Purchase events
Learn about purchase events and properties, their usage, segmentation, where to view relevant analytics, and more.
Purchase events are purchase actions taken by your users. These events are used to record in-app purchases and establish the Lifetime Value (LTV) for each individual user profile. These purchase events must be set up by your team. Logging purchase events gives you the option to add properties like quantity and type, helping you further target your users based on these properties.
After you have set up and begun logging purchase events, you can view this purchase data on a user’s profile, in the Overview tab.
Logging purchase events
You can log purchases by passing a Purchase Object through the /users/track
endpoint.
The following lists methods across various platforms that are used to log purchases. Within these pages, you will also be able to find documentation on how to add properties and quantities to your purchase event.
Blocklisting purchase events
In the Braze dashboard, you can manage blocklisting from Data Settings > Products. Check out Custom Events and Attribute Management to learn more.
If you are using the older navigation, you can find Products under Manage Settings.
Purchase event segmentation
You can trigger any number or type of follow-up campaigns based on logged purchase events, and enable the following segmentation filters based on the recency and frequency of that event when targeting users.
Segmentation Options | Dropdown Filter | Input Options |
---|---|---|
Check if the total number of dollars spent is greater than a number | GREATER THAN | NUMBER |
Check if the total number of dollars spent is less than a number | LESS THAN | NUMBER |
Check if total number of dollars spent is exactly a number | EXACTLY | NUMBER |
Check if the purchase last occurred after X date | AFTER | TIME |
Check if the purchase last occurred before X date | BEFORE | TIME |
Check if the purchase last occurred more than X days ago | MORE THAN | TIME |
Check if the purchase last occurred less than X days ago | LESS THAN | TIME |
Check if the purchase occurred more than X (Max = 50) number of times | MORE THAN | in the past Y Days (Y = 1,3,7,14,21,30) |
Check if the purchase occurred less than X (Max = 50) number of times | LESS THAN | in the past Y Days (Y = 1,3,7,14,21,30) |
Check if the purchase occurred exactly X (Max = 50) number of times | EXACTLY | in the past Y Days (Y = 1,3,7,14,21,30) |
Example of Filtering based on Purchase Event:
If you would like to segment on the number of times a specific purchase has occurred, you should record that purchase individually as an incrementing custom attribute.
Purchase event analytics
In addition to tracking purchase metrics for segmentation, Braze also notes the number purchases for each product and the revenue generated over time. You can view this data on the Revenue page.
Purchase event properties
With purchase event properties, you can set properties on purchases that can be used to further qualify trigger conditions, increase personalization in messaging, and generate more sophisticated analytics through raw data export. Property value types (string, numeric, boolean, date) vary per platform, and are often assigned as key-value pairs.
For example, if an eCommerce application wanted to send a message to a user after they have made a purchase, they could additionally improve their target audience and allow for increased campaign personalization by adding a purchase event property of brand_name
.
Example of Triggering based on Purchase Event Properties:
Refer to Purchase Properties Object for more.
Event property segmentation
Event property segmentation allows you to target users based not just on custom events taken but the properties associated with those events. This feature adds additional filtering options when segmenting purchase and custom events.
These segmentation filters include:
- Has done custom event with property Y with value V X times in the last Y days.
- Has made any purchases with property Y with value V X times in the last Y days.
- Adds the ability to segment within 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 30 days.
Unlike with segment extensions, segments used are updated in real-time, support an unlimited amount of segments, offer a look back history of at most 30 days, and incur data points. Because of the additional data point charge, you must reach out to your Braze customer success manager to get event properties turned on for your custom events. Once approved, additional properties can be added in the dashboard under Manage Settings > Custom Events > Manage Properties and used in the target step of the campaign or Canvas builder.
Canvas entry properties and event properties
As of February 28, 2023, you can no longer create or duplicate Canvases using the original editor. This section is available for reference when using canvas_entry_properties
and event_properties
for the original Canvas workflow.
You can leverage canvas_entry_properties
and event_properties
in your Canvas user journeys. Check out Canvas entry properties and event properties for more information and examples.
You can’t use event_properties
in the lead Message step. Instead, you must use canvas_entry_properties
or add an Action Paths step with the corresponding event before the Message step that includes event_properties
.
Canvas entry properties are the properties you map for Canvases that are action-based or API-triggered. Note that the canvas_entry_properties
object has a maximum size limit of 50 KB.
For in-app message channels specifically, canvas_entry_properties
can only be referenced in Canvas Flow and in the original Canvas editor if you have persistent entry properties enabled in the original editor as part of the previous early access.
For Canvas Flow messaging, canvas_entry_properties
can be used in Liquid in any Message step. Use this Liquid when referencing these properties: canvas_entry_properties${property_name}
. Note that the events must be custom events or purchase events to be used this way.
For example, consider the following request: \"canvas_entry_properties\" : {\"product_name\" : \"shoes\", \"product_price\" : 79.99}
. You could add the word “shoes” to a message with the Liquid {{canvas_entry_properties.${product_name}}}
.
For the Canvases built with the original editor, canvas_entry_properties
can be referenced only in the first full step of a Canvas.
Event properties refer to the properties that you set for custom events and purchases. These event_properties
can be used in campaigns with action-based delivery as well as Canvases.
In Canvas Flow, custom event and purchase event properties can be used in Liquid in any Message step that follows an Action Paths step. For Canvas Flow, make sure to use {{event_properties.${property_name}}}
if referencing these event_properties
. These events must be custom events or purchase events to be used this way in the Message component.
For the original Canvas editor, event_properties
can’t be used in scheduled full steps. However, you can use event_properties
in the first full step of an action-based Canvas, even if the full step is scheduled.
In the first Message step following an Action Path, you can use event_properties
related to the event referenced in that Action Path. These event_properties
can only be used if the user actually took the action (didn’t go to the Everyone Else group). You can have other steps (that are not another Action Paths or Message step) in between this Action Paths and the Message step.
Log purchases at the order level
If you would like to log purchases at the order level instead of the product level, you can use order name or order category as the product_id
. Refer to our purchase object specification to learn more.