WHERE - Target specific URLs/Domains

Let's talk about using URLs and elements to control where your experiences appear.

Quick access

Overview

Device selection

Basics of URL Targeting

Advanced URL Targeting Techniques

Practical Configuration in Jimo

Best Practices & Tips

Testing and Troubleshooting

Overview

Click on this link to get an in-app tour of the "Where" options:

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Device Targeting in Jimo

Before diving into URL targeting, it’s essential to configure device selection to control where your experiences appear across Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile. This ensures that the experience is tailored to the specific device your user is on.

Harnessing the Power of URLs in Jimo

In Jimo, mastering the art of URL targeting is key to customizing where your in-app experiences (formerly known as 'pokes') appear or where they start for multi-page experiences. By understanding and leveraging URL components, you can precisely define the environment or specific pages within your web application where these experiences should be displayed.

Why URL Targeting Matters

URL targeting allows you to create highly tailored and relevant experiences for your users. Whether it's guiding them through a new feature, offering assistance on a complex page, or simply enhancing user engagement, the ability to pinpoint where these experiences show up is crucial. This is particularly beneficial in Single Page Applications (SPAs) or other scenarios where the URL doesn't visibly change as users navigate through your app.

Configuring URL-Based Display Rules

Setting up these experiences in Jimo involves a few steps to configure URL-based display rules. This process ensures that your in-app elements are shown exactly where they're needed, enhancing both user experience and engagement. We'll guide you through understanding URL components, applying basic and advanced matching rules, and implementing best practices for effective targeting.

Stay tuned as we delve into the essentials of URL targeting in Jimo, helping you to make the most out of your in-app experiences.

Device Selection

The "Where" section begins with choosing the devices where your experience will be displayed. Selecting appropriate devices ensures the experience is optimized for the user's platform. You can opt to target:

  • Desktop

  • Tablet

  • Mobile

We recommend selecting a single device when configuring your experience.

Jimo allows you to duplicate the experience easily, making it simple to adjust the content for Mobile or Tablet as needed to ensure the best responsiveness.

Basics of URL Targeting

Understanding URL Components

To effectively target where your in-app experiences (previously known as 'pokes') appear in Jimo, it's essential to understand the components of a URL. A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is composed of several parts, each serving a specific function:

  1. Scheme: This is the initial part of the URL, indicating the protocol used (like http or https). In Jimo, you might not always need to specify the scheme unless it's crucial for the experience.

    • Example: In https://app.jimo.com/dashboard, the scheme is https.

  2. Domain: This refers to the web address or the name of the server where the web page is hosted. Domains are crucial in targeting experiences to specific websites or subdomains.

    • Example: For https://app.jimo.com/dashboard, the domain is app.jimo.com.

  3. Path: The path follows the domain and directs to a specific page or resource within the website. It's key to targeting specific pages in your app.

    • Example: In the URL https://app.jimo.com/settings, the path is /settings.

  4. Query: A query consists of additional parameters attached to the URL, often used for tracking or specific functionalities. They begin with a ? and are separated by &.

    • Example: In https://app.jimo.com/dashboard?tab=analytics, the query is tab=analytics.

  5. Fragment: This is a section within a webpage, often used in SPAs. It follows a # symbol.

    • Example: https://app.jimo.com/dashboard#profile has the fragment #profile.

Simple URL Matching: Basics

When setting up your in-app experiences, Jimo provides a user-friendly way to define where they should appear using URL matching. In the Where section of the Audience page settings, you can set your matching conditions.

🪄 Crafting a contextually relevant in-app experience hinges on the perfect blend of URL-matching conditions and user segmentation.

There are three primary ways to select pages for displaying your experience:

  1. Universal Display: Show the experience across all pages of your app.

  2. Single URL Targeting: Set the experience to appear on a specific, single URL.

  3. Filtered URL Targeting: Use URL filters to display the experience on a group of pages based on certain URL patterns.

In the following sections, we'll explore how to implement each of these strategies effectively in Jimo, ensuring that your in-app experiences are displayed exactly where and when they will be most impactful.

