Frequently Asked Questions¶

Beginner¶

What is a geofence?

A geofence is a virtual perimeter surrounding a location. Geofences act as “digital tripwires”, so when a person enters a geofence, a pre-programmed action can occur.

What is a beacon?

A beacon is a physical Bluetooth transmitter. Beacons detect nearby phones with Bluetooth turned on, which can trigger a pre-programmed action just like a geofence.

How do I set up a campaign?

The steps to setting up a campaign are as follows:

Add an app
Add locations and/or geofences
Create a new campaign

For a full walkthrough on setting up a campaign, click here

Intermediate¶

Should I use beacons or geofences?

Deciding whether to use geofences or beacons is mainly dependent on your use case. Geofences are used for broader scaled engagements, as they are typically have a radius of at least 100m. This allows you to engage a larger number of people across a wider area, which can help drive customers into the store or location your geofence is centered around.

Beacons are used when there is a need for highly accurate, close proximity interactions. Beacons can target users within a 3-20m radius, and are generally used inside merchant stores. Beacons allow you to target customers with a much higher accuracy, at the cost of a larger reach.

The main question when deciding between beacons and geofences is- Is it more important to reach a larger audience or target users in a smaller area? Additionally, budget needs to be considered as setting up beacons can become costly when scaling.

How do I ensure my users aren’t sent excessive notifications?

When creating a campaign, the last step Advanced Settings allows you to edit UX controls. For each campaign, the Repeat Throttle setting will determine the minimum amount of elapsed time before a user is sent another push notification. Additionally, the Priority setting allows you to choose the order of served campaigns. So if there is a geofence with two separate campaigns, your first priority campaign will be pushed to the user, and the second priority won’t be.

Can I set up one campaign for multiple apps?

Yes, simply select multiple apps on the “Campaign Geofences” screen in the campaign creation workflow.

How do I restrict certain functions to certain team members?

Only Admin users can edit other team members’ access to Catalyst. To do this, navigate to Settings/Users. Once there click the edit button to edit a user. Under the Access Role column, choose which access levels you want for your team members.

How do I set up a Bluetooth Beacon campaign?

The first step in setting up a Beacon campaign is adding beacons to the platform. After beacons have been added to the platform, choose Bluetooth Beacons when setting up a new campaign. Then continue to set up the campaign as usual.

Can I use beacons and geofences in the same campaign? Yes, Catalyst supports running campaigns with both geofences and beacons. To use both technologies, select Geofencing and Bluetooth Beacons on the second page when creating a new campaign.

Can I pause a live campaign?

Yes. To pause a live campaign, navigate to Campaign Management. If using List View, click the Pause button on the right. If using Grid View, hover over the Settings icon on the bottom right of a campaign, then click Pause.

How do I add an app?

To add a new app, navigate to Settings/Apps and click the + button. For a full walkthrough on adding a new app, visit the apps of the support guide.

Advanced¶

I can only create a campaign and do nothing else. Why?

If the only function you can perform is creating a campaign, you have a Restricted User account. In order to use other features in Catalyst, you'll need to be given access to an Admin or Manager account.

Should I enforce location accuracy?

Enforcing location accuracy means push notifications will only be sent to users when Pulse iD is receiving high quality location data from the device at the time. You should enforce location accuracy only when geofences are set in open areas without many buildings, and it is vital that no users outside a geofence are sent push notifications.

In the large majority of cases, it is fine to run campaigns without enforcing location accuracy. This ensures your reach is not limited, as all users who enter a geofence are interacted with- even if the location data accuracy isn’t 100%.

What if a user enters multiple geofences in a short amount of time? Won’t that annoy them?

Catalyst’s UX controls give you the power to decide how often a user should be interacted with. A user will be sent push notifications only after the amount of time specified in the Repeat Throttle setting has elapsed.

For example, say your Repeat Throttle is set to 48 hours. This means if a user walks receives a push notification on Monday morning at 9:00am, the next time they will receive a push notification from you will be anytime after Wednesday 9:00am when they enter a geofence.

Have more questions?¶

No worries, we're here to help. Send us an email at support@pulseid.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.