Points for Actions

This feature available on the Pro Plan

Overview

The Points for Actions template is a great way to reward your contest entrants with additional entries ("points") just for visiting different websites — including your social media accounts — or viewing videos. However, this functionality is not limited to that single template; this help doc covers adding the Basic Points for Actions feature into any campaign you've built - even ones you've set up using a different template.

In addition, this doc will cover how to set up Advanced Points for Actions, which includes a few extra features.

Adding a Form Container

For the Basic or Advanced Points for Actions feature to work properly in your campaign, you must be collecting your entries using a Form Container. To add a Form Container to your campaign, simply click on the Form Container icon in the Add Widgets Panel, or click and drag the icon into your preview area. For additional information on fully setting up a form, check out our Form Container Widget help doc.

Actions will not be recorded before your user has submitted a form, so make sure to have your form added to the campaign and fully constructed before moving forward. Any points accrued by actions you set up will be added to the entry that was submitted via your form.

Adding a Points for Action Section

There are many different ways to design your campaign to include Points for Actions; here, we'll just walk through one way to give you an example. Following the steps here will give you a Basic Points for Actions section that looks something like this:

Again, note that you can design and align the buttons and the text any way you'd like to fit your specs.

1. Start by adding a Container Widget to your campaign. Just click the Container Widget icon in the Add Widgets Panel. We also highly recommend relabeling any new widget you add to your campaign, as a best practice to keep things organized.
   
   
2. Inside this new container, you'll want to add a Two Column Layout Widget. This will give you two nice columns for your action: One side for the label, and the other side for the button.
   
   
3. Drag and drop a new Rich Text Widget into the top half of your Two Column Layout Widget; this controls what displays in the left column.
   
   
4. Add your text in the widget settings, then click Save and Exit to save. You'll see your change reflected in the Campaign Builder.
   
   
5. Now to add your button: Drop and drag a new Buttons Widget into the bottom half of your Two Column Layout Widget to position it to the right of the label you just created.
   
   
6. Go through the Setting Up the Buttons Widget section below to set up your points button. Once you're done, you should see an action button and its corresponding label in your campaign just like this:
   
   
   
   
7. To add additional actions for your entrants to earn more points; simply go back through steps 1-6, adding a new Two Column Display Widget below your previous Two Column for each new action you want to add. Be sure to keep all of your new Two Column Layout Widgets inside the same Container Widget, just to keep your campaign organized. Use the Style Panel to set alignment, style, and color to get things looking exactly like you want - then you're all done!
   
   

Setting Up the Buttons Widget

When you add a new Buttons Widget, the Link popup will open automatically, with all the options for your new button.

1. First, you'll determine the text or image used for your button. Add text using the Link text field, or click on the + icon under Link image to open the Media Library and select an image to appear on your button. A good practice is to add a text label that shows how many points the action is worth.
   
   
2. Now you'll add the link that you want to have your entrants visit to earn their points. Select the Go to URL radio button, then type the URL of your selected site into the URL field. Since you'll be adding Basic Points for Actions, you will be required to have the link open in a new window.
   
   
3. Now to officially set up the Basic Points for Actions functionality: In the bottom section, "Points for Actions", check the award points or actions option. Then, in the Form Widget drop-down, select the corresponding Form Container to link the button to the correct form where you are collecting your entries for this campaign. Then, use the Points to award field to designate how many points will be earned.
   
   
4. When you've finished, click on Save to be brought back to the Setup section.
   
   
5. You'll see your new button appear in the Setup section; all the needed information about the link is available at a glance.
   
   You'll see the text you added to the button (or a thumbnail of the image you used) and then either the name of the action that is triggered or the URL to which the button is connected. Click Save and Exit. 
   
   

Note: At this time, there is no way to show your entrants a running tally of how many points they've earned unless you built your campaign using the Points for Actions template. Keep this in mind when choosing your template!

Advanced Points for Actions

Advanced Points for Actions (or "APfA") is a beefier version of Points for Actions that tracks actions/points across multiple entries to the same list by using the entrant's submitted email address. This restriction limits earned points for any particular action to one time per email address - no matter how many times a person enters.

To briefly explain how this works: Behind the scenes, when an entrant performs an action, we add the action's label to the entry, but we also record the action label in their email profile - a new concept we created for Advanced Points for Actions. When the entrant tries to perform the action again in a separate entry, our system looks up the email profile and checks there for the action label - if the label is there, the entrant isn't able to perform the action again.

APfA also allows you to set up Action Widgets that can be triggered when an entrant completes one of your point-related actions - more on that below.

Setting Up APfA

Setting up Advanced Points for Actions is very similar to setting up Basic Points for Actions, with a couple of important differences - you can follow the steps above in the Adding a Points for Actions Section for the basics, and add these additional steps:

1. When adding a Form Container to your campaign, you'll need to go into the widget's settings, in the Advanced section, and check the Advanced Points for Actions box.
   
   
2. When setting up your Buttons Widget, each action will require you to add a label using the Action label field. For best results, the label should not be used for any other purpose in the list (entry labels, list labels, etc.).
   
   

With that, you're all set. Now, if you allow folks to enter multiple times, they will still only be able to get points for each action one time - as long as they use the same email address for each entry.

Triggering Action Widgets with Point-Related Actions

Another fun thing you can do with Advanced Points for Actions is to trigger Action Widgets when specific point actions have been taken. To show this off, we'll walk through an example where we want to show a pop-up with a "Thank you for visiting the website!" message that will show on the campaign when the visitor has earned points for doing just that.

1. When we'd set up the link using the Buttons Widget, we used the action label action_website (shown below) - we'll note that, as we'll need it later when we're setting up the Action Widget.
   
   
   
   
2. We've added a Rich Text Widget to the campaign with our simple message and made sure to set the visibility to Starts Hidden.
   
   
3. Now to add an Action Widget. In the pop-up, click Add Trigger.
   
   
4. In the Create New Trigger dialogue, click on Advanced, then click the radio button next to Points were awarded for completing an action.
   
   
5. Now, at the bottom, use the drop-down to select the Form in which Advanced Points for Actions is enabled. Remember that action label we noted? That needs to be selected in the Action label dropdown. When those are configured correctly, click Save.
   
   
6. With that, our trigger is officially set up - you'll see it in the list. Now, we just need to set up the action that will happen: Showing the Rich Text Widget we'd added as a pop-up. We'll click Add Action, set up the action using the Create New Action dialogue, then click Save.
   
   
   
7. Now if you look at the settings of your new Action Widget and read it from top to bottom, it should logically make sense. In this case, "If triggered by another widget or points were awarded for completing the specific action, then the Rich Text Widget will pop up." Looks great, so we'll click Save and Exit to lock it all in.
   
   

This is just one example of the types of things you can do with Advanced Points for Actions; feel free to get creative with the functionality!