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Using Data Connections to Personalize Templates with Promotion Properties

Blair Matheson
  • Updated

Data Connections allow you to dynamically pull promotion details—like the reward type, reward value and promo code—directly into your campaign templates. This means you can show each customer their own promotion in real-time, using personalization tags powered by Optimove Promotions (formerly OptiPromo).

This guide shows you how to use the Promotions Data Connection to insert dynamic promotion values into your templates.

Before You Begin

  • Ensure your Promotions integration is active and configured for your Optimove site.
  • Have a campaign ready that uses the promotions you want to display.

What You Can Personalize

The Promotions Data Connection (named OptiPromo Batch API in the connection list) exposes the following properties:

  • rewardType – e.g., “Bonus”, “Cashback”
  • rewardValue – e.g., “$50”
  • rewardMetric – the unit of the reward
  • promotionTier – the tier the customer qualified for in a tiered promotion
  • promocodeId – the promotion's promo code, e.g., “WELCOME2026”
  • uniqueCodeId – the unique, one-time code assigned to the customer if you are using Personalized Promo Codes 
  • customerId – the customer's ID

Step-by-Step: Inserting a Promotion Property into a Template

  1. Open Your Template

    Navigate to Plan → Templates, choose a channel (e.g., Email), and open an existing template or create a new one. Place your cursor where you want the promotion value to appear.

  2. Open Personalization

    In the editor toolbar, click Personalization.

    Template editor toolbar with the Personalization button highlighted

  3. Open Data Connections

    In the Personalization Tags window, click Data Connections (Beta) at the bottom left. The Set up Data Connection formula window opens.

    Personalization Tags window with the Data Connections (Beta) link highlighted

  4. Select the Data Connection and Property

    On the Select Data step, open the Select Data Connection dropdown and choose the Promotions connection (OptiPromo Batch API). Then, under Select the property you want to use in the template, select the property to insert. For this example, select rewardValue to show the reward amount.

    Select Data step with the OptiPromo Batch API connection selected and its list of properties

  5. Set a Fallback

    When you select a property, a Fallback section appears beneath it. Choose what happens if the value is missing for a customer:

    • Don't proceed with the send – the message is not sent to that customer.
    • Use this default value – enter text to show instead (e.g., “a surprise reward”).

    Click Next.

    rewardValue selected with the Fallback options highlighted and a default value of a surprise reward

  6. Set the Lookup and API Placeholders

    On the Set Lookup step, map how Optimove matches each customer to their promotion:

    • Set Lookup: customer_id equal to [%CUSTOMER_ID%]
    • API Placeholders: CUSTOMER_ID equal to [%CUSTOMER_ID%] and PROMOCODE_ID equal to [%PROMO%]

    Select each value from the dropdown, or start typing to filter the list.

    [%CUSTOMER_ID%] and [%PROMO%] are system tags that automatically represent the current customer and the promotion attached to them in your campaign. API placeholders only appear if they were included in your API-based data connection.

    Click Next.

    Set Lookup step with customer_id mapped to CUSTOMER_ID and API placeholders mapped to CUSTOMER_ID and PROMO

  7. Review the Summary and Insert

    Review the Summary of the data connection, selected property, lookup, and API placeholders. Then click Insert Data to add the formula to your template.

    Note: Once inserted, the formula cannot be edited. If you need to change it, delete it and create a new one.

    Summary step showing the OptiPromo Batch API connection, rewardValue property, lookup and API placeholders

Example Use Case

Let's say you want to create an email that displays a unique offer for each customer, like:

"You just won a $50 Bonus!"

To build this, combine static text with two properties from the Promotions Data Connection: rewardValue and rewardType.

  1. In your template editor, type the static text: You just won a
  2. Follow the steps above (1–7) to insert the rewardValue property.
  3. Place your cursor after the inserted formula, add a space, and follow the steps again to insert the rewardType property.

Each inserted formula looks something like this:

[%DC_...:[%CUSTOMER_ID%]:CUSTOMER_ID=[%CUSTOMER_ID%],PROMOCODE_ID=[%PROMO%]:rewardValue:a surprise reward%]

Template editor showing an inserted Data Connection formula for rewardValue, highlighted

Don't worry about the long formula – Optimove generates it for you. It includes the connection, the lookup, the property, and the fallback value. When the campaign is sent, Optimove looks up the correct promotion for each customer and replaces the formula with the real value.

What Happens During a Campaign Send

Once the campaign is launched:

  • The formula in the template is automatically populated per customer.
  • Data is pulled in real-time from Promotions based on your lookup settings.
  • Customers see personalized rewards specific to their campaign eligibility.
  • If a value is missing, your fallback setting applies.

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