If you've set up a Peer-to-Peer Texting action and gotten users involved (on web or mobile), or if you've sent messages via Broadcast Texting, it's time to track your texting results! This article covers both Peer-to-Peer Texting AND Broadcast Texting and details the types of data you can gather from texting, where to find performance statistics, how to export texting data, how to sync texting data to third-party systems like VAN/EveryAction, and more.
Gathering Data from Text Banks
There are two types of data that you can gather from Peer-to-Peer Texting (text banking) or Broadcast Texting:
Basic data, that a certain contact received a text at a certain date/time
Additional data gathered in a subsequent conversation with a user, in the form of tags and custom fields designated in the action's report settings
Basic Data
Impactive generates one basic data point from either Peer-to-Peer Texting or Broadcast Texting automatically; you do not need to take any steps for these two respective custom fields to be automatically gathered. These data points are:
P2P Messaged At: This default custom field stores when a contact was last messaged at (date and time) for Peer-to-Peer Texting
Broadcast Messaged At: This default custom field stores when a contact was last messaged at (date and time) for Broadcast Texting
Additional Data Gathered During Conversations
While not every text bank or broadcast message is intended to gather data on contacts, many of them are! If you desire to capture data on contacts when they respond to an initial script (either Peer-to-Peer or Broadcast), you'll designate tags and custom fields to add to the action's report settings. These tags and custom fields will be shown to users for them to fill reports on contacts (in their inboxes, alongside their texting conversations).
Monitoring Texting Results
For Peer-to-Peer Texting: results from a text banking action, like all other actions on Impactive, can be monitored from the action's results page. You can find the results page either from the action's individual page:
Or from the results link for that action within the All Actions or all Peer-to-Peer Texting actions list pages:
For Broadcast Texting: results from a broadcast message can be monitored from the action's results page. You can find the results page either from the action's individual page:
Or from the results link for that action within the all Broadcast Texting list page:
Texting Summary Results
The results page will display the following summary metrics for P2P or broadcast texting:
Messaging Performance
List Size: Total number of unique phone numbers in the contact list used for this action.
Initial Attempted / Remaining: Total number of initial outbound messages attempted, and the remaining initial outbound messages that haven't been attempted yet.
Initial Delivered: Total number of initial outbound messages delivered.
Errors: Total number of messages not delivered due to an error; see Error Details below.
Responses: Total number of inbound responses from contacts, including opt-outs.
Opt-Outs: Total number of contacts that have opted out as a result of this texting action, including opt-outs registered automatically by Impactive and opt-outs marked manually by users.
Link Clicks: Total number of link clicks on links contained in either initial or response message scripts.
Fundraising Performance (more on ActBlue integration options here)
Total Raised: Sum of all contributions to this ActBlue form from this specific action.
Average Donation: Total raised divided by the number of total donors who contributed to this ActBlue form from this specific action.
Link Clicks: Total number of clicks to the ActBlue link contained in either initial or response message scripts.
Donors: Unique donors who contributed to this ActBlue form from this specific action.
New Donors: Unique donors who contributed to this ActBlue form from this specific action who had never donated via any form before.
Error Details (more on errors here)
Impactive Safeguards: Total number of messages that were not delivered because Impactive prevented them from sending due to known issues with the contact.
Twilio Errors: Total number of messages that were not delivered because they encountered an error when passed to Twilio.
Carrier Filtering: Total number of messages that were not delivered because carriers rejected them.
User Activity
(Peer-to-Peer Texting Only) Participating Users: Total number of users who sent at least one initial message in a Peer-to-Peer Texting action (text bank).
Response Scripts Sent: Total number of follow-up messages sent by users to contacts, using response scripts or unscripted responses from users.
Reports Filled: Total number of reports submitted by users.
Needs Attention: Total number of conversation threads/contacts that "Need Attention," meaning the contact sent an inbound response and did not receive a reply from a user, and/or the user has not filled a report.
