This glossary covers the Privy platform's core components and other terms that may come up when discussing the platform with your team, a Privy representative, or a Privy Partner.
A to D
A/B Test: A method of comparing multiple versions of a display against each other to determine which one performs best. This process is most effective when only one or two variables are changed, such as variations in the colors, titles, or images.
Abandoned Cart Email: Sent individually or as part of a series, these email messages target customers who added items to their cart but failed to complete the transaction.
Abandoned Cart Text: Sent individually, these text messages target customers who added items to their cart but failed to complete the transaction.
Audience Targeting: A collection of conditions that determine who sees your display. Multiple conditions can be applied to a single display to target specific audience segments like first-time mobile visitors or customers from the USA who have visited your site more than three times.
Automation Rules: This option within the Follow-up step of the display builder allows you to sync the signups generated by a display to an outside provider, such as an email service provider (ESP), marketing platform, or customer relationship management platform (CRM).
After Signup Action: This option within the Create step of the display builder allows you to determine what will occur after a visitor signs up via the display. Possible actions include showing a thank-you page, redirecting to a specific location, or simply doing nothing.
After Signup Email: An email delivered to the individual who signed through a display. This email is ideal for delivering a coupon code, thanking recipients for joining the list, or offering recipients additional information.
After Signup Text: A text that is delivered to the individual who signed up through a display if their phone number is known or included in the submission and they've opted into text communications. This text is ideal for delivering a coupon code, thanking recipients for joining the list, or offering recipients additional information.
Banner: A display that appears on the top or bottom of your website with enough space to include a small form. This display is best for announcements or promotions.
Bar: A relatively unobtrusive display that appears at the top or bottom of your website. This display type cannot include a form element and is best for promoting free shipping or other special offers.
Broadcast Text: A text, sometimes referred to as a bulk SMS or a mass text, that is sent to all contacts or a specific segment of contacts. This text type is perfect for special announcements or updates and benefits from exceptionally high open rates compared to other marketing channels due to the direct nature of the communication.
Conversion Rate: A ratio comparing the number of people who viewed your display to how many of those people signed up through it. (# of Signups / # of Views)*100
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): The process of making changes to a display or website in order to increase the rate at which visitors take the desired action (e.g., Signup or Purchase).
Cookies: A small text file added to a visitor's browser when they visit a page that includes your Privy Code. This file allows Privy to keep track of the visitor's movements within the site and associate actions (e.g., Visits, Signups, etc.) with a Privy contact profile.
Contact: A contact is an individual whose interaction with your business has prompted the creation of a profile in the Contacts area of your Privy account. The information stored in these records empowers you to create more focused displays via audience targeting and enables you to send eligible recipients marketing or sales communications.
Coupons: A tab within your Privy dashboard where you can create all master or unique coupons before adding them to a specific display. When integrated with Shopify or BigCommerce, these coupons can be automatically synced to your store.
Create Step: The section of the Privy display builder that allows you to customize your display's design, edit the display's form, and update the display's coupon settings.
Customer Winback: Sent individually or as part of a series, these email messages target customers who haven't bought from you in a while.
Displays: The centerpiece of the Privy Convert subscription, this tool allows you to convert first-time visitors and increase sales with popups, landing pages, embedded forms, and more.
Display Builder: The multi-step process presented to a user upon creating a new display. The default steps include Create, Target, and Follow-up. If the user removes the form element of a display, the Follow-up step is removed automatically.
Display Designer: Accessed via the Create step of the display builder, the designer empowers you to customize your display via a drag-and-drop editor.
Display (Convert) Revenue: A reporting metric available on the Displays dashboard and Privy Homepage representing the total revenue collected from all contacts who have signed up via a Privy display and subsequently made a purchase since the account was created.
Display (Convert) Signups: A reporting metric on the Displays dashboard and Privy Homepage representing the total number of submissions since the account was created.
Display type: The different styles of displays you can create, such as popup, flyout, bar, banner, etc.
Display (Convert) Views: A reporting metric on the Displays dashboard and Privy Homepage representing the total number of display views since the account was created.
Double opt-in: A double opt-in is an additional step to the email subscription opt-in process, requiring a user to verify their email address and confirm interest.
