Dynamic vs Static Audiences

Trackly SMS supports two types of audiences: dynamic and static. Understanding when to use each helps you target more effectively.

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Dynamic Audiences

A dynamic audience is evaluated at send time. The contacts included can change between sends based on recent activity.

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How It Works

1. You define conditions (e.g., “clicked in last 7 days”)
2. When a campaign runs, the system queries for matching contacts
3. The current set of matches receives the message

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Use Cases

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Example

Audience: “Active Clickers - Last 7 Days” The audience size fluctuates as contacts click (enter) or go 7 days without clicking (exit).

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Pros & Cons

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Static Audiences

A static audience is a fixed set of contacts captured at a specific point in time. The membership doesn’t change unless you manually update it.

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How It Works

1. You define conditions and create the audience
2. The system snapshots the matching contacts
3. That exact set is used for all sends

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Use Cases

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Example

Audience: “Black Friday 2024 Signups”

• Created on Dec 1, 2024
• Contains exactly 3,500 contacts
• Same 3,500 contacts forever

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Pros & Cons

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Choosing the Right Type

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Converting Between Types

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Dynamic → Static

To freeze a dynamic audience:

1. Open the audience
2. Click Convert to Static
3. The current matches become the fixed membership

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Static → Dynamic

To make a static audience update again:

1. Open the audience
2. Click Convert to Dynamic
3. Conditions are re-evaluated each time

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Hybrid Approach

For some use cases, use both:

1. Create a dynamic audience for ongoing targeting
2. Before a critical send, snapshot it to a static audience
3. Send to the static version for that specific campaign
4. Continue using dynamic for regular sends

This gives you the flexibility of dynamic with the predictability of static when needed.

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Audience Refresh

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Dynamic Audiences

Evaluation happens automatically when:

• A campaign is scheduled
• You click “Refresh” in the UI
• You preview the audience

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Static Audiences

To update a static audience:

1. Open the audience
2. Click Refresh Members
3. The system re-runs conditions and updates membership

This is a manual action—the audience doesn’t change otherwise.

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Best Practices

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Next Steps