Using Job Schedules

Overview

Marketing Campaigns can be automated to launch repeatedly at set times automatically or run manually through user interaction. Other types of Campaigns, like Transactional Campaigns, do not follow schedules. Schedules are used to launch Campaigns automatically. 

Schedules are found within the Campaign Overview screen.

This article describes the different types of Campaign Schedules and how to use them.

Table of Contents

Types of Schedules

Advanced Scheduling Options

Blackout Dates

Cancelling a Scheduled Job

Types of Schedules

There are five types of schedules to choose from when creating a Job Schedule. Below you will find a list of each type and an accompanying description:

• Adhoc
• One Time
• Daily
• Days Per Week
• Advanced Schedule

Adhoc

An Adhoc schedule disables any automatic configurations. The only way a Campaign can be launched is through a manual process.

One Time

This option schedules one single scheduled launch in the future. This is not repeatable, but it is an automatic launch.

Configuring a One Time schedule is fairly straightforward. Select the time and date for the Campaign to launch. After saving the schedule, the Campaign will automatically launch at the given time. After this date and time has passed, this Campaign will not automatically run again until a user sets another future schedule.

Daily

The Daily schedule allows you to set a Campaign to launch one or more times per day.

Using the Interval value, the Campaign is automatically scheduled to launch at the given times. In the Once per Day option, the Campaign will launch at the given time for each day.

In the other options, with more frequent intervals, the Campaign will launch first at the given time for each day, followed by another launch after the interval has passed.

Days Per Week

Days Per Week is similar to the Daily schedule option but doesn’t have to run every day. The checkboxes allow for you to set this schedule to only launch on the given time for the days of the week that are checked.

Advanced Schedule

If no other schedules fit the necessary configuration of a Campaign, the Advanced Schedule provides an option to create a customizable schedule.

This option uses a Quartz CronTrigger expression. This expression describes a complex set of parameters for creating a precise schedule.

Populating this Advanced Schedule requires specific formatting.

Inputting the Quartz CronTrigger expression in this field is all that is needed for the Advanced Schedule.

Advanced Scheduling Options

When using the One Time, Daily, or Days Per Week schedule; additional options are available for modifying schedules. Expand the Advanced Scheduling Options option below the schedule configuration.

The Select Automated Preview Schedule is an option to receive a preview of a Template as an email at a specified time before the schedule runs. This requires creating and managing Automated Preview Schedules.

The next option, Select the number of hours before campaign launch to begin extracting recipient data, is an extremely useful tool when handling large amounts of data.

Typically, when launching a Job, the first step of the process is to extract Audience data. The more data that must be processed, the longer the extraction takes. Without using this tool, extraction begins when the Job launches. While using this tool, recipient extraction and the pre-campaign trigger (if in use) begin at a predetermined time before the Job launches.

Any updates that occur to Audience data after extraction will not be included in the Job as the information has already been processed.

If recipient extraction has not completed by the time of the scheduled job launch, Accelerator will wait until the extraction is complete, and then it will launch the job immediately.

Blackout Dates

One Time, Daily, and Days Per Week schedules also have an option for Blackout Dates. Blackout Dates are dates that the Campaign schedule should not run automatically. On Blackout Dates, schedule automation is ignored for a Campaign.

Cancelling a Scheduled Job

At any time prior to a Job launching, a scheduled Job can be canceled by switching the Campaign scheduling to Adhoc. This will remove any scheduled capabilities from the Campaign until the user changes the Schedule type again.