How to create a Multi-Stage Campaign

1. Introduction.

2. Ideas and examples.

3. Step by step.

3.1. Create your campaign.

3.2. Define the stages.

3.3. Define the hours and the number of stages.

3.4. Display questions on certain dates.

4. Other specifications.

5. Related content.

1. Introduction.

With Cool Tabs, you can create campaigns with phases or stages, allowing you to divide user participation into different time periods. For each phase, you can set its duration in hours and the number of times users can participate.

It's important to understand how phases are counted to avoid confusion and ensure that the setup aligns with the campaign's needs.

2. Ideas and examples.

• Advent Calendar: A holiday campaign where daily prizes are given away, and users can participate every day for a chance to win.
• Prediction or Betting Pool: For example, during a soccer World Cup, users can place their bets on match results. They can log in to make predictions for each matchday.

3. Step by step.

3.1. Create the campaign.

Before defining the phases, you need to create the campaign and configure the basic settings. If this is your first time using Cool Tabs, check out our tutorial on initial campaign setup to optimize its performance and achieve better results.

How to get started on creating a campaign: basic settings.

If you have any questions, contact us at help@cool-tabs.com.

3.2. Define the stages of your campaign.

To configure the phases:

• Go to the 'Restrictions' tab within the 'Participation' section.
• Enable the option 'Users may participate once or several times in the time period (competition stages) that you define'.

3.3. Define the hours and the number of stages.

When enabling phase-based participation, the following fields will appear:

• Number of hours per stage: Set the duration of each phase in hours (Example: 24 for a day, 168 for a week, 720 for a month).
• Times each user can join the campaign per stage: Set the participation limit per phase. If you leave this field blank, users will only be able to participate once per phase.
• Select winners in each stage: Enable this option if you want to select winners for each phase. If winners will be chosen at the end of the campaign, leave it unchecked.

Two fields will be displayed where you must complete the number of hours that each participation stage will last (for example, 24 for 24 hours, 168 for a week, etc.) and the number of times you can participate in each stage. If you leave this field empty, each user will be able to join just ONCE PER PHASE.

3.3.1. Key Considerations.

1. Each phase starts counting from the participation start date.

2. One important aspect that can cause confusion is the following: participation is limited by phases, not by the number of hours each phase lasts.

In other words, if you configure a campaign with phases of 168 hours (7 days), that doesn't mean a user can only participate once every 168 hours.
It means they can participate once per phase, regardless of how many hours have passed since their last participation.

3. Example:
Imagine you set up a campaign with weekly phases of 168 hours, and the campaign starts on Monday, June 3rd at 09:00 am. The phases would be:

• Phase 1: From June 3rd at 09:00 am to June 10th at 08:59 am
• Phase 2: From June 10th at 09:00 am to June 17th at 08:59 am
• Phase 3: From June 17th at 09:00 am to June 24th at 08:59 am

A user participates on Sunday, June 9th at 3:00 pm, which is within Phase 1. That same user can participate again on Monday, June 10th at 09:00 am, when Phase 2 starts.

👉 Even though only 18 hours have passed between both participations, the user can participate again because a new phase has begun.

This behavior is the same even if you configure phases with a different duration, such as 24 hours.
The key point is:

A user can participate once per phase, not once every X hours.

This is especially useful when you want users to participate daily (24h phases), weekly (168h), or in any other period that fits your campaign logic.

4. If you decide to modify the phases after launching your campaign, it's crucial to adjust the participation start date to ensure a smooth experience for users.

For example, in a World Cup betting pool, during the group stage and round of 16, matches are played daily. In this case, you could set 24-hour phases, allowing users to participate once per day. However, by the quarterfinals, matches are less frequent, typically played over three days, so you might opt for 72-hour phases.

To implement this change correctly, you must not only adjust the phase duration to 72 hours but also update the participation start date to match the beginning of the new phase. This ensures that users can continue participating without issues.

3.3.2. Possible Errors.

If an issue arises with your phased campaign, check the following:

• The phase configuration has not changed.
• The participation start date in the settings.
• Any time zone differences that could affect participation.

3.4. Display questions on certain dates.

In some phased campaigns, you may want to display specific questions only on certain dates. This is useful for prediction-style contests, where questions depend on scheduled matches.

To do this:

• In the 'Settings' tab of each quiz question, enable the option 'This question will only be displayed on certain dates'.
• Define the dates when each question will be available.

3.4.1. Preview Questions by Phases.

You can preview the campaign to check which questions will be displayed in each phase.

4. Other specifications.

You can create a phased campaign using the Cool Promo or Cool Promo White Label applications, included in the Gold and Diamond plans of the platform, respectively.

If you have any questions, contact us at help@cool-tabs.com.

5. Related content.

Create your multi-stage campaign.

How to create Predictions or Betting Pool.

How to create a Betting Pool with sports game forecast.