◾Optimize Communication by excluding disengaged players

This document explains why and how to send communication only to players who have been engaging with your emails, SMS, or Push notifications.

To prevent sending emails, SMS, or push notifications to uninterested audiences is vital when it comes to using communication channels effectively. You can exclude players from your Segments, Campaigns, and Automation Rules, or even restrict them from seeing specific Missions or Tournaments if they haven’t been engaging with the emails, SMS, or Push notifications that you've sent.

Neglecting to filter out disengaged players could result in email providers marking your messages as spam or reducing visibility in inboxes due to poor engagement. To avoid this from happening you can use the following user properties:

• Core: Mail Last Open Date - the last time the player has opened your emails

• Core: Mail Last Click Date - the last time the player has clicked on links from your emails

• Core: Push Last Click Date - the last time the player has clicked on links from push notifications

• Core: Push Notification Last Open Date - the last time the player has opened a push notification

• Core: SMS Last Click Date - the last time the player has clicked on links from SMS

• Core: Inbox Last Open Date - the last time the player opened an inbox message

• Core: Inbox Last Click Date - the last time the player clicked a link inside an inbox message

• Core: Viber Last Open Date - the last time a Viber message impression was recorded

• Core: Viber Last Click Date - the last time the player clicked a link in a Viber message

• Core: Telegram Last Click Date - the last time the player clicked a link in a Telegram message

• Core: RCS Last Click Date - the last time the player clicked a link in an RCS message

• Core: last marketing email send date - the last date and time a marketing email was sent (useful for identifying whether a player has received campaigns)

• Core: last marketing SMS send date - the last date and time a marketing SMS was sent

• Core: last marketing push send date - the last date and time a marketing push notification was sent

For example, you can create a segment that excludes players who haven't opened your emails within the last 30 days. This way when you are building a journey, you can send communication exclusively to engaged players who have interacted with your emails recently. Following the same logic, you can also create a segment comprising users who have clicked on push notification links within the last 30 days.

Example of Segment with engaged users

Best Practice: Protecting New Players from Inadvertent Exclusion

When building exclusion segments or conditions, keep in mind that newly registered players have not yet received or interacted with any communications. Consequently, properties like Core: Mail Last Open Date are not set (empty) for new users.

• Targeting Engaged Users: If you use a positive filter such as Core: Mail Last Open Date within the last 30 days (Days passed <= 30), new registrations with no opens will automatically be excluded. To include new players in marketing journeys, add an OR group condition such as Days Since Registration <= 14.

• Excluding Inactive Users: If you filter for disengaged users with Core: Mail Last Open Date Days passed > 30, ensure you combine it with Core: last marketing email send date is set and Days Since Registration > 30 to prevent newly registered users from being incorrectly flagged as disengaged before they have had an opportunity to interact.

An alternate method to filter out disengaged players is by applying conditions during Campaign configuration. By using the ‘Add Condition’ button you can add another layer of filtering to the already selected segment. Similar actions can be taken when configuring an Automation Rule.

To prevent player fatigue and over-communication proactively before users disengage, you can also configure account-level and per-user limits under Label > Communication Caps (see the Communication Caps guide).

Example of Campaign targeting engaged users

Rather than completely excluding semi-active players, you can optimize delivery by scheduling messages during their peak activity periods using the Best Time Model feature under Label > Best Time.

You can also selectively display certain missions or tournaments exclusively to engaged players. For instance, within the missions template in the BO, under the 'Who can see and progress in the mission' section you can add the user properties mentioned above and limit the disengaged players from accessing the mission.

For tournaments, you can restrict the access and visibility for players by adding a specific segment. In our case, you can simply create a segment with all the players that have been engaging with your communication for some period. The options to restrict access and visibility are within the Tournament template:

• Who can see the tournament (supports selecting a Segment or defining direct conditions)

• Who can register in the tournament (supports selecting a Segment or defining direct conditions)

FAQ

What is the difference between an opted-out player, a bounced address, and a disengaged player?

An opted-out player has explicitly unsubscribed (via Smartico or PAM unsubscription links), and a bounced or blocked address has failed deliverability checks (managed via Core: smartico email status (internal)). Smartico automatically suppresses communications to opted-out, bounced, spam-reported, and blocked users. A disengaged player, by contrast, has a valid, subscribed address but has not opened or clicked messages recently; these players require proactive segmentation and condition filtering to avoid harming sender reputation.

Why is there no "Core: SMS Last Open Date" property?

SMS delivery does not support open-tracking pixels because standard text messages do not render HTML. Therefore, SMS engagement is tracked exclusively through link clicks via Core: SMS Last Click Date.

How can I prevent marketing messages from spamming active players without creating complex segments?

You can enable Communication Caps under Label > Communication Caps. Per-user caps allow you to restrict how many marketing emails, SMS, or push notifications an individual user can receive over rolling 24-hour, 7-day, or 30-day periods, and enforce minimum intervals (e.g. 30 seconds) between messages.

Can I re-engage disengaged players with specific retention offers?

Yes. You can create a dedicated re-engagement journey targeting players whose Core: Mail Last Open Date is more than 60 or 90 days ago, using alternative channels such as Web Push, SMS, or Inbox messages combined with enticing bonus offers or mini-games to reactivate them.