Texting Detailed Results
Beneath the summary section, you'll find a number of detail tables that offer even more insight into your Peer-to-Peer Texting Action. These tables can be sorted by any one of their columns, for maximum flexibility in viewing results. Find detailed results for:
Users: View all participating users and the number of initial messages they sent, response scripts they sent, Needs Attention threads they have remaining, and more. This is a great place to reassign Needs Attention threads if needed; you can select one or multiple users with the checkboxes at the left of the table, then click Manage > Assign Contacts.
Initial Scripts: View all initial scripts written for this action and their performance (deliveries, errors, opt-outs, etc.) - these are the A/B testing results, if you ran an A/B test with multiple initial scripts.
Errors: View details of the errors encountered in this action, with a full breakdown of error codes.
Link Clicks: View all links sent in either initial or response scripts from this action, with link click performance for each.
Response Scripts: View all response scripts written for this action, with how many times they were sent and link click performance for each.
Tags and Custom Fields: View tags and custom fields reported on via this action, with a breakdown of the various values reported by users.
While all of the above detailed results tables are available for Peer-to-Peer Texting, not all of them are available for Broadcast Texting - yet! Additional tables will be coming soon for broadcast.
QA-ing Texting with Conversations View
Impactive's new conversations view is a powerful way to monitor all of the inbound and outbound messages sent via Peer-to-Peer or Broadcast Texting (not including the initial messages). Read more about conversations view here.
Exporting Text Banking Data
You can generate CSV exports of data from Data > Exports > + New Export; select an export type (Messages is a common export type for texting actions), and optionally filter that export for a certain action and/or for certain dates.
Syncing Texting Data to Third-Party CRMs (VAN/EveryAction, etc.)
Syncing data to third-party CRMs, like VAN/EveryAction, works the same for texting as it does for all other action types across Impactive. Read more about how to set up integrations, including how to set up sync instructions to map specific data fields between Impactive and a third-party CRM.
Head to Data > Integrations > + New Sync Instruction to set up sync instructions in order to send texting data to VAN/EveryAction and other CRMs. Recommended setup for the texting-specific custom fields (P2P Messaged At and Broadcast Messaged At) is described below; for any other tags and custom fields gathered during texting conversations, set up sync instructions in the standard format used across all action types.
Syncing P2P Messaged At for VAN/EveryAction
Our recommended sync instruction format for syncing the default P2P Messaged At custom field (which is a timestamp, date and time) to VAN/EveryAction is:
Instructions For: NGP VAN
Instruction Name: [write a clear name]
Target State: [typically Any, unless this sync should be filtered for only contacts in a certain state]
Instructions for: Custom Field
For Custom Field: P2P Messaged At
Target Value: Any
Sync CustomField with Integration: [select the correct API key]
Database Mode: [either My Campaign or My Voters, depending on your VAN setup]
Type: Canvasser Response
Object: SMS Text
Result Code: [VAN result code of your choice, usually Texted]
Syncing Broadcast Messaged At for VAN/EveryAction
Not all clients choose to sync timestamps for broadcast messages to VAN/EveryAction, because broadcast is often used for regular subscriber updates that do not necessarily constitute the type of canvassing-esque contact attempts that are usually tracked in VAN.
If you do choose to sync the default Broadcast Messaged At custom field (which is a timestamp, date and time) to VAN/EveryAction, our recommended setup is:
Instructions For: NGP VAN
Instruction Name: [write a clear name]
Target State: [typically Any, unless this sync should be filtered for only contacts in a certain state]
Instructions for: Custom Field
For Custom Field: Broadcast Messaged At
Target Value: Any
Sync CustomField with Integration: [select the correct API key]
Database Mode: [either My Campaign or My Voters, depending on your VAN setup]
Type: Canvasser Response
Object: SMS Text
Result Code: [VAN result code of your choice, usually Texted]