Adaptive Sending

  • Updated

Adaptive Sending helps improve engagement by delivering your message to each contact at the time they are most likely to open or click. Act-On analyzes historical engagement patterns and sends your email within a defined delivery window based on when each contact typically interacts with your messages.

Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to Expand
  • Open your message → Send Details.
  • Select your Recipients and optional suppression lists.
  • Under Send Method, choose Use Adaptive Sending.
  • Set your delivery window (date range + daily time window).
  • Act-On will deliver each message when the contact’s historical engagement suggests the best time within that window.
  • Finish sending from Review & Send.
Try it like this: Schedule a two-day Adaptive Sending window from Wednesday to Thursday, 9am–5pm. Prospects who usually open in the morning will receive the message early, while late-afternoon engagers will receive theirs later in the day. This helps spread send volume smoothly and improves inbox placement.

How Adaptive Sending works

Act-On evaluates each contact’s past email behaviour and identifies when they are most likely to engage. During your chosen send window, Act-On sends the message at the predicted best time for that individual.

Act-On considers:

  • Opens and clicks from previous emails
  • Patterns such as early-morning readers or late-afternoon engagers
  • Engagement recency and frequency

If there is not enough historical behaviour for a contact, Act-On sends the email at a random time within your delivery window.

Set up Adaptive Sending

  1. Open your email in the Email Composer.
  2. Go to the Send Details tab.
  3. Select your Recipients and optional Suppress against lists.
  4. Under Send Method, choose Use Adaptive Sending.
  5. Choose:
    • Start date – When the sending window begins
    • End date – When the sending window ends
    • Daily time range – The hours during which messages may send each day
  6. Review your selections, then continue to Review & Send.

Best practices

  • Use at least a 24-hour window for meaningful optimization.
  • Choose business hours that align with your audience's time zone and behaviour.
  • Avoid very short windows—less than 6 hours reduces the effectiveness of adaptive timing.
  • Allow enough historical data—Adaptive Sending improves the more you email your audience.
  • Combine with strong subject lines to maximize open potential.

Limitations to keep in mind

  • Adaptive Sending cannot guarantee inbox placement; it increases the likelihood of engagement.
  • If a contact has little or no engagement history, Act-On sends at a random time within the window.
  • Sending may extend across the entire date and time window you select.
  • Campaigns with highly time-sensitive content (events starting soon, flash sales, etc.) may require immediate or scheduled sends instead.

Finish sending your message

When your send window and recipients are selected, click Review & Send in the upper right.

You can then:

  • Validate your email
  • Send test emails
  • Confirm your Adaptive Sending schedule

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