How to Build Validation Rules?

This article is going to explore the New Rules Builder and show how to build validation rules for campaigns.

Create validation rules with campaign manager
Create validation rules with validation rules manager - alternative

Validation rules create limits that need to be met to make a successful redemption, earn loyalty points or trigger a distribution.

Validation rules can be assigned to incentives (discounts, coupons, gift cards, digital rewards, referral codes) and earning rules.

If you attach validation rules to discounts or campaign codes, they will limit their redemptions. These could be time limitations, publication limitations, or discount amount limitations
If you assign validation rules to the earning rules in your loyalty campaign, they will define circumstances that trigger the assignment of new loyalty points. Read more here on creating validation rules for earning new loyalty points

Visit this article to see a complete list of limits and rules that you can create with the Validation Rules Builder.

There are two ways you can access the Rules Builder and create validation rules:

Via campaign manager, which is the primary option for creating validation rules. When a given campaign is saved, all the validation rules created in the process will be automatically assigned to it and added to the validation rules section
Via validation rules manager (alternative), which is the dedicated validation rules section in the dashboard that lets you prepare rules for future use

Create validation rules with campaign manager

Select a campaign type you wish to create and move to the validation rules within the campaign creation process. There you will have an option to choose to create a new rule from scratch or use an existing predefined rule from your validation rules section in the dashboard.

You can also select the new validation rules builder here.

In the first step you can create a name for your validation rule. It is an optional step, however, using a custom name instead of a default one makes it easier to find and maintain specific validation rules in the future.

Conditions

Select the ‘Add rules’ option and expand the rules from the category you are interested in and build a restriction.

The list of all validation rules available in the rule builder is divided into corresponding categories:

Audience
Order structure
Order volume
Budget constraints
Advanced

Junctions and Brackets

When building more complex scenarios with multiple validation rules there will be a junction between each pair of separate rules, clicking on it will change the junction. There are two available:

The junction ‘and’ means that both rules have to be met in order for the discount to be applied while with ‘or’ only one of the rules has to be met.

Another option is to use brackets. Here is an example of a more complex scenario using this solution. On the screenshot below, validation rules state that the customer has to either be in a Reviewers customer segment and spend more than $50 dollars or to be in a New Customers customer segment and spend more than $100 dollars to be eligible for the promotion.

Additional options

With every added rule you have an option to customize it further.

There are several options that you can select here:

Error message allows you to add a message that is returned to the customer via API when condition for the promotion is not met
Edit rule will allow you to modify the existing rule if you wish to implement any changes to it
Add subrule will add a rule within the rule if some additional requirements have to be met for the promotion (subrules are available only in ‘Any order item’ or ‘Every order item’ validation rules)
Duplicate rule will create the same rule next to the selected one
Add next rule will enable you to add a new validation rule
Add next brackets will create brackets after the selected rule
Remove rule will remove the currently selected validation rule
Surround with brackets will create brackets around the selected validation rule

Subrules

Subrules are rules within rules that allow you to further customize your promotion requirements. They are available in ‘Any order item’ and ‘Every order item’ validation rules.

Create validation rules with validation rules manager - alternative

Validation rules can also be created via validation rules manager. The validation rules manager is available in the dashboard in the validation rules section. The process is nearly identical to the one described in the campaign manager section. The only difference is within the first step where you have to choose the context for your validation rule.

The context defines which rules are going to be available in the next step depending on the type of the discount. Creating validation rules via the validation rules manager is advised only to advanced users.