Customer Signals Guide

Start with clear signal names. The 9.0.11 update standardised trigger naming into an Entity - Action pattern because large signal libraries become hard to maintain when names drift. Keep your own custom signals equally explicit so operators can recognise the trigger at a glance.

Scope zones deliberately. Use a zone-specific signal when the behaviour belongs to one site or brand, and use All Zones only when the same rule should apply everywhere. This matters more now that zone support reaches a much wider set of trigger types.

Keep acquisition and lifecycle signals separate. Use one signal to detect the entry behaviour, such as a UTM-tagged visit, and a later signal to handle the follow-up action, notification, or audience move. This makes the Sequence Visualiser easier to read and reduces ambiguity when you troubleshoot.

Test guest and signed-in paths separately. Customer Signals now capture much more guest activity, but guest journeys still behave differently from authenticated ones in reporting, contact creation, and downstream actions.

Use Zapier only where it adds value. Keep native Affino actions inside the platform when you can, and use Zapier when you genuinely need to move the signal into another system.

Control > Marketing > Customer Signals

Use the listing first, not the add screen. The 9.0.11 overhaul made the listing much better for understanding what already exists.

You can now filter by Sequence, Trigger Date Range, Zone, and Inactive days, and use the My filter to see only the signals you created. The listing also surfaces more useful columns, including sequence status, maximum-event settings, duration limits, user profile, and zone context where those values differ across records.

Sort by Last Updated when you are reviewing current work, and use the zone and sequence indicators before cloning or editing an older signal. This reduces duplicate setup and helps you spot when a signal already exists but belongs to another zone or journey.

Control > Marketing > Customer Signals > (View)

Open the view screen when you need to understand what a signal does without trawling through every possible setting. The 9.0.11 redesign reorganised this page so the most useful information appears earlier and panels only show when the signal actually uses them.

The Sequence Visualiser sits below the main panel and above the detailed sequence settings. Use it to read the journey from the first signal through to downstream branches. Each node links through to the underlying signal, and parallel branches appear side by side so you can see where a journey splits. Delay timing is shown in the visualiser and reflects the downstream signal's delay setting.

Use the detailed panels below the visualiser when you need the exact settings. Use the visualiser first when you need the overall shape of the journey.

Control > Marketing > Customer Signals > (Add/Edit)

Create or edit a signal from the add/edit screen once you know the trigger and the outcome you want.

Select the trigger type first. The screen now keeps the Zone selector visible across a much wider range of trigger types, so you can confirm the scope while you configure the event. Then work top to bottom through the signal: trigger settings, points and event type, actions, notifications, sequencing, and any advanced or public options that apply.

Save the signal and reopen the view screen to confirm only the relevant panels show. If you cannot save or the edit screen behaves unexpectedly, treat that as a setup issue to fix before you build dependent sequences or external workflows.

Control > Marketing > Customer Signals > (Add/Edit)

Choose the trigger with care because it determines both the available configuration and the quality of the reporting you get later.

Trigger names are now standardised into a clearer Entity - Action pattern, which makes larger libraries much easier to scan. More than 40 trigger types now support zone-aware behaviour, so you can scope a signal to a specific site where needed and still leave truly shared behaviours as All Zones.

Use zone-specific signals when content, commerce, or campaigns differ by site. Use shared signals only when the same behaviour and follow-up should apply everywhere. When you work with UTM-driven signals, review the Source, Medium, Campaign, and AND/OR logic carefully before saving.

Control > Marketing > Customer Signals > (Add/Edit)

Use the Actions area for the outcomes that should happen when the signal fires. In 9.0.11, the old incentives panel was reworked into a clearer actions model, and several supporting controls were improved.

A single signal can now add a user to multiple mailing lists in one pass, which is useful for purchase, registration, or subscription flows. Notification settings display more cleanly, and sequence-related behaviour is easier to review from both the add/edit and view screens.

Keep sequencing rules readable. Use secondary signals for downstream steps, and check first-time or delayed triggers carefully when you test. If a signal sends notifications, verify the delivered email rather than relying only on the saved configuration.

Control > Marketing > Customer Signals > (Add/Edit)

Customer Signals now play a central role in inbound campaign automation. The new UTM trigger lets you fire a signal from inbound Source, Medium, and Campaign parameters, using either AND logic for tighter matching or OR logic for broader campaign detection.

Use this when you want Affino to react to marketing traffic without waiting for a later login, order, or manual segmentation step. A common pattern is to capture the inbound UTM visit, trigger a Customer Signal, and then let that signal drive an internal action, a reportable lifecycle step, or a handoff to another system.

Combine the UTM trigger with redirect-based campaign tracking where relevant, and verify the result in both the signal activity and the downstream reporting screens.

Control > Marketing > Lifecycle Analysis

Use Lifecycle Analysis and related reporting screens to confirm that Customer Signals are telling the story you expect.

The 9.0.11 release extended guest tracking substantially, especially for redirect-based signals. This means you can see more of the acquisition journey before a visitor becomes a known contact. Lifecycle Analysis and exports now surface Customer Signal activity more clearly, including Customer Signal Points in activity-oriented exports.

Use these screens to verify whether a signal is firing often enough, whether guest traffic is being captured, and whether the journey looks right across contacts, campaigns, and orders.

Control > System > Zapier Profiles

Use Zapier when a Customer Signal needs to leave Affino or when an external system needs to fire a Customer Signal back into Affino.

Affino's Zapier profile now supports Customer Signal methods in both directions. As a trigger, Affino can push signal data out to Zapier when a selected signal fires. As an action, Zapier can fire a valid custom-trigger Customer Signal against a specified user.

Keep zone matching in mind. Zapier only exposes signals that match the profile zone or are available across all zones, so a missing signal in the Zapier setup is often a scope issue rather than a missing integration method.

Start troubleshooting with scope and sequence, not with the assumption that the trigger itself is broken.

• Check the Zone first when a signal is missing from a selector or is not firing where you expect.
• Check the Trigger Event, Secondary Events, and delay settings together when the Sequence Visualiser looks wrong.
• Check the delivered notification or downstream action directly when email formatting, placeholders, or mailing-list updates matter.
• Check the listing and activity screens after saving to confirm the signal appears as expected and is accumulating activity.
• Avoid overloading one signal with too many responsibilities. Split acquisition, qualification, and downstream actions into separate steps when the journey becomes hard to read.
• Avoid assuming guest journeys behave the same as authenticated ones. Test both.

If a signal still fails after those checks, fix the configuration issue before you build reports, automations, or Zapier workflows on top of it.