◾Best Time Model

‘Best time’ is an AI-based predictive model that can identify user behavior patterns and send SMS, Email, and push notifications at the best time for every particular user.

For an overview of all available artificial intelligence modules, see the parent guide on [[products/ai-models]].

Creating a best-time model

Operators can build their best-time models under AI → Best time → Model setup in the Back-Office. When creating a model, you can control the main aspects that influence model performance:

• Activity trigger – you are selecting user activities that will be taken into account when analyzing user behavior. We recommend always having at least “Login” and “Online” activities to build a model for users who have not generated product-specific activities.

• Algorithm – choose between three mathematical models: Activities count (evaluates pure activity volume), Activities count & linear time fade (applies time decay to prioritize recent activity), and Statistical Model (recommended) (incorporates time decay, weekday weighting, and 6-hour temporal smoothing). You can preview the calculated heatmap on your test user in real time.

• Day & Hour selection logic – you can instruct the model to either select multiple best hours during each day and multiple best days, or to find only one best hour and one best day.

• Sensitivity – is another parameter that controls the threshold in the selection of multiple best hours. A higher value will select more hours during the day. Setting the value to 99, will almost disregard any algorithm-based predictions and will reflect user activity hours.

• Smartico user ID for preview - you can use this option to preview the best time model that you’ve created first with 1 Smartico user, before building it for the whole user base.

After setting all the options you can prepare the raw activities data for the model.

Once the raw activities table is ready, you can build your best time model.

As soon as you are ready with the model, you can build it for all your users by selecting ‘Reset all users & calculate model’.

Depending on the number of users and historical activities, the initial model calculation may take several hours. Once established, incremental updates for newly active users run automatically every 6 hours, and inactive or churning users are recalculated daily.

By default, you can define up to 3 'Best time' models to test different algorithms and sets of activity triggers (this limit can be increased upon request). Once created, models appear in the Model setup list under AI → Best time, where you can also see active campaign usage in the ‘Campaigns: active’ column:

The best-time model includes a dedicated report tab, allowing operators to access campaign-specific information about this model. They can check the ID of the campaign, the Label, the Campaign Name, the Campaign Status, and the creation date. The report can also be exported.

Using the model when sending SMS, Mail, and Push notifications

As soon as the model is defined and calculated for all users, you can select it during the building of marketing campaigns. At the Email, SMS, Push notification, Instant Messaging (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, RCS, Custom IM), or IVR activity level, you can select a specific model as an option under Allowed communication hours.

In addition, you can choose if communication should be sent in the next best hour or the best hour of the best day. For example, If the campaign starts at 8 AM on Monday and targets ‘Next best hour, no matter the day’, it will be sent to this user at 1 PM on Monday.

The second option, ‘Next best day and hour’, will send the communication at 1 PM on Tuesday, because Tuesday and Wednesday are predicted to be the best days for communication.

The Third available option is ‘Next best hour or as soon as possible during current day’. With this setting, if the Best Communication Time for players is not today or has already passed, the resource will be executed immediately as the element becomes active. For example, if you have promotions that are valid only for 1 day and you want to use the BCT models when picking the ‘Next best hour or as soon as possible during current day’ option you are making sure that the communication will be sent to players in their Best time (if it is during the current day) or right after the element becomes active either way, it will be sent during the current day.

Reviewing predictions on user profile

As soon as you define the 'Best time' model(s), you can see predictions for each user on the CRM page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the Back-Office show "Please contact Smartico support to activate this feature"?

Best Time Model is an add-on AI module. If your label does not have the feature enabled, contact your Smartico Account Manager or support team to activate the model for your account.

What happens if a user does not have a Best Time prediction or the model is disabled?

If a campaign activity is configured to use a Best Time model but a player has no calculated prediction (e.g. insufficient activity history) or if the model was disabled, the system automatically falls back to sending the message immediately upon reaching the activity node without blocking campaign execution.

Can we create more than 3 Best Time models?

By default, each label can configure up to 3 Best Time models. If you need additional models for different activity triggers or algorithms, contact your Account Manager to increase the model limit setting for your label.