Segmenting with activity windows in ActiveCampaign

Ashlee U

Last updated August 16, 2024 21:04

ActiveCampaign activity windows allow you to use dates based on contact activities, such as email sends, opens, and clicks in your segments. For example, with activity windows, you can segment contacts that have not opened or clicked any emails in the last six months to help clean up contacts.

This article will help clarify how activity windows work within the ActiveCampaign condition builder.

Learn more about how to create segments in ActiveCampaign.

Take note

Activity windows are currently only available for the following conditions:
- Email send
- Email open
- Email click
- Email reply
Activity windows are available for all email types including, campaign, automation, and 1:1 emails.

Activity window availability

Activity windows can be found in most of the segment builders in ActiveCampaign and can only be used within specific conditions that support activity window functionality. Below is a list of conditions and segment builders that support activity windows.

Segment conditions that support activity window functionality:

Condition	Supported Activity Window Operators
Has opened Has not opened Has been sent Has not been sent Has clicked on a link Has not clicked on a link Has replied Has not replied	In the last [days, weeks, months, years], Between [exact dates, today, yesterday, relative dates], Ever

List of segment builders that support activity window conditions:

Segment Builder Location	Supports Activity Window Operators
Advanced Search	Yes
Automations	Yes
Campaigns	Yes
Conditional Content	No
Lists	Yes
Scoring	Yes

How to create a segment with activity windows

To begin using segment activity windows:

From a supported segment builder, select a supported activity window condition.
Once a selection is made, you will see a row of options appear below the selected condition, with options for selecting a specific activity window. Specify the activity window you want to apply to your selected condition.
Depending on your segment builder, click “Next” or “Search” to complete the segment.

Activity window operator definitions

Time Window Operator	Definition
In the last [days, weeks, months, years]	Only looks for activity that has happened within the last X amount of time. Time zones are not a factor with relative activity windows, it represents the exact number of seconds from when the condition is evaluated (e.g. “in the last 3 days” roughly translates to: 72 hours before the advanced search is run, when an automation block is processed, when an email is sent, etc.). “Months” refer to the same day of the month, just shifted.
Between [exact dates, today, yesterday, relative dates]	Only looks for activity that has happened between two time periods. Activity windows can be specified as two exact dates, two relative dates, or as a combination. When specifying two time periods, it does not matter whether the date on the left is earlier or later than the date on the right. Conditions will be evaluated against the resulting activity window regardless. For exact dates, as well as “today” and “yesterday”, the day is inclusive of the entire day (from 00:00:00 midnight to just before 00:00:00 the next day) using the time zone configured in your ActiveCampaign account settings. If the date on the left is identical to the date on the right, then this creates a 1 day window. For relative dates, time zones are not a factor. The activity window represents the exact number of seconds from when the condition is evaluated (e.g. “in the last 3 days” roughly translates to: 72 hours before the advanced search is run, when an automation block is processed, when an email is sent, etc.). “Months” refer to the same day of the month, just shifted. If the date on the left is identical to the date on the right, then this creates a 0 second window and will never return any matches.
Ever	Looks for all activity that matches the given condition, regardless of the activity window.

Examples using activity windows

To help explain how activity windows work within segment conditions, we are going to use the following examples around email engagement. Below is an example scenario and solution using each activity window operator:

Activity Window Operator	Use Case in Practice
In the last [days, weeks, months, years]	Scenario I want to understand who has not replied to any of my emails in their first 90 days of being a new contact in my database. I’d like to retarget them with a specific one-off message. Solution Segment for has not replied to any email in the last 90 days AND contact created date is on or after 90 days from today.
Between [exact dates, relative dates]	Scenario I want to understand who clicked on any of my campaigns within the months of September, October and November of this year as these are high promotional periods for my business. I want to handle these contacts in a specific way going forward. Solution Segment for has clicked on any link in any email between 9/1/23 and 11/30/23.
Ever	Scenario I want to know who in my database has not ever clicked AND replied to any of my emails ever. I need to clean up my lists of these people. Solution Segment for has not clicked on any link in any email ever AND has not replied to any email ever. I’m going to unsubscribe these contacts from all of my lists to bring down my subscribed (active) contact count.