Pausing, Ending, and Scheduling Campaigns

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Overview

Extole campaign states control the experience participants have in your referral program, particularly important during limited-time offers, bursts, and A/B tests. Use this guide to understand what your advocates and friends will see with each campaign state to help you manage your campaigns smoothly.

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Types of Campaign States

LIVE

• Advocates: See call-to-action (CTA) elements and links associated with this campaign.
• Friends: Are eligible for and see this campaign’s offer when using referral links.

PAUSED

• Advocates: Do not see this campaign’s creative or CTAs. Instead, they see content from the currently live campaign (if one exists).
• Friends: Continue to see the creative and are eligible for rewards from the paused campaign if they have already accessed the offer.
• Emails: The campaign’s advocate emails stop sending. See What Happens When a Campaign Is Paused.

ENDED

• Advocates: No longer see this campaign’s content or CTAs; they are shown the live campaign instead.
• Friends: See the live campaign’s experience and rewards. Any pending rewards from the ended campaign will still be fulfilled.
• Automatic Transition: Ended campaigns are automatically moved to “Stopped” after three months.

STOPPED

• Advocates & Friends: Neither will see any experiences or content from the stopped campaign; all traffic is directed to a live campaign.
• Rewards: No rewards are issued, and makegoods (compensation for missed rewards) are not available.
• Pending periods: A reward that is still in its pending period when you stop the campaign is not evaluated, so it is not issued. Nothing alerts you to these rewards. Keep the campaign paused or ended until its longest pending period has passed, then stop it.

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Managing Limited-Time Promotions & Tests

When running bursts or A/B tests, deciding when and how to move your campaign between states affects which offer referred friends will receive after the promo ends.

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Consideration:

• Should in-progress referrals still receive the old offer after the promotion ends?
• At what point in the referral journey (e.g., email capture, account creation, trial start) should that friend/advocate still receive the old offer?
• Is there a cut-off date beyond which referrals shouldn’t receive the previous offer?

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Recommendation:

• If you want in-progress referrals to still be eligible for rewards after the promotional period, set the campaign to PAUSED.
• To prevent in-progress referrals from accessing the old offer, set the campaign to ENDED.
• Most clients will set a campaign to pause for the length of their “pending period” (example, must do two direct deposits in 60 days) and then switch to ended.
• Do not stop a campaign that still has rewards in a pending period. A paused or ended campaign finishes those pending periods and issues the rewards. A stopped campaign does not, and nothing alerts you. Stop the old campaign only after its longest pending period has passed since the switch.
• If your conversions reach Extole in files (SFTP or batch uploads), or with an event time earlier than when they’re sent, a conversion that happened before the switch can arrive days after it. Keep the old campaign paused until the last file that can carry those conversions has arrived, then end it.

Tip: If your program has multiple friend events (e.g., application started, submitted, approved, or funded), check with your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to ensure your campaign states function according to your intended referral journey.

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Changing the State of a Campaign:

Switching the state of your campaign is simple from the Programs Page. Find the campaign, click the three dots, and choose the state you’d like to move it to. You will be prompted with a page asking you to confirm you want to update the campaign and then it will automatically make the switch.

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Scheduling Campaigns

You can also schedule campaigns to Go Live or Pause. Click the three dots and choose Edit Schedule to set the date and time that the campaigns will adjust.

Make sure to schedule the pause date / time of the new program at the same time as the the old campaign’s pause date / time. This will ensure there is always a program live and there is not interruption with the program.