a specific link in the email
- Find all users who bought a specific product
- Find all users created within a specific timeframe (e.g. new users)
- Etc.
Once a smart search has been created it can also be selected as the basis for a user group, which makes membership of the user group dynamic.
Please note that smart searches are recalculated using a scheduled task so changes to a user will not remove a user from or add a user to smart search instantly. In some cases smart searches can also be replaced with index queries which may improve performance.
Please note that smarts searches are dependent on the old Statistics feature being enabled under Settings > Web and HTTP > Tracking.
Creating smart searches
To create a user smart search:
- Click Users on main menu
- Open a context menu for the Smart Searches node in the user tree
- Click New smart search (Figure 2.1)
This takes you to the smart search configuration area (Figure 2.2).
From here, you must:
- Name the smart search
- Add the smart search criteria – the rules defining which users should be included and which should be excluded in the smart search
- Specify the maximum number of users you want to include in the smart search with rows to fetch. By default the smart search will fetch all users meeting the smart search criteria.
- If you have limited the number of users a smart search can contain, you can detail how they are selected with the Select by (primary/secondary) options. If ID is selected, and ascending order is specified, the smart search will select the users with the lowest ID’s, until the specified maximum number of users is reached.
To delete or edit a smart search:
- Right-click or click the three dots next to the smart search to open the context menu (Figure 3.1)
- Click Edit smart search or Delete smart search
You can also export users from a smart search – the procedure is similar to exporting users from a user group. Read more here.
Smart search criteria
The heart of a smart search is the smart search criteria – or smart search rules.
Smart search criteria are divided into four different areas:
- User information
- Audit information
- Behavior on website
- Behavior for Email marketing
The basic principle is this.
- You select a field for the rule to look at
- You select an operator like is, is not, contains, is in the range – the operators available to you depend on the field data type (string, int, Boolean)
- You specify a value to test for
For instance, in (Figure 4.1), the rule looks at the user field Country, using the operator is and the value Denmark.
This will result in a smart search containing all users who have Denmark as the value in their Country field.
Here’s a rundown of the smart search criteria available to you.
While smart searches based on a single rule may be useful, it’s in combination that smart searches become really useful. A smart search finding users in Denmark could have been a user group – but a smart search matching active users in Denmark, who’ve visited your bike shop, but not made a purchase could not – and sending that group an offer might be very effective.
User information criteria
User information checks the values of user fields and settings set on the user.
Your options correspond to the database fields for users, minus the ones that don’t make sense to search on (like user pictures), and should be self-explanatory.
User audit information criteria
The user audit information criteria allow you to create rules based on audit information.
Your options are:
|
Field |
Checks |
|
Created on |
User creation date |
|
Updated on |
User last updated date |
|
Created by |
User created by (specific user) |
|
Updated by |
User last updated by (specific user) |
|
Email permission updated on |
User email updated |
For the criteria where time is a factor, you will usually select the operators is before or is after and select a particular date.
Behavior on website criteria
The behavior on website criteria allows you to create smart search rules based on how your users interact with your website.
Your options are:
|
Field |
Checks |
|
Last login time |
The last know login time of a user |
|
Last order date |
The last time a user created and order |
|
Visited a website |
If a user has visited a specific website |
|
Timestamp for website visit |
When a user visited a specific website |
|
Visited a page |
If a user has visited a specific page |
|
Page visit timestamp |
When a user visited a specific page |
|
Viewed a product |
If a user has viewed a specific product |
|
Product view timestamp |
When a user viewed a specific product |
|
Bought a product |
If a user has bought a specific product |
|
Product bought timestamp |
When a user bought a specific product |
|
Added a product to a favorite list |
If a user has added a specific product to a favorite list |
|
Total value of orders |
The total value of orders |
|
Order date |
An order date |
|
Largest order total price |
The largest total price of a single order by the user |
|
Orders placed in the last 30 days |
The number of orders placed within 30 days |
|
Total loyalty points |
The total number of loyalty points a user has |
|
Date of last added loyalty point |
When loyalty points were last added to a user |
|
Next date of expiration for loyalty points |
When loyalty points expire next (before or after a specific date) |
Behavior for Email Marketing
The behavior for Email Marketing criteria allow you to create smart search rules based on how your users have reacted to, and interacted with, you email marketing efforts.
Your options are:
|
Field |
Checks |
|
Received a specific email |
If a user has received a specific email |
|
Email received timestamp |
When a user received a specific email |
|
Opened a specific email |
If a user has opened a specific email |
|
Email opened timestamp |
When a user opened a specific email |
|
Clicked any link in an email |
If a user has clicked any links |
|
Timestamp for click on any link |
When a user clicked any links |
|
Clicked a specific link in an email |
If a user has clicked a specific link |
|
Timestamp for click on a specific link |
When a user clicked a specific link |
Grouping smart search criteria
Smart searches are most powerful, when the rules are combined to suit a particular purpose.
For that purpose, you can combine rules using the rules buttons (Figure 9.1).
By default, all rules added to the rules area are inclusive, and all must be true for the user to be part of the smart search.
By selecting two rules, and clicking the Any must apply button, you can create flexible conditions for your smart search (Figure 9.2).
In this manner, you can create complex smart searches to suit your scenarios.
Previewing a smart search
Because stringing together smart search criteria can be relatively complicated, it may be useful to preview your smart search results.
To do so, simply click the preview button (Figure 10.1).
This will save and run the smart search - and take you to the list of the users matching your criteria.