E to H
Email Editor: The drag-and-drop email editor allows you to quickly and easily create email messages, such as newsletters and purchase follow-ups that your qualifying customers will receive.
Embedded Form: A display that appears directly within the content of your page and aims to collect contact information. This presentation differs from most Privy displays that are associated with a display animation, such as sliding in or popping up.
ESP: Email Service Provider (e.g., Privy Email, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Klaviyo, etc.).
Flyout: A display that appears left, right, or center of your website. This display is best utilized for mobile users.
Follow-up Step: The section of the Privy display builder that allows you to enable after signup messages and sync signups to third-party providers using automation rules.
Form Fields: Accessed via the Create step of the display builder, the form fields component of a display allows you to control the user information and/or attributes that the display aims to collect. The Email or Phone field must be included if a display is using form fields.
Hidden Fields: Form fields that gather user attributes utilizing cookies instead of asking users to fill out specific information.
I to L
Landing Page: A display that appears as a standalone, mobile-friendly web page and is perfect for event registration or content download displays.
M to P
Mailable Contacts: The contacts in your account that you have permission to email. Unmailable contacts, such as those that never opted into marketing emails, unsubscribed, marked email as spam, or hard bounced, are not included and do not count towards your Privy Email contact tier.
Merge tag: A piece of code that allows you to insert unique contact data from your contacts list into your content for the purposes of personalization (e.g., Name). Other names for merge tags are substitution strings, personalization fields, personalization tags, or personalization tokens.
Newsletter: Emails created to engage, add value, or promote on a recurring basis.
Orders: An order is counted when someone signs up for your Privy display and then completes a purchase through your store using the same email address.
Pageview: A pageview is registered each time a page that includes the Privy Code is loaded.
Participants: The number of visitors on your site during the A/B test - this does not mean that they will view either the display or any variations you're running. Who sees the display is determined by the audience targeting and trigger conditions applied in the display variations.
Play: A pre-built display with all of the best practices already baked in.
Plays dashboard: This dashboard allows you to quickly select and customize pre-built plays representing the top-performing displays from across Privy's customer base.
Popup: A display created to be front and center on your website. This display is best utilized for desktop users.
Preview Text: Preview text, sometimes known as 'preheader', is the text that appears after the email subject line for email recipients. Preview text is important because it allows you to add compelling copy that helps boost open rates and engagement.
Privy Homepage: This dashboard provides pre-built reports showing which displays and emails are effective, along with the revenue they've generated, signups they've gathered, and carts they've saved.
Purchase Follow-Up: Sent individually or as part of a series, these email messages target customers who completed a purchase through your checkout flow.
Q to T
Segment: The set of filters used to determine a newsletter's audience. These filters are based on customer attributes, shopping activity, website behavior, etc.
Sessions: The number of unique times a user has visited your website.
Signup: A signup is when a contact completes the act of registration/submission on a Privy display. A single contact might show more than one signup.
Spin-to-Win: A gamified display that offers discounts in exchange for contact information.
Targeting Condition: The more granular individual conditions used to determine the display's audience (The Who). These conditions are based on customer attributes, shopping activity, website behavior, etc.
Targeting Rules: The options within the Target step of the display builder that determine when a display appears, who the display appears to, and how long the display is available.
Textable Contacts: The contacts in your account that have provided their phone number through a Privy form, have checked the Text Opt-In checkbox, and replied “yes” to the double opt-in text message. Your number of textable contacts will update every 12 hours on the subscription page of your account and count towards your Privy Text contact tier.
Triggers: The conditions that must be met for an order follow-up or abandoned cart message to send to a contact.
U to Z
URL: The web address that appears within your internet browser.
Used Text Messages: The number of text messages sent and received from/to the phone number assigned to your company upon subscribing to Privy Text. This includes double opt-in compliance text messages, subscriber texts to your assigned phone number, and any after signup texts or abandoned cart texts sent thereafter. Your number of used text messages will update every 12 hours on the My Plan & Billing page of your account.
UTM Parameter: A portion of text added to the end of a URL that allows tracking of visits from that URL. Common uses for these parameters are in social media, emails, and add-to-cart links.
Welcome Email: A welcome email is the first impression a company makes with a new subscriber after they've visited your site and submitted a display. Your welcome email will likely have one of the highest open rates of any email you send, which means it’s something you can’t afford to skip.