There are two types of third-party integrations with Omnisend:
those that trigger the Custom event and pass custom fields associated with the event;
those that create or update the information in your customer profile, including custom properties assignment.
In this article, we will look into custom fields and properties to distinguish the similarities and differences between each concept.
Custom Fields
Along with the custom event, third-party applications pass information related to that event. This information may include anything, starting from the name of your contacts, tracking number, or the product your customer has purchased. These data are passed and assigned to the corresponding Custom event.
You may check what custom fields can be passed with the event in your Store Settings → API → Custom events. Here, you will see the complete list of the Custom events and custom fields that these events pass.
After selecting the Custom event in the Automation trigger settings, the list of custom fields will be available in the Personalization menu.
The information passed with the Custom event can be added to the content of the message, and it will be unique for each of your contacts. This information is not stored in Omnisend after the message is triggered and sent.
If the integration is passing the event and custom fields through the API, you can view the request's body in the Store settings → API → API logs.
Contact Properties
Contact properties include information specific to each of your contacts. This information can be added to the message and assigned to your customers' accounts.
You may individually check the list of custom properties in your customers' accounts by segmenting them based on some properties or by exporting your contacts list to a file.
Unlike custom fields, custom properties can be added to the message content for both Automation workflows (despite the trigger) and Campaigns.
Another key difference is that custom properties are stored in Omnisend and can be used for sending and segmenting at any time.
If the third-party app passes information about the contact through the API, you can view the request's body in the Store settings → API → API logs.
Key Aspects
These two concepts may sound and look similar. However, they serve different purposes. Let's underline some bullet points to highlight the properties of each:
Both custom fields and custom properties can be added to the message content using the Personalization option.
Custom fields are passed and assigned to the Custom event and can be used within the Automation with that trigger only. You can't segment your contacts based on them.
Custom properties are assigned to your contacts' profiles and can be used in any of your automations or campaigns. You can use them for your contact segmenting.
If you still have any questions or need assistance, please contact us at [email protected].