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

More in Social Media

Social Hub Dashboard

The Social Hub consolidates all your social media scheduling, publishing, and analytics in one place. No more jumping between platforms to manage posts. Schedule to 13 social networks, track performance, and publish content directly from ILLIXIS.

→
Social Studio: Multi-Content Generation Hub

Social Studio generates multiple content types from a single topic — social captions, video scripts, quote graphics, carousels, and social videos. Two modes: Freestyle any topic or From Article repurpose existing content.

→
Twitter Threads: Article to Viral Thread

Turn blog posts into 6-10 tweet threads with AI-generated images. Optimized for engagement, ready to copy and publish.

→
Instagram/LinkedIn Carousels

Carousels turn your article into 8-16 swipeable slides, optimized for Instagram or LinkedIn. Each slide has a headline, body text, and visual direction for AI-generated images. One article becomes a multi-slide post that stops scrollers and drives engagement.

→
Connect Social Media Accounts (LATE API)

LATE API integration enables social media publishing across 10+ platforms with a single connection. Connect Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and more without managing API keys or OAuth tokens individually.

→
← Back to Help Center