Events are similar to tags. The biggest difference is that they record the date and keep track of how many times the event has occurred. Events can be recorded multiple times, as opposed to tags which are applied once for the duration it is held by the subscriber. Some events are built into Drip, such as Replied to an email, but can also be configured using integrations, rules, or API calls.
Let’s say you are using an e-commerce integration such as Gumroad which sends in the Made a purchase event. Well, you can use that event to search for subscribers that have triggered that event so far in the current month.
Here’s how that filter might look.
Naming Events
Events are best used to describe something that your subscribers have done. Just like naming Tags, Events can be named anything you’d like. We do recommend keeping them descriptive, however.
For instance, if you run a software as a service (SaaS) product, you can send events into Drip to record and track essential customer milestones via REST API calls.
You'll use the Performed a custom event trigger for that.
It is also important to note that naming convention and case sensitivity is crucial if you are using integrations that send events to Drip. For example, if the integration sends in an event called “Made a purchase”, but it was entered into the trigger as “made a purchase” (note the failure to capitalize the word “made”), Drip will not recognize that this event should’ve been recorded.
When to use Events
Events should be used to track when a subscriber performed an action, or when something happened to them.
For more advanced use cases, you can access an event’s properties via Rules. For more information, please see this article.
Recording Events minus the API calls
You can record your own custom events without API calls using Drip’s built-in “Record an event” action:
The above rule records an event when a subscriber visits a particular URL.
In some cases, Drip will automatically record events for you.
When a subscriber completes an email campaign, Drip records the “Completed a campaign” event. If they submit a Drip form, the “Submitted a form” event is recorded. Additionally, all of this data is visible on the individual subscriber’s timeline.
To see a list of events that are native to Drip, go to Reports > Events:
Select an event, and Drip will return some stats for you. Keep in mind that Drip will not be able to return any calculated analytics for events that have not been triggered in your account thus far.
Recording Events for a single subscriber
To record an event for a single subscriber, go to the subscriber’s Activity Timeline and click the "Add Custom Event."
A modal will appear where you can fill in the name of the Event (required) and any properties you’d like to attach to the Event (optional). Then, click the “Insert Event” button.
You’ll see the event appear on the subscriber’s activity feed.
