Predictive content helps you send the right content to the right contacts and increase your click rate. All you need to do is add the predictive content block to your email and provide up to five variations of text. When the email is sent, each contact will receive the version that they're most likely to engage with.
Take note
- Predictive content is available with standard campaigns and automation emails. It cannot be used with RSS, auto-responder, split test, or date-based campaign types
- Predictive content is only available on the Classic Designer. It is not available with the Email Designer (launched 2022) (coming soon), custom html emails, or the text-only designer
- Each email can have only one Predictive Content block
- Link tracking needs to be enabled in your emails for predictive content to work
- English is the only language supported in this version of predictive content
- Predictive content supports only text. Images and buttons cannot be used in the predictive content block
- It's not possible to see which variant a contact received
How predictive content works
Predictive content is a content block available in the drag-and-drop email designer. Once you drag the predictive content block into your email, you'll be prompted to create up to five variations of content, using different verbiage and lengths. While it's not required to have a link or clickable call-to-action in each variant, it is recommended.
You can use the "Predictive Insights" bar to guide you as you create each variant of text. This bar will provide suggestions based on the length and readability of the content you provide in the block. The insights bar uses data from past email sends that had link tracking turned on in order to provide this guidance.
When the email is sent, we'll predict and display the variant that each contact is most likely to engage with. This means that Contact A will see one version of your email, while Contact B will see another. After the campaign is sent, you can see how each variant performed using the Predictive Content report.
With predictive content, each contact will receive the best email for them. What is best for one contact is not necessarily the best for another contact.
Read the "Tips for writing predictive content variants" help article for information on how to write different variants.
How does ActiveCampaign know which variant to display?
We analyze all emails that our customers send. We also analyze how contacts engage with those emails. This is based on link and call-to-action clicks. Using this pool of data, we're able to determine which variant of your email should display for each of your contacts.
In cases where a contact is new, we'll assign them a random variant. This will help us collect information about that contact so we can better predict what kind of email they will interact with in the future.
Read the "Predictive Content quick answers" help article to find answers to other common questions on using the Predictive Content feature.
Watch the "Preparing to send your Predictive Content campaign" video to get ready to send your email.
Add the predictive content block to your email
- From the Campaign Designer of your email, click the "Predictive Content" block and drag it to your email.
- The "Predictive Content" block will load. Click the content block and type the first version of content into the space provided. The text you provide will save automatically.
- Click the tab that says "Variant 2." Click the content block and type the second version of content into the space provided.
- To add additional variants click the "Add a variant" button.
After you've created predictive content variants, you can continue to modify the email using the other content blocks provided. When finished, click "Save & Exit" to close the campaign for now or click "Next" to view the Campaign Summary page.
When the email is sent, we'll display the variant that each contact will most likely interact with.
Name your variants
You can name each variant you create for a predictive content block. To do so:
- Hover or click over the predictive content block in your email.
- Click the gear icon for the variant you wish to rename then click "Rename variant."
- Type the name of the variant into the field provided
- Click the "Save" button.
Use the "Predictive Insights" bar
The "Predictive Insights" bar provides guidance on each variant you create. For example, the insights bar will make suggestions on the length of your copy in each variant, overall readability of each variant, and the number of variants you should use.
These suggestions are based on the list you selected to send the campaign to.
The insights bar will not provide guidance on the remaining content in your email.
To launch the "Predictive Insights" bar, click the Predictive Insights icon on the top left of your screen.
A menu will expand on the left side of the campaign designer and display tips that you can use to create your variants.