Offer schedule
The feature allows controlling time when an offer is active or paused. It is a flexible tool that helps set up specific periods during which the offer can accept traffic.
To find the feature, go to Offers > a certain offer > Edit offer > General:
Overview
Each cell is a certain hour of a certain day of the week:
White cells stand for Paused status.
Green cells stand for Active status.
You can click the day of the week to make the offer work for the whole day. You can also click a particular hour to make the offer work during this time every day. It is possible to select only certain hours during certain days.
⚠️ You must specify the date in the Start at field when setting up the Offer schedule.
General principle
The offer becomes active when it’s the time specified in a green cell.
The algorithm checks the offer’s status every 30 minutes (10:00, 10:30, 11:00, etc.) and compares it with the Offer Schedule:
If status meets settings of the Offer Schedule, nothing happens.
If status differs from one set in the Offer Schedule, the algorithm changes it.
Peculiarities
When working with the Offer schedule functionality, keep in mind the following peculiarities:
If you change offer status manually, via API or CPAPI, and the new status doesn’t meet the status in the Offer Schedule, the system changes it to the one set up in the Offer Schedule in 30 minutes approximately.
Exception: if you paused/disabled the offer (manually, via API, via CPAPI) when the active period is in force, the system doesn't change the new status until the beginning of the next active period. For example:
The offer is active from 12:00 to 16:00 every day. Right now is 13:30. You paused the offer for two hours. Offer status will remain as Paused till the next active period (12:00) of the next day.
If you have a 24/7 active offer by the Offer Schedule and then you make it paused/disabled manually/via API or CPAPI, it becomes active again at the beginning of a new day by the timezone.
You cannot save the Offer Schedule with no active periods at all.
When checking the work of the Offer Schedule, check the timezone as well, because it might differ from the general timezone of the platform.
When you change the timezone for the Offer Schedule, the nearest review of the offer’s status notices the new timezone.
For example: you changed the timezone at 12:15. For the remaining 15 minutes the offer works according to the old timezone. At 12:30, the new check happens, and the work continues according to the new timezone.
Start at/Stop date fields
Below the Offer schedule feature, you can see the following fields:
where:
Start at: the date when the system activates the offer.
Stop date (optional): the date when the system pauses the offer.
Timezone: the timezone according to which you set the first two fields.
You can also set up the fields via API with the help of the following parameters:
schedule[date_start]
schedule[date_to]
schedule[timezone] - mandatory
⚠️ You cannot set up the date in the past for these fields. The only case when you see the past date there, when it was installed for the current date or the future, but this date already passed.
Value in the Start at field changes every time when the offer becomes active. But there is an exception. Let's consider three cases:
The previous date was in the future: when you activated the offer via one of the above mentioned ways, the system changes the value in the Start at field to the current day (the day of activation).
The previous date was in the past and the offer becomes active manually/via API/via CPAPI: the system doesn't change the value in the Start at field to the current day (the day of activation).
The previous date was in the past and the offer becomes active via the Activate button on the offer preview page: the system changes the value in the Start at field to the current day (the day of activation).
⚠️ If you want to set up the date in the future, do it when the offer is active and don't change its status further.
Both fields go off at the beginning of the day according to the timezone in the offer. If you set up Start at and Stop date today for today, the system changes nothing. If you set up Start at and Stop date for the future date (the same date for both fields), the behavior will be the following:
Active offer: the system pauses it at the beginning of the day.
Paused offer: the system activates it for a few seconds and then pauses at the beginning of the day.
Disabled offer: the system activates it for a few seconds and then pauses at the beginning of the day.
If the offer has the offer schedule, both fields work together with the Offer schedule. For example, the offer has this schedule:
The system pauses it on the 31st of October, 2022, even if the offer schedule has paused periods in random cells.
Logs
You can find logs in two sections:
User Acivity log
Offers log
User Acivity log
The system logs the actions for schedule under Offer new or Offer edit types of logs (the Schedule section). For example, the offer has this schedule settings:
In Users Acivity log, you can see:
where:
Enabled: whether you select the Offer Schedule checkbox.
Timezone: timezone of the Offer Schedule (it might not match the general timezone of the platform).
Start_date: the date and time selected in the Start at field.
End_date: the date and time selected in the Stop date field.
Intervals: periods when the offer is supposed to be active.
Day_of_week: from Monday to Sunday.
From and To: the range of hours according to the green cells in the Offer Schedule shown according to the timezone in the offer (it might differ from the one set up on the platform's level).
Offers log
The system logs the actions for schedule in Offers > Logs > Single changes under Offer create or Offer update types of logs. For example, the offer has this schedule settings:
In Offers log, you can see:
where:
End_date: the date and time selected in the Stop date field.
Enabled: whether you select the Offer Schedule checkbox.
Intervals: periods when the offer is supposed to be active.
Day_of_week: from Monday to Sunday.
From and To: the range of hours according to the green cells in the Offer Schedule shown according to the timezone in the offer (it might differ from the one set up on the platform's level).
Timezone: timezone of the Offer Schedule (it might not match the general timezone of the platform).
Start_date: the date and time selected in the Start at field.
What to do next
Please contact the Affise Customer Support team regarding all raised questions via the e-mail: [email protected].