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Custom events

Custom Events let you track any specific action a subscriber takes on your site or in your app — and instantly use it as a trigger for automated workflows. Whether someone visits a pricing page, completes an onboarding step, or performs any other action you care about, Custom Events capture it and make it actionable.

What are Custom Events?


A Custom Event is a tracked subscriber action that Sender records in real time. Once an event is captured, it:

  • Appears in the subscriber’s activity log
  • Shows up in a dedicated event dashboard with charts and an activity feed
  • Becomes available as a trigger in Automations

Think of each Custom Event as a container — you define what it represents, and every time that action happens, Sender logs it and can kick off a workflow automatically.

Two ways Custom Events work

1. E-commerce stores (no developer needed)

If your store is connected to Sender via one of our native integrations (WooCommerce, Shopify, etc.), common e-commerce events are synced automatically. You’ll find pre-defined events ready to use — no setup required on your end.

Examples of auto-synced events:

  • Product viewed
  • Cart abandoned
  • Order placed
  • Checkout started

2. Fully custom events (developer required)

If you want to track an action that isn’t covered by a standard integration — like a specific in-app behavior, a custom funnel step, or a non-standard purchase flow — you can create your own event.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You create an “empty” event container in Sender (just a name and description)
  2. Your developer connects it via the Sender API
  3. Every time that action occurs, it fires into Sender and gets logged

This gives you full flexibility to track virtually any behavior, no matter how specific.

Creating a Custom Event

  1. Go to Custom events in the left-hand sidebar
  2. Click New custom event (top right)
  3. Enter an Event name — use something clear and consistent, like checkout_started or plan_upgraded
  4. Add a Description to explain what this event tracks
  5. Click Create

Your new event will appear in the Custom Events list immediately. From there, share the event name with your developer so they can connect it via API.

Note: Event names are used in API calls, so keep them lowercase, without spaces, and descriptive. Once set, the name can’t be changed.

Viewing event activity

Each Custom Event has its own mini-dashboard. Click View next to any event to open it.

You’ll find three tabs:

  • Chart — See event volume over time (hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly). Useful for spotting trends or confirming your integration is working correctly.
  • Activity feed — A real-time log of every time the event was triggered, including the subscriber profile and timestamp.
  • Best people — See which subscribers are triggering this event most frequently.

Event activity also shows up directly on each Subscriber’s profile under Subscriber activity, along with any event payload data (such as the URL, campaign ID, or other parameters passed with the event).

Using Custom Events in Automations

Once a Custom Event is set up and receiving data, you can use it as a starting trigger in any automation workflow.

  1. Open Automations and create a new workflow (or edit an existing one)
  2. Set the starting trigger to Custom Event
  3. Select the specific event you want to use
  4. Optionally, add conditions based on the event’s payload parameters — for example, only trigger the automation if url contains /checkout or campaign_type equals a specific value
  5. Build out the rest of your workflow as usual

This makes it possible to build very precise automations — for example, sending a follow-up email only to subscribers who visited the pricing page more than twice, or who triggered a specific in-app action.

Event payload data

When your developer sends a Custom Event via the API, they can include additional parameters (payload data) alongside it. This might look like:


{
  "campaign_id": 0,
  "campaign_type": "email",
  "url": "https://yoursite.com/checkout/"
  "site_id": 1
}

These parameters are stored with each event occurrence and are visible in the subscriber’s activity log. They can also be used as conditions in your automation trigger to make workflows more targeted.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a developer to use Custom Events? Not always. If your store is connected via a native integration, standard e-commerce events sync automatically. You only need a developer if you want to track non-standard, fully custom actions via the API.

Can I use Custom Events in segments? Yes. Once events are flowing in, you can build segments based on subscribers who have (or haven’t) triggered specific events — making it easy to target audiences based on real behavior.

Where can I find the API documentation? Head to Account settings → API access tokens to get your API credentials. Full API documentation is available at api.sender.net.

Is there a limit to how many Custom Events I can create? The number of Custom Events available is currently unlimited.

If you got stuck on a specific task or can’t find a way to execute a particular job, contact our support team via LiveChat or support@sender.net – we’re here to help 24/7.