Getting started with custom monitors

You will learn

Learn about custom monitors in Klaviyo. With custom monitors, you can configure alerts to quickly identify and resolve issues around key metrics and objects in Klaviyo (i.e., segments and flows). Additionally, see our recommended use cases to quickly get set up with monitors to stay ahead of issues and discover trends.

Before you begin

In addition to custom monitors, Advanced KDP customers will also see the auto-monitors feature on the Monitors page. Klaviyo’s auto-monitors automatically monitor your account performance for anomalies with key objects such as flows and campaigns.

Create custom monitors

1. Navigate to Settings > Monitors.
2. Select Create custom monitor. If you have no custom monitors yet, you can also select a monitor type, such as Single flow, from the setup cards.

The Create custom monitor button appears at the top of the Monitors page. If you have no custom monitors yet, the setup cards help you choose a monitor type.

There are 3 types of custom monitors you can set up in Klaviyo:

• Single flow monitor
  A flow to monitor key performance metrics for and receive alerts about.
• Single metric monitor
  Tracks the number of events recorded for a metric and alerts you when your rule is met.
• Single segment monitor
  A segment to monitor and receive alerts about.

Configure the Monitor details, Alert rule, and Notifications sections described below, then save your monitor.

Monitor details

In the Monitor details section, you will enter information regarding the naming, type, and setup of the monitor itself.

Monitor type
Set the type of monitor (i.e., single flow, single metric, single segment).

Monitor name
Set a name for the custom monitor.

Object name
Set the flow, metric, or segment that you will monitor. Based on the monitor type, you will see either a list of available metrics, segments, or active flows with at least 1 message.

Metric name
Set the specific performance metric that you will monitor for the object. For the Single metric monitor type, you can only select the Total number (i.e., the count of the metric).

For the Single segment monitor type, you can select:

• Total members
• Added members
• Dropped members

For the Single flow monitor type, the following metrics are available:

• Open rate
• Click to open rate
• Bounce rate
• Spam complaint rate
• Click rate
• Conversion rate
• Delivery rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Total recipients
• Total conversions
• Total delivered

Conversion metric
If you selected Conversion rate or Total conversions as a metric, there will be an additional drop-down list with available conversion metrics.

Message channel
For a Single flow monitor, select the message channel to monitor. The available options depend on the metric. In the channel selector, SMS is labeled Text message.

For the following metrics, only email can be monitored:

• Open rate
• Click to open rate
• Bounce rate
• Spam complaint rate

For the following metrics, either email or SMS can be monitored:

• Click rate
• Conversion rate
• Delivery rate
• Unsubscribe rate

For the following metrics, you can select between email, SMS, or both channels to be monitored:

• Total recipients
• Total conversions
• Total delivered

You'll also see a metric preview that can be expanded to see selected metric performance on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Alert rule

In the Alert rule section, define the rules that will trigger alerts. Enter information related to when and what will trigger the alert.

For metrics that count events or members, select Sum to monitor the total for the selected period, or Average to monitor the daily average.

Relationship
The operator between your actual performance and an expected value you set. You can select threshold operators (e.g., is less than, is more than, is equal to, etc.) or comparison operators (e.g., relatively increased by, absolutely increased by, etc.).

Relative vs absolute comparison operators

The comparison operators in the alert rule builder can be set to compare changes in a value based on a relative or absolute basis.

When using the relative basis comparison, it will measure the percent change from the original value. Choosing the absolute comparison operators will measure the change based on the numeric increase or decrease from the original value.

For example, say you have the following relative condition:

Alert when open rate relatively increases by more than 10% in the last 3 days compared to the previous 3 days.

If the open rate during the previous 3-day period was 20%, for this condition to be satisfied, the open rate would need to increase by a relative 10% (i.e., a multiplier of 1.1x) to 22%.

Relative increases and decreases are evaluated as a percent change from the previous period, even if the metric being evaluated is expressed as a rate (e.g., open rate or click rate).

Meanwhile, if you set the condition to absolute, it would look like the example setup below.

Alert when open rate is absolutely increased by more than 10 percentage points in the last 3 days compared to the previous 3 days.

If the open rate during the previous 3-day period was 20%, an absolute increase of 10 percentage points brings it to 30% and satisfies this condition.

Value
The value that your performance will be compared to.

Time period
Select the period to monitor, such as the previous day or last 7 days. For a relative or absolute comparison, also select the previous period to compare against. When monitoring counts with Sum, the comparison period matches the monitored period. With Average, you can choose a different comparison period.

And/Or connectors
You can combine multiple conditions with And/Or operators. For alerts to be sent when both conditions are met, use And. For alerts to be sent when one condition is met, use Or.

Notifications

In the Notifications section, you can configure the channels through which custom monitor notifications