Player Feature - Most Cost-Efficient Outbound Channel

An in-depth look into the Most Cost-Efficient Outbound Channel, a system Player Feature: how it can be used, the objective of using it, and the logic of how it has been set up.

Most Cost-Efficient Outbound Channel is a system Player Feature.
✅ This means that it has been created by FT and is available to use as part of the Singularity Model.
🧠 Please note that system Player Features cannot be edited or deleted. If you want to make changes, you must create your own version of the Player Feature.

⚙️ Feature Type

All Player Features must be connected to a Feature Type. Think of the Feature Types as the settings that define the language that we use to talk about important pieces of information. The Player Feature uses these settings and relates them to a player.
The Player Feature: Most Cost-Efficient Outbound Channel is created based on the Feature Type: Outbound Channels.
The classes and slugs that are required by the Player Feature, are created and defined in the Feature Type.
📚 Further reading:
​Feature Types​
​Setting up Player Features​
​Movements​

🚀 Objective

The objective of the Most Cost-Efficient Outbound Channel Player Feature is to be able to target players with their preferred communication channel for optimal conversion whilst also minimising costs. Prioritise Email or SMS based on the player preference.
It takes into account the player consents for the different channels, as well as ensures deliverability is achieved whilst prioritising the lowest cost.

Possible outcomes (Classes)

The possible outcomes (Feature Type Classes) that a player can belong to are:
  1. Email
  2. SMS
Default Value
By default, players will be assigned to the Email class.
This means that if there is not enough data available the player will be assigned to the Email class.
Let's look more closely at how these classes are calculated and how players can qualify to belong to a certain class 👇

↔ Movements

Movements define the way in which players can be moved from one state to another.
They can either be real-time movements, that occur when a real-time action occurs (such as a payment or registration), or a time-based query. Time-based queries occur at a set time of the day and evaluate the player base to determine if a player should move class.
​
📚 Read more:
​Movements​
​Real-Time Movements​
​Time-Based Queries ​
For Most Cost-Efficient Outbound Channel, there is one Active Process, or movement, that has been set up to manage player movements between states:
Active Processes
Active Processes

Evaluate Most Cost-Effective Channel

  1. This movement is a Time-Based Query that is set to run at a set time of 'Everyday at 03:00 UTC'.
  2. The objective of the query is to find the most cost-efficient channel. Typically this will be Email.
    1. Firstly, the query will check player consent and will only consider opted-in channels.
    2. If both channels are opted-in, Email will be prioritised unless the SMS deliverability rates are more than 5x better than Email.
  3. As a rule of thumb, Email will be selected unless the player is opted-out or if there are low deliverability rates of Email - then it will send an SMS.
  4. By default, Players will be assigned to the Email class.
  5. Blocked and excluded players are also included.
🤔 Why a factor of 5 when assessing deliverability?
We use the factor of 5 to make sure there is a significantly improved deliverability rate.
If both SMS and Email have low deliverability rates for a player, then we wouldn't want to spend money sending an SMS that is unlikely to be delivered in the first place. In that case, it would make more sense to send an Email, which doesn't contribute to additional costs.
Evaluate Outbound Channel
Evaluate Outbound Channel

🧠 Queries

Most of the Player Features in the Singularity Model make use of time-based queries. Queries are good for determining states of player inactivity, something a real-time movement is unable to determine.
Our queries are created using ClickHouse and are included in the Singularity Model for you to use.
🧠 Please note that the slug from the Feature Type class must match inside the query.
If you want to write your own queries, you can use the Query Editor or ask Fast Track for assistance. You can find the query editor in: Insights & Analytics menu - Data Studio - Query Editor.
Evaluate outbound channel computation
Evaluate outbound channel computation

🏁 What's Next

Dashboards

After some time, once the computation Triggers have fired, you'll be able to see that players have now been assigned to one of the classes of Player Feature. You can see this happen in the Player Distribution dashboard inside the Player Feature:
Player distribution
Player distribution

Segmentation

Following this, you can use Most Cost-Effective Outbound Channel when creating segments for Activities and Lifecycles. You will be able to find Most Cost-Effective Outbound Channel amongst the segment fields when you’re creating a Segment.
Segment field
Segment field

Use Inside an Activity

Any Player Feature that has been set up using the Feature Type Outbound Channel, can be selected from inside an Activity or Lifecycle to determine which channel will be sent to each player.
🚀 Learn how:
Continue reading here to learn how to use the Most Cost-Efficient Outbound Channel player feature from inside an Activity.