How Do I Create and Configure In-App Messaging Campaigns?

Your customers open your app every day. With Gameball’s In-App Messages, you can talk to them right there. Show a slide-up, a modal, or a full-screen message inside your iOS and Android apps, at the moment that matters. You build and change every message from the Gameball dashboard, so there is no app update to ship.

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Understanding In-App Messages

In-app messages appear while the customer is already using your app. Push notifications try to bring customers back. In-app messages guide them while they are already there. Only customers who open your app can see an in-app message. Nothing is sent by push, email, or SMS.

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Message Types

Message types are ordered from least to most interruptive.

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Ideas to Get Started

Here are some campaigns loyalty teams run with in-app messages:

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Configuring an In-App Messaging Campaign

To set up an In-App Messaging campaign from scratch in Gameball, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Dashboard: Navigate to the Gameball Dashboard.
2. Open Campaigns: Click on Campaigns, then Communication.
3. Create a Campaign: Click Create Communication Campaign.

4. Select In-App: At the top of the Communication window, choose In-App.

You build the campaign in four steps: Rules, Message, Delivery, and Review. Click Save and close at any step to finish later.

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Step 1: Rules

1. Name Your Campaign: Enter a Campaign name. Only your team sees it. It never appears to customers.
2. Set Your Audience: In the Audience section, choose who is eligible for this message:
   • All Customers
   • Guest Customers
   • Registered Customers
   • Specific Customers
   Gameball shows how many customers are in your audience right now.

3. Pick a Trigger: In the Triggers section, choose when the message shows:
   • Session start: Shows the message when the customer opens the app.
   • Action based: Shows the message when the customer does something in your app. Choose the event, such as place_order. To narrow it down, click Add Filter and set a condition on the event’s details, for example total_price Greater than 100.
   Filters support Is, Is not, Greater than, Greater than or equal, Less than, Less than or equal, and Between.

4. Choose the Platforms: Under Platforms, select iOS, Android, or both.
5. Set When It Runs:
   • Starts: Choose As soon as it is live, or On a specific date.
   • Ends: The campaign has no end date by default. Turn on the toggle to set one.

6. Save and Continue: Click Save and continue.

The Who sees it, and when panel on the right summarizes your choices as you go.

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Step 2: Message

1. Choose a Message Type: Pick Slide-up, Modal, or Full screen. You can change it later.
2. Write the Content: Write on the left and check the live preview on the right. Switch the preview between iOS and Android.
   • Languages: Use the language tabs, such as EN and AR, to write the message in each language you support. A tab with a ! still needs content.
   • Layout: Choose Text and image, or Image only when your image is the whole message.
   • Header: Keep it short and specific.
   • Message: Up to 120 characters.
3. Personalize the Message: Insert the customer’s own details with these variables: {player_name}, {first_name}, {player_last_name}, {player_display_name}, {player_unique_id}, {player_email}, {points_balance}, {available_points}, {pending_points}.
4. Add an Image: Upload a PNG, JPEG, JPG, or GIF, up to 5 MB. In a slide-up or modal, the image shows at the top of the message.

5. Add Buttons: Click Add button to add up to two buttons. Labels are set per language. What a button does is shared across all languages. Each button also has its own background, text, and border colors.

   On click	What happens
   No action	Nothing happens. This is the default.
   Close message	Closes the message.
   Open a web URL	Opens a web page.
   Deep link into the app	Opens a screen in your app, such as /rewards. You can add arguments, one per line, as key: value.
   Request push permission	Asks the customer to allow push notifications. Apps built with the native Android SDK do not support this action yet; there, the button only closes the message.

6. Set the Colors and Tap Behavior:
   • Under Message colors, set the Background, Header, Text, Close button, and Overlay colors.
   • Under Behaviour, use When tapped to choose what happens when the customer taps the message itself, outside the buttons.
   The preview is approximate. The real message follows the device theme.

7. Click Done: Click Done to save the variant. To test the variant on your own phone first, click Send to device.

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Full Screen Messages

A full screen message has a few extra settings:

• Media: The image fills the screen behind your text. An animated GIF plays as uploaded.
• Show safe zone: Turn it on under the preview to see the guides. Keep key content inside them so notches and home bars do not cover it.
• Orientation: Under Display, choose the orientation the message is shown in. If the device is held the other way, the message waits for the next opportunity instead of being skipped.

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Variants and Control Group

Test more than one version to see which performs better.

• Add variant: Click Add variant and build another version, for example a full screen to compare with your modal.
• Split the audience: Set each variant’s Audience share. The shares must add up to 100%. Click Distribute evenly to split them equally.
• Add control group: Click Add control group. These customers are eligible but see nothing. Comparing against them shows whether the campaign made the difference, and not something else, like a seasonal spike.

You can rename a variant, change its share, or change its message type from the Variant settings tab. Changing the type keeps your text but clears fields the new type does not use. Click Save and continue.

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Step 3: Delivery

1. Set How Often It Shows: Choose Once, ever, or Again after a set gap and set the days between showings. You can also turn on:
   • Also cap how often this campaign can show: For example, no more than once per day. This cap applies to this campaign only.
   • Stop after a total number of views
   With both turned off, the message keeps showing until the end date, or until you stop it.

2. Measure a Conversion Goal: Turn on Measure a conversion goal.
   • Choose the Event that counts as a conversion, such as place_order.
   • Set Count conversions within, such as 7 days. A conversion only counts if it happens inside this window after the message is shown.
   • Each conversion is credited to the campaign and to the variant the customer saw.
   • To stop showing the campaign to customers who convert, turn on Stop showing after conversion. This applies for good, whatever the repeat settings above.
   Without a goal, the campaign’s conversion numbers stay at zero.

3. Set the Priority: Under If more than one message is eligible at once, choose High, Normal, or Low. Only the highest-priority eligible message is shown.

4. Save and Continue: Click Save and continue.

The What limits delivery panel on the right lists everything that can hold this message back.

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Step 4: Review

1. Check Before You Launch: The Before you launch list shows anything that needs attention. For example, if a variant is missing a language, that share of your audience sees the default language instead. Click Add it to fix it.
2. Review What They Will See: Check the preview of every variant and the control group, then check the Summary.
3. Send a Test Message: Click Send test message and check it on your phone. The test happens on the device, so the dashboard cannot confirm it from here.
4. Set Live: Click Set live. To finish later, click Save as draft.

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Account-Level In-App Settings

These rules apply to every in-app campaign on your account.

1. On the Communication Campaigns page, click Settings.
2. Next to In-app messages, click Edit.

Click Save.

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Tracking Performance

The Communication Campaigns list shows each campaign’s Trigger, Channel, Audience, State, Sent, Clicked, and Goal. In-app campaigns show In-App in the Channel column.

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Managing Campaigns

• Find your campaigns under the Live and Draft tabs on the Communication Campaigns page.
• Click the options menu next to a campaign to Edit, Duplicate, or Delete it.
• Edits to a live campaign reach customers the next time they open your app.

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Important Notes

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Common Questions

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