Use automated behavior updates to query your database to exclude inactive contacts to avoid honey traps and spam.

You can configure automated behavior updates for a single database within your organization. A nightly update runs to set the last action date for contacts that performed the selected action during the previous day on any email to the selected database.

Note: While automated behavior updates technically modify the record of your Acoustic Campaign contacts, they do not alter the Last Modified field.

Enable automated behavior updates

An organization administrator can enable automated behavior updates.

1. Go to Automated Behavior Updates under Organization Settings.
2. Click Edit.
3. Select a database that captures contact email behaviors.
4. Choose the automated behavior fields (Open Date Column, Clicked Date Column, and/or Sent Date Column).
5. Save your settings.

Prepare your database 

Perform the following steps to prepare Acoustic Campaign to record each contact’s last sent, last opened, and last clicked dates within the database. Campaign updates these fields at 12 midnight each day.

1. Add the following columns if you don't already have them in your database. The columns must all be date type, but you can use any name that you like.
   • Open date: populated with the date (mm/dd/yyyy) that the contact last opened any email sent to the database (or any associated queries, contact lists, or programs).
   • Clicked date: populated with the date (mm/dd/yyyy) that the contact last clicked a tracked link in any email sent to the database (or any associated queries, contact lists, or programs). A web form link will not count as clicked in a report.
   • Sent date: populated with the date (mm/dd/yyyy) that the contact was last sent any email sent to the database (or any associated queries, contact lists, or programs).
2. Go to Automated Behavior Updates within Organization Settings and complete the following tasks.
   • Assign a database to capture a contact's email behavior. You can assign only one database per organization for this feature.
   • Map the columns for open date, clicked date and sent date.
3. After you map your automatic behavior update columns, you can query and segment against these values.

Automated behavior updates are updated every 24 hours and are retroactive for 30 days upon activation.

When does the automated behavior update process run?

The automated behavior updates process collects the last open, last click, and last sent date stamps, when applicable, or lists enabled for automated behavior updates and then updates each respective list. Date type fields that are mapped through Organization Settings receive the update on a daily basis.

While the last rollup time is visible and might display a date/time in organization settings, this indicates when the last rollup for the Pod started, not when that particular list actually received updates. And that timestamp isn't updated until after the process completes for the day, so it's entirely possible that your list has been updated but the last rollup time could still reflect a timestamp previous to today.

When the automated behavior update process runs on the pod, it starts by reviewing sent activity for a list (if applicable), then reviews behavioral activity (opens and clicks), and then actually updates the list itself in the mapped sent, clicked, or opened date fields. It runs sequentially, meaning, it starts this process for one list, and then doesn't start on the next list until each part is complete for the previous list.

So while the process ideally starts at 5:30 AM GMT nightly, it can be delayed depending on system activity. And the order in which the process collects and updates the data for all eligible lists is not set in stone, and can change. One day a list might benefit from the automated behavior update process at 7AM GMT, and the next day it doesn't receive the update until 5:30PM GMT. These fluctuations are normal and expected.

Last rollup time

The last rollup time displays a date/time in organization settings. The last rollup time indicates when the last rollup for the Pod started, not when that particular list actually received updates.

That timestamp is not updated until after the process completes for the day, so while it is possible that your list is updated, the last rollup time can still have a timestamp previous to the current day.

If the last rollup time value is not visible, click Edit, then click Save.

Additional features

Contact behavior

This feature can be used in classic queries on the behavior tab and allows you to create classic queries based on specific contact behavior, such as the date the contact last opened the email, clicked a link in the email, or was sent an email.

Profile criteria

This feature can also be leveraged in queries and classic queries as part of the profile criteria since the data is collected in a database field.