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User Targeting

What's the Point of User Targeting?

User targeting in Bonboarding allows you to craft tailored onboarding experiences and product tours that engage users effectively based on their behavior, characteristics, and actions.

This ensures that users receive the most relevant guidance and support, improving their overall experience and increasing the chances of product adoption.

So all in all — reaching the right users with the right message at the right time.

Setting Up User Targeting

Each flow that you create in Bonboarding can be targeted to specific user segments based on a variety of conditions.

Open the flows page, and click on the vertical dots Flow Three dots icon next to the flow where you want to set up targeting.

Select "Targeting" from the dropdown menu.

Targeting Users

A new popup will appear, allowing you to define the rules that determine which users will see the flow:

Targeting Users

You can add one or more targeting rules by clicking on the plus sign Add new targeting rule button.

Once added, each rule can be configured to target specific user segments based on various conditions.

Targeting - add a single rule

Note: changes in targeting rules are not saved automatically.
Make sure to click the "Save" button at the bottom of the popup (you might need to scroll to access it).

What if I have multiple flows?

If you have multiple flows, you can set up different targeting rules for each flow.

The targeting rules are specific to each flow, and an ongoing flow will keep displaying to the user until they finish it, regardless of the targeting rules you set up for other flows.

Complex Targeting Rules

There are many situations, when you might want to target users based on multiple conditions.

For example, you might want to target users who are new to your platform and have a specific user role.

In such cases, you can add multiple rules to a single flow, and define whether all or any of the rules should be met for the flow to be displayed.

Bonboarding supports AND and OR operators to combine multiple rules:

Targeting - 'and' rule combinationsAND relationship — In this example, the flow will be displayed to users who are new to the platform and signed up after the selected date.

Targeting - 'or' rule combinationsOR relationship — In this example, the flow will be displayed to users who signed up after the selected date or logged in at least three times.

You can combine multiple rules to create complex targeting conditions (even "AND" and "OR" groups) that match your specific use case.

Explanation of Each Rule

Basic Rules

  • New Users
    Target users who are logging into your application for the first time. This means - Bonboarding detects users who have never logged in before.
    If you have existing users, but you just created a product tour, it's recommended to combine this rule with the "Sign Up Date" rule so you can target only new users who signed up from now.

  • Logged In Users
    Engage users who are actively logged in to your platform. If you integrated Bonboarding on all pages (including the login page), this rule will target all users who are already logged in.

  • Session Count
    Target users based on the number of sessions they are accessing your platform.
    This is useful for progressive onboarding, where you want to show different flows based on the user's experience level. In general, every time a user logs in, or access your platform, it counts as a new session.

  • Last Seen
    Target users based on their last active session date.

  • First Seen
    Engage users based on the date of their first interaction with your platform.

    How is it different from the "Sign Up Date"?
    "First Seen" is the date when Bonboarding first detected the user on your platform (which might not be the same date of the registration, for existing users).
    Bonboarding automatically assigns a "First Seen" date to all users, while "Sign Up Date" is provided by you.

  • Total Duration
    The total time a user spent on your platform.
    This rule is useful to target users who are spending a lot of time on your platform, or those who are not engaging enough.

  • Current Session Duration
    This rule targets users based on the duration of their current session (since they logged in or accessed your platform).
    It can be useful to engage users who's been logged in for a while.

  • Bookmarked Page
    With this rule, you can target users who reach a specific page in your platform. This is particularly useful, if you want to build product tours for specific features that have their own pages.

  • Country
    Bonboarding can determine the country of your users based on their IP address. You can use this rule to target users based on their location.

  • Device
    Is your user accessing your platform from a desktop, tablet, or mobile device? You can target users based on their device type.

  • Finished Flow
    One of the most useful rules. You can target users who have completed a specific flow.
    This is useful for progressive onboarding, where you want to show different flows based on the user's experience level, so you can break down complex onboarding into multiple sessions.

Important: you need to identify your users during the Bonboarding integration, to target them by the following user-related rules.

  • Email
    You can target users for specific email addresses.

    Why would you target by email? If you want to show your flow to some of your colleagues without requiring them to sign up to Bonboarding, you can target them by their email addresses, and they will see the flow when they log in.

  • Sign Up Date
    Target users based on the date they signed up into your platform.
    This is useful for targeting new users, or users who signed up after a specific date.

Custom User Rules

If you collect custom data from your users (e.g. user role, subscription type, tags), you can use this information to create personalized targeting rules.

Using custom user data for targeting

Custom targeting rules are marked with a blue ribbon in the top-left column.

Common Examples

New Users

If you already have existing users when adding product tours with Bonboarding, it might be a good idea to target only new users who signed up after you added the product tours.

To achieve this, combine "New Users" AND the "Sign Up Date" rule:

Targeting new users

Progressive Onboarding

Break up your complex onboarding into multiple sessions can help users to digest the information better.
One flow with all the information might be overwhelming, and users might skip it.

To break it into smaller chunks, create multiple flows for each session, and target users based on the "Finished Flow" rule combined with the "Session Count" rule:

Rules for progressive onboarding

Starting on a Specific Page

If you have a specific feature or page that you want to guide users through, you can target users based on the "Bookmarked Page" rule. This way a flow will only be displayed to users who reach that specific page.

Trigger a flow on a specific URL