What Smart Template Recommendations Do

Analyze and recommend templates based on:

  • Template engagement rates from past campaigns
  • Success scores combining usage and engagement
  • A/B test results across templates
  • Campaign completion rates
  • Platform-specific performance

The system learns: Every published campaign generates engagement data. Templates with higher engagement are recommended more frequently.

How Performance Tracking Works

Metrics Tracked Per Template:

  • Average Engagement Rate: Total engagement (likes + comments + shares) / impressions × 100
  • Success Score: Weighted score (0-100) combining usage frequency and engagement
  • Campaigns Completed: Number of campaigns using this template that reached "completed" status
  • Performance Updated At: Last time metrics were refreshed

Score Calculation:
```
Usage Score = (usage_count / 10) × 30 (max 30 points)
Engagement Score = (avg_engagement_rate / 5) × 70 (max 70 points)
Success Score = Usage Score + Engagement Score
```

Example:

  • Template used 15 times → Usage score: 30 (capped)
  • Avg engagement rate: 3.5% → Engagement score: 49
  • Total success score: 79/100

Viewing Template Performance

Campaign Templates Page:

  1. Go to Campaigns > Templates
  2. Templates are ordered by:
  • Default templates first
  • Then by usage count
  • Then alphabetically

What You See:

  • Template name and description
  • Social post count and duration
  • Email count
  • Usage count
  • System vs tenant-specific badges

Performance metrics (visible when available):

  • Engagement rate
  • Success score
  • Completed campaigns count

How Recommendations Work

During Campaign Creation:

When you create a new campaign, the platform suggests templates based on:

  1. Content Type Match: Templates configured for your content source (article, offer, holiday)
  2. Success Score: Higher-scoring templates appear first
  3. Recent Performance: Templates with recent high engagement prioritized
  4. Tenant History: Your past template choices influence suggestions

Template Ranking:

  • Templates with success_score > 70 marked "High Performer"
  • Templates with avg_engagement_rate > 5% marked "Top Engagement"
  • Unused templates appear last (no data yet)

Performance Data Collection

Automated Daily Sync:

An automated task runs every 4 hours:

  1. Syncs engagement metrics from the social publishing integration for all published social posts
  2. Updates post-level metrics (likes, comments, shares, impressions)
  3. Creates preference signals for high/low performers
  4. Triggers template metric updates

Template Metric Updates:

Another task recalculates template performance:

  1. Aggregates metrics from all campaigns using each template
  2. Computes average engagement rate
  3. Counts completed campaigns
  4. Calculates success score
  5. Updates performance_updated_at timestamp

Manual Refresh:

You can trigger a metric update from the admin panel.

Understanding Engagement Rates

What's a "Good" Engagement Rate?

Social media averages vary by platform:

  • Twitter/X: 0.5-1% is average, 2%+ is good
  • LinkedIn: 1-3% is average, 5%+ is good
  • Instagram: 1-3% is average, 5%+ is excellent
  • Facebook: 0.5-1% is average, 2%+ is good

ILLIXIS Engagement Rate Thresholds:

  • High: ≥5% (creates positive preference signal with outcome = 1.0)
  • Medium: 1-5% (creates neutral signal with outcome = 0.5)
  • Low: <1% (creates negative signal with outcome = 0.2)

A/B Testing Templates

Test Two Templates Against Each Other:

  1. Create Campaign A using Template 1
  2. Create Campaign B using Template 2
  3. Use same content source for both
  4. Launch on same date
  5. Compare engagement rates after 2 weeks

What to Compare:

  • Total engagement per post
  • Engagement rate (accounts for impressions)
  • Completion rate
  • Time to publish all posts

The system learns: After multiple A/B tests, higher-performing templates get higher success scores.

Preference Learning Integration

How Templates Influence Future Recommendations:

Every published social post generates a preference signal that captures the platform, post type, media presence, hashtag count, engagement rate, and performance outcome.

The platform learns:

  • Which post types perform best on each platform
  • Optimal hashtag counts
  • Whether media improves engagement
  • Ideal text length

Future campaign generation uses these signals to generate better content.

Template Types and Performance

Default System Templates:

  1. Product Launch - High engagement (announcement + urgency posts)
  2. Weekly Roundup - Steady engagement (educational content)
  3. Event Promotion - High early engagement, drops off
  4. Seasonal Campaign - Performance spikes near dates
  5. Content Amplification - Consistent engagement (evergreen)

Performance Patterns:

  • Announcement-heavy templates: High early engagement, lower sustained
  • Educational templates: Lower initial, better long-term
  • Mixed-type templates: More stable engagement curves
  • Short-duration templates (7 days): Higher per-post engagement
  • Long-duration templates (30 days): Better total reach

Creating High-Performing Templates

What Makes Templates Perform Well:

  1. Post Type Variety: Mix announcement, educational, social proof, urgency
  2. Platform Optimization: Match post types to platform norms
  3. Pacing: Space posts 2-3 days apart (not daily)
  4. Duration: 14-21 days performs better than 7 or 30
  5. Email Integration: Templates with email milestones get higher engagement

Post Type Performance (General):

Based on cross-platform data:

  • Social Proof: Highest engagement (testimonials, case studies)
  • Urgency/Reminder: High engagement near end of campaign
  • Behind the Scenes: High engagement (storytelling)
  • Announcement: High initial engagement, drops off
  • Promotional: Lower engagement (but drives conversions)
  • Educational: Steady, reliable engagement

Troubleshooting

Template shows 0% engagement rate

  • Template hasn't been used yet, or
  • Campaigns using it haven't published posts yet, or
  • Posts published <4 hours ago (not synced yet)

Engagement metrics not updating

  • Check that the social publishing integration is connected (Social Profiles)
  • Verify scheduled tasks are running (contact support if unsure)
  • Check the last sync timestamp on posts

Success score seems wrong

  • Success score combines usage AND engagement
  • New templates with low usage will score low even with high engagement
  • Score will improve as template is used more

Template used 10 times but shows 0 completed campaigns

  • Campaigns still in "draft", "active", or "paused" status
  • Only "completed" campaigns count toward metric
  • Mark campaigns complete when distribution ends

Recommendations not showing

  • Template recommendations appear during campaign creation
  • If no templates exist, contact support to set up system defaults

Best Practices

When Creating New Templates:

  1. Test with small campaigns first (5 posts, 7 days)
  2. Monitor engagement after first 3 uses
  3. Adjust post types if engagement is low
  4. Keep templates focused (product launch ≠ weekly roundup)

When Choosing Templates:

  1. Start with templates that have success_score > 60
  2. For new content types, use default templates first
  3. Create custom templates after understanding what performs
  4. Don't create templates with >10 posts (engagement drops)

Improving Template Performance:

  1. Analyze low-performing campaigns (which posts failed?)
  2. Adjust post types in template
  3. Change timing/pacing
  4. Test with different content types
  5. Monitor engagement over 3-5 campaigns before making changes

Template Naming:

  • Be specific: "Blog Post Amplification - 14 Days" not "Content Campaign"
  • Include duration in name for quick reference
  • Note platform focus if specialized (e.g., "LinkedIn B2B Campaign")

Related Features

  • Campaign Planner: Uses templates to generate distribution plans
  • Social Studio: Generates individual social posts (not campaigns)
  • Email Digest Builder: Email milestones link to email campaigns
  • Preference Learning: Captures engagement signals to improve future content
  • Social Publishing Integration: Syncs engagement metrics from social platforms
  • Maya Insights: May recommend campaigns based on template performance

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