Marketing vs. transactional messages
When sending messages via Push, Email, In-App, App Inbox, SMS, WhatsApp, or Viber, you choose whether the message is marketing or transactional. This choice determines how Pushwoosh applies user preferences, frequency limits, and the control group.
Choosing the right message type
Anchor link to| Message type | Marketing message | Transactional message |
|---|---|---|
| User preferences | Respects subscription preferences. Only sent to users who opted in to the subscription category you choose in the campaign. For SMS and Viber, not sent to numbers that opted out. See marketing consent. | Bypasses user preferences for email, SMS, and Viber. An email is sent even to users who unsubscribed or didn’t opt in to the subscription category. An SMS or Viber message is sent even to numbers without marketing consent. Other channels have no subscription check that depends on the message type. |
| Frequency capping | Global frequency capping applies, except to silent pushes and Live Activity updates. | Frequency capping does not apply. |
| Silent hours and silence periods | Silent hours apply to one-time campaigns, API sends, RSS feeds, and geozone campaigns. In Customer Journey, the journey’s silence period applies instead. Neither applies to Viber messages. | Silent hours and silence periods do not apply. |
| Control group | Excludes users in the control group. | Includes users in the control group, except on Viber. Viber messages never reach control group users, even transactional ones. |
| Email sunset policy | Skips email contacts with no opens or clicks for the period set in the sunset policy, if the project has it on. | The sunset policy does not apply. |
| Typical use cases | Promotions and offers, newsletters, product and feature updates, re-engagement, lifecycle campaigns, announcements. | Account and security, orders and payments, critical notifications, verification. |
Where to set the message type
Anchor link toThe message type is set in the channel-specific settings: either in a journey element or in the one-time message form.
- Email: The message type is available in Customer Journey and when sending a one-time message. In a journey, set it in the Email element. For one-time emails, set it in the campaign setup.
- Push: The message type is available in Customer Journey and when sending a one-time push. In a journey, set it in the Push element. For one-time push, set it in the campaign setup.
- In-app: The message type is available only in Customer Journey. Set it in the In-app element when building a Customer Journey.
- SMS: Set it in the SMS element when building a Customer Journey.
- WhatsApp: Set it in the WhatsApp element when building a Customer Journey.
- Viber: Set it in the Viber element when building a Customer Journey. This is separate from the Template/Freeform content choice, which only affects pricing.
No preselected message type
Anchor link toYou choose the message type yourself:
- One-time push: a new push has no message type selected. Choose one in the Content step to continue.
- Customer Journey: new Push, SMS, Viber, WhatsApp, In-app, App Inbox, and Multi-Armed Bandit elements have no message type selected, and the element shows a Message type not selected warning until you choose one. Elements reached only from an Audience-based entry show Marketing message with a Default badge. Choose Transactional message if the message is a service one.
The Message type not selected warning in a journey element doesn’t stop you from applying the element or saving the journey.
Email works differently. The one-time email form and the journey Email element don’t require you to choose a message type.
API requests and message type
Anchor link toUse the same marketing and transactional values in the API as in the Control Panel.
For push, SMS, and WhatsApp, see /createMessage parameters. For Viber, use message_type in Messaging API v2. If you omit the type, the message is treated as marketing. For email, see createEmailMessage.