Forum Discussion

kayla_upton's avatar
kayla_upton
Influencer
4 months ago

Content Card Expiration More than 30 Days

We would like to use Content Cards for a few of our seasonal hero carousel topics, as well as our "always on" cards. I noticed that Braze mentions content cards have a maximum of 30 days that they can show in a users app, but I'm trying to find out if there's a workaround I could use to get around this time limit. 

It appears that if I change the expiration from "after a duration" to "at a specific time", this 30 day max note goes away - however, the Braze documentation still appears to call out this 30 day max so it's not clear if this applies to just the "after a duration" setting or if it also applies to the "at a specific time" option. 

I had a couple thoughts on a workaround, but again, I don't know if the max duration will still override these ideas or not. 

  • Schedule the campaign or canvas to a daily setting and allow users to repeat the campaign/canvas. The only issue here is that I can only schedule a campaign/canvas at most once a day, even though on the "allow re-entry" settings, I can go down to the minute on campaigns or to the second on canvases. Would the daily setting on the campaign/canvas schedule prevent someone from seeing the content card again if they open the app more than once in a day, or will that not matter if we also have the content card expiration set to a date way further in the future?
  • String a bunch of the same content cards together in a canvas so they essentially repeat every 30 days (not as big of an issue on our seasonal cards that are only on for 3 months, but a much bigger pain for "always on" cards).

Are either of these ideas a good workaround to allow us to leave a content card on for more than 30 days? Or will I not even need to use these fixes if I only use the "at a specific time" expiration setting? 

Would love to hear some ideas and thoughts around whether anyone else has run into this content card expiration window issue for their specific use cases. 

Content Cards
  • Arso's avatar
    Arso
    Expert
    3 months ago

    Hi! You're on the right path, but there are a couple of things you need to tweak to make sure the content cards deliver correctly and without interruption. I'll post the entire process below. 

    • Create a segment of the users who will qualify for the content cards at any given time. 
    • Enter users daily (as new users are added to the segment, they will be added to the campaign or canvas; existing users will not be added more than once)
    • Set maximum content card duration to 30 days (the maximum, expiration after duration)
    • Allow re-entry every 30 days (this allows those existing users in the segment to be re-added to the canvas)

    At the 30-day mark, for each user, all the content cards will expire. At the same time, users will become eligible to enter the canvas/campaign again. Just make sure that these content cards deliver at campaign launch, rather than first impression, to better control the delivery mechanism and sync it to the canvas re-eligibility. 

    On day 31, when the canvas/campaign tries to add users, all the new users who qualify will be added, but also those users whose 30-day period ended. And so it repeats. 

    In the meantime, don't touch the time at which users are added daily, and everything should work out fine. 

    If you have individual campaigns, repeat the same for each. If you have a canvas and you need to add a new content card, you will have trouble for users that have already entered the flow and are within the 30-day non-eligibility period, so I'd recommend setting up an individual campaign if you want to add one content card, or a canvas if you want to add multiple at the same time. 

    Let me know if this helped :) 

  • kayla_upton's avatar
    kayla_upton
    Influencer
    3 months ago

    Thank you both! However, I tried this same approach today where I set the campaign end date far in the future, as well as the card expiration date. But it wouldn't let me launch the campaign because it would give me the following error (image below). 

    I even tried setting it to a date 31 days from now and it wouldn't let me launch the campaign at all. Any thoughts?

     

    • AllanHeoFNM's avatar
      AllanHeoFNM
      Visionary
      3 months ago

      kayla_uptonCan you try setting it for 30 days or 29 days from now and see if you get the same error message? I wonder if you were just over the maximum limit.

       

       

      • kayla_upton's avatar
        kayla_upton
        Influencer
        3 months ago

        I was able to push a it live but only if the campaign schedule has an expiration date and the card does not have an expiration date (meaning I had to use the "after a duration" option). I set it to the max of 30 days and allowed users to repeat it every 1 minute. I'm not sure if this is the best re-eligibility timing though. Should I leave it as-is or change the re-entry frequency to 30 days as well?

        All of the above was for a campaign only, however, I'm also considering setting up our quarterly seasonal cards as a canvas - I'm just not quite sure how this will work out yet. It appears that I can set a date in the future on the canvas expiration itself, but I'm curious how the flow would work out.

        For example, we want to have a different "checklist" card for each season. Here are some of my questions if I were to use a canvas for that one:

        • If we were to start the canvas in January with the winter checklist content card as the first step and set that message to expire on 4/1, would that keep the card in the user's feed for the full 3 month period or automatically expire it after 30 days? 
        • If I put a wait step after the winter card to hold people until a specific date of 4/1 before sending them on to the spring checklist card, what would happen if a user enters after 4/1?
          • Would the canvas automatically skip the first card that is set to expire on 4/1 (as we would want)?
          • And would that wait step only work for the 4/1 date and nothing else? For example: a user enters on 4/2 and since 4/1 has already passed they skip to the next quarterly wait step on 7/1 and never see the spring card at all?
        • If seasonality doesn't work with a daily automated canvas, would this mean we should just set each of the seasonal cards up as campaigns instead?
  • Bhanu5150's avatar
    Bhanu5150
    Collaborator
    3 months ago

    Super interesting!!

    Ideally the 30-day expiration limit for Content Cards in Braze primarily applies to the "after a duration" setting. If you instead use the "at a specific time" expiration option, this limit does not apply, and you can set an expiration date much farther in the future.

    To make it more clear,

    1. "After a Duration" Setting:
      • Limits visibility to 30 days from the time the card is sent to the user.
      • Designed to ensure cards don’t stay stale or irrelevant if users don’t engage.
    2. "At a Specific Time" Setting:
      • Allows you to define a specific date and time for expiration (e.g., December 31, 2025).
      • Does not enforce the 30-day maximum limit—cards will remain visible until the specified time.

     

    I would do something like this,

    Schedule Daily Campaigns/Canvases

    • Create a campaign or canvas to send the same card daily.
    • Enable re-entry rules (e.g., down to minutes or seconds for canvases).
    • Set the expiration for each card instance far in the future.
    • If scheduled daily, users who open the app more than once a day may not see the card again until the next day’s cycle.
    • Managing multiple campaigns for "always on" cards could be complex and prone to errors.
    • Analytics may become fragmented as each instance is treated as a separate campaign.

     

    Best appoach will be something like using "At a Specific Time" Expiration

    Given your need for "always on" cards and the flexibility to handle seasonal campaigns, the "at a specific time" expiration setting is the best and simplest option.

    • Cards remain visible until the specified expiration date, regardless of the 30-day limit.
    • You can set a far-off expiration (e.g., a year or more) and update it periodically if needed.
    • Avoids unnecessary complexity and manual effort in scheduling or duplicating cards.
    • Combine this approach with Behavioral Triggers in Braze to make the cards reappear for users based on actions, ensuring they remain dynamic and engaging even if displayed long-term.

    Let me know your thoughts!!