Universal Display: Everywhere Option

Choosing the 'Everywhere' option allows your in-app experience to be displayed on any page within your application where Jimo is integrated. This is a straightforward approach, ensuring maximum visibility across your app.

  • Hotspots and Tooltips: If your experience is designed as a hotspot or tooltip, targeting a specific element, it will only appear on pages where that element exists. This ensures the relevancy and contextuality of the experience. (If the element isn’t unique, all versions on each page will be targeted.)

Precise Targeting: Specific URL Option

Selecting the 'Specific URL' option narrows the display of your in-app experience to one specific page.

  • URL Input: When you choose this option, an input field appears, allowing you to specify the exact URL. If you have edited your experience in-app using a URL, this field can be pre-filled, making the process more intuitive. This single URL will be the only entry point from where you can start the experience.

When using the On specific URL option, ensure the URL field is not left empty.

An empty field here constitutes an invalid configuration and will prevent the experience from being published.

Customized Targeting: Filtered URLs Option

The 'Filtered URLs' option unlocks the full potential of URL matching in Jimo, enabling you to combine multiple conditions for more nuanced targeting.

  • Domain and Path Filtering: This option allows you to set filters based on both the domain and path parts of a URL. You can create rules that target specific domains, subdomains, paths, or combinations thereof.

    • Domain Rules: Set up targeting based on the web address or server name. This is useful for experiences meant for specific subdomains or distinct areas of your web application.

    • Path Rules: Target specific pages or groups of pages within your app by defining path rules. This is particularly useful for targeting sections of your app that cater to specific user interactions or features.

Advanced URL Targeting Techniques

Generative AI

The On filtered URLs option allows you to specify where your experience will be shown based on URL patterns. With our new Generative AI feature, you can now describe the desired target pages in a prompt, and the system will automatically generate precise URL rules.

This simplifies setup, saving you from having to create complex regex patterns manually. But to be sure it's on the right website we recommend to also manually specify a domain.

Understanding Rules and Domains: Filtered URL Option

In Jimo, creating rules for filtered URL targeting is a pivotal aspect of setting up your in-app experiences. These rules determine the specific conditions under which your experiences will be displayed.

Configuring URL Path Rules

  1. Adding Path Rules:

    • Initiate by clicking the "Add rule" button in the URL targeting section.

    • This action opens a blank condition where you can define the URL path and choose the matching type.

    • Example: To target pages under /products, simply add /products as your “equals” rule.

    URL Matching Types:

    • Starts With: Triggers experiences on pages where URLs start with a specified string.

    • Doesn’t Start With: Opposite of 'Starts With', used for exclusion.

    • Ends With: Activates experiences on pages where URLs end with a specific string.

    • Doesn’t End With: Useful for excluding certain end patterns.

    • Contains: Displays experiences on URLs containing a particular string.

    • Doesn’t Contain: Excludes URLs containing a specified string.

    • Equals: Exact match of the entire URL string.

    • Doesn’t Equal: Avoids URLs that exactly match the input.

    • Matches Regex: Utilizes regular expressions for complex and specific URL patterns. (All previous matching types can be replicated using only advanced regex patterns in this field.)

Domain-Based Targeting

Easily switch domains by using Environments.

Targeting Specific Domains or Environments:

Jimo enables you to control where your experiences appear based on the domain. This is particularly useful if Jimo is used across different environments or applications.

Example: You might want an experience to appear only in your staging environment (staging.yourapp.com) and not in production.

  1. Setting Up Domains Rules:

    • Within the URL targeting settings, specify the domains where the experience should be active.

    • You can list multiple domains or use regex for more complex domain patterns.

    • Example: Adding blog.yourapp.com; support.yourapp.com targets only these two subdomains.

  2. Combining Domains and Path Rules:

    • For comprehensive targeting, combine domain and path rules.

    • This ensures your in-app experiences are shown on specific pages of chosen domains.

    • Example: To match both the production and testing versions of any article such as blog.yourapp.com/article_1 and test.yourapp.com/article_default

    -> Use a combination like blog.yourapp.com;test.yourapp.com in your domain field and /article_ in a Starts with rule to target all blog pages.

Handling Dynamic URLs

When targeting specific URLs or domains in Jimo, handling dynamic URLs is crucial for precise and effective targeting. This involves using filtered URLs and regular expressions (regex) to match complex URL patterns.

Dynamic segments and wildcards are the most common regex commands that can be used in your path and domain rules. It brings flexibility to your dynamic URL targeting, allowing for patterns that adapt to various URL structures.

Dynamic segments, wildcards, and any advanced pattern matching can be used by default in the domain field. To use them on the path you have to put them in a "Matches regex" rule.

  1. Dynamic Segments:

    • Use placeholders to represent variable parts of a URL.

    • Example: /user/:userId/profile matches any user profile page, where :userId is a variable.

  2. Using Wildcards:

    • Wildcards (`*`) matches any character sequence in a URL segment.

    • Example: /blog/*/article matches any blog article regardless of the category.

    -> Valid URL: mycompany.com/blog/108/article or mycompany.com/blog/tuto_1/article

    -> Invalid URL: mycompany.com/article108 or mycompany.com/blog/article/tuto_1

Regular Expressions for Complex Patterns

For scenarios that demand highly specific targeting, regular expressions (regex) offer powerful pattern-matching capabilities.

  1. Regex Basics:

    A regular expression (regex) is a codified way of creating a pattern for a string to create a general matching condition that follows some rules. Some examples of this include:

    • [a-z]: to represent any character between a-z

    • (ape|bee): to represent a choice between "ape" or "bee"

    • \d: to represent any digit

    • a+: to represent one or more a's

    • $: to end the string and prevent any subsequent text matching

  2. Implementing Regex in Jimo:

    • In the URL targeting section, you can use the 'URL matches regex' rule type and input your pattern.

    • Example: Using ^/blog/\\d{4}/\\d{2}/ targets blog posts formatted by year and month.

  3. Testing and Validation:

    • Always test regex patterns to ensure they match the intended URLs.

    • Utilize Jimo's preview and testing features to validate regex targeting.

More resources on regex:

🎓 Understand how regex works

🎓 Explore a reference guide on regex expressions

Practical Configuration in Jimo

Step-by-Step: Setting Up URL Targeting

Configuring URL targeting in Jimo for your in-app experiences is a straightforward process. Here's how you can do it:

  1. Access the Experience Settings

    • Create a new in-app experience or navigate to the one you want to modify.

    • Click on the 'Target & Publish' for new experience or 'Settings' for pre-existing ones

    • Open the 'Where' section on which you can define targeting criteria.

  2. Choose Your Targeting Option

    • Select from 'Everywhere', 'Single URL', or 'Filtered URLs' based on your requirements.

  3. Configuring Universal Display

    • For the 'Everywhere' option, simply confirm your choice. There are no additional settings required.

  4. Setting Up Single URL Targeting

    • If you choose 'Single URL', enter the specific URL where you want the experience to display.

    • You can manually enter the URL or use a pre-filled option if available.

  5. Creating Filtered URL Rules

    • For 'Filtered URLs', you'll have the option to add multiple conditions.

    • Specify the domain and/or path rules. You can use exact matches, wildcards, or regular expressions for flexibility.

  6. Review and Save

    • Review your configurations to ensure they align with your intended user experience.

    • Save your settings. The system will automatically apply these targeting rules.

Using URL Targeting with In-App Experiences

Once you've set up your URL targeting, it's important to understand how it integrates with your in-app experiences:

  1. Contextual Relevance

    • URL targeting ensures that your experiences are shown in the most relevant context, enhancing user engagement and effectiveness.

  2. Testing and Iteration

    • After implementation, test the experiences across different URLs to ensure they are triggering as expected.

    • Be prepared to iterate and refine your targeting rules for optimal performance.

  3. Combining with User Segmentation

    • For an even more tailored approach, combine URL targeting with user segmentation. This allows experiences to be displayed based on both user behavior and the specific page they are on.

