Catch a campaign that stops sending, using a grouped alert on the Campaigns dataset
A campaign can stop sending without anyone noticing: an automation breaks, or someone switches a flow off and forgets. This page shows you how to set up an alert that catches it, and what it can and cannot tell you. For what alerts are and how they work in general, see Alerting.
The example here uses campaigns, but this works for any dimension. Group by what you want to watch, and the alert tells you when one of its values stops.
Why the alert misses a campaign that stopped
Section titled “Why the alert misses a campaign that stopped”The screenshot above is the usual first attempt: the condition Sent is equal to 0, Group by set to None, and a Duration of 30 days, so the alert checks whether anything was sent in the last 30 days. It never fires, even though a campaign clearly stopped. There are two reasons for that.
The alert counts all your campaigns as one number. Unless you tell it otherwise, it adds up the sends from every campaign that matches your filters:
| Campaign | Sent in the last 30 days | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome (stopped) | 0 | — |
| Weekly newsletter | 12 | — |
| Abandoned cart | 340 | — |
| Counted as one | 352 | No alert |
The welcome campaign sent nothing, but the alert only reads the last row. 352 is not 0, so the condition is never true and you never hear anything. Grouping fixes this. It is the one setting that makes this alert work.
A campaign that stopped months ago is not there to check. The alert only reads recent data. A campaign that has not sent anything in a long time does not appear in that data, so there is nothing to test. This is why an alert you build today cannot tell you about a campaign that stopped in January.
The setup screen can mislead you too. This alert would have triggered 0 times in the past 30 days tests your rule against the last 30 days of data. It does not count what happened since you made the alert. A new alert and a month-old alert show the same number.
Check each campaign on its own
Section titled “Check each campaign on its own”Group by is what fixes this. Set it to the campaign name, and the alert stops adding your campaigns together. It checks each one on its own, and fires as soon as a single campaign reaches zero:
| Campaign | Sent in the last 30 days | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome (stopped) | 0 | Alert fires |
| Weekly newsletter | 12 | No alert |
| Abandoned cart | 340 | No alert |
The welcome campaign now has a row of its own, so its zero counts. The email names the campaign that stopped, so you know which one to look at.
Build the alert on the Campaigns dataset. These settings matter:
- Date field: leave this on Send date. You want to know when a campaign last went out, which is what send date records. Event date answers a different question: when people last opened or clicked.
- Filters: add Mailing type is equal to AUTOMATION. Filters are optional, but this one keeps the alert on campaigns that are meant to keep running, instead of campaigns you only ever sent once.
- Conditions: choose Sent, Is equal to, and 0.
- Group by: set it to Mailing name, or Message name if that fits your setup better.
- Duration: the number of days without sends before you want to hear about it.
Choose the duration
Section titled “Choose the duration”Duration is the number of days the alert looks at. Set it to 30, and the alert asks: has this campaign sent anything in the last 30 days?
Pick a number that is longer than the normal gap between sends. A weekly newsletter sends only once every 7 days, so a duration of 7 days would warn you every week for no reason. 30 days is a safer choice.
Duration also decides how long a campaign keeps being watched. Once a campaign has sent nothing for longer than your duration, it drops out of the group and the alert stops checking it. A short duration warns you sooner. A long one keeps watching for longer.
What this alert won’t tell you
Section titled “What this alert won’t tell you”It only catches campaigns that stop from now on. A campaign that already stopped months ago is not in the recent data, so the alert cannot see it. To find those, look at your campaign reports instead.
You only get one email. SEINō emails you on the first day an alert fires, not every day it stays on (see the FAQ). And once the campaign has sent nothing for longer than your duration, it drops out of the group, so the alert clears itself. The campaign is still doing nothing, but the alert looks fine again.
A campaign that never sent anything will not appear. The alert only knows campaigns that have sent something. It cannot warn you about one that was never switched on.
Next: Grouping by a dimension for what grouping changes about any alert, not just this one.