  4. Monitoring and Adjusting

    • Regularly monitor how the experiences are performing. Use analytics to understand user engagement and make adjustments as needed.

Best Practices & Tips for Effective URL Targeting

URL targeting in Jimo is a powerful tool to enhance user engagement and experience. Here's how you can maximize its effectiveness:

Effective URL Targeting Strategies

  1. Understand User Journey:

    • Map out the typical user journey on your app to identify key pages where targeted experiences can have the most impact.

  2. Use Clear Naming Conventions:

    • When setting up rules, use names that clearly indicate their purpose. This helps in maintaining and updating your targeting criteria over time.

  3. Start Simple, Then Refine:

    • Begin with broad targeting using simple rules. Monitor user interactions and gradually refine your targeting with more specific rules and conditions.

  4. Balance Broad and Specific Targeting:

    • While specific targeting is powerful, don’t overlook the effectiveness of broad targeting for general announcements or universal features.

  5. Regularly Review and Update:

    • Periodically review your URL targeting settings to ensure they remain aligned with your current app structure and user needs.

  6. Navigation Triggers: Use triggers and actions for steps to handle dynamic URL changes effectively. Learn more about steps and progression on our navigation page.

Common Scenarios and Solutions

  1. Scenario: Targeting Users in Specific Stages

    • Solution: Use path-based rules to target pages that are typically visited by users at certain stages, like onboarding or checkout.

  2. Scenario: Differentiating Between Similar URLs

    • Solution: Utilize regex for complex patterns to precisely target URLs that may have minor but crucial differences.

  3. Scenario: Avoiding Redundant Targeting

    • Solution: Use the 'Doesn't Contain' or 'Doesn't Start With' rules to exclude pages where the experience isn’t relevant or necessary.

  4. Scenario: Targeting Based on User Actions

    • Solution: Combine dynamic segments with user behavior data to create experiences that trigger based on specific actions within the app.

  5. Scenario: Ensuring Mobile Responsiveness

    • Solution: Test your targeting on various devices to ensure experiences appear correctly across all platforms, especially for mobile users.

Testing and Troubleshooting

Ensuring your URL targeting is set up correctly is crucial for the effective delivery of in-app experiences. Here's how to test and troubleshoot your URL targeting configurations in Jimo.

How to Test Your URL Targeting

  1. Use Jimo's URL Tester Tool:

    • Jimo provides a URL tester mechanism that allows you to validate if your targeted in-app experiences will appear as expected.

    • Enter the URL you want to test in the tool to see if your current rules will trigger the desired experience.

  2. Testing Multiple Scenarios:

    • Test a variety of URLs that represent different user journeys and pages in your app.

    • Check both positive (where you expect the experience to appear) and negative scenarios (where it should not appear).

  3. Reviewing Rule Logic:

    • If a URL doesn’t trigger the experience as expected, revisit the logical operators ('And/Or') and rule configurations.

  4. Iterative Testing:

    • Modify your rules based on test results and retest until you achieve the desired outcome.

    • This iterative approach helps refine your targeting for optimal performance.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Experience Not Appearing:

  • If an in-app experience doesn't appear, check if the URL exactly matches your rules, especially when using 'Equals' or 'Starts With' type rules.

  • Ensure there are no trailing or leading spaces in your URL path rules. Trailing spaces can cause the URL to be filtered incorrectly. Verify that these have been removed to ensure proper functionality.

Experience Showing on Unintended Pages:

  • For experiences appearing on unintended pages, review your 'Doesn’t Contain' or 'Doesn’t Start With' rules to ensure proper exclusion.

Issues with Dynamic Segments or Wildcards:

  • Verify that your dynamic segments or wildcards are correctly set up to match the variable parts of your URLs.

Complex Pattern Challenges with Regex:

  • For difficulties with regex patterns, use online regex testers to refine your expressions. Ensure they align with the URL structures in your app.

  • Cross-Device Consistency:

    • Test across different devices and browsers to ensure experiences are consistently triggered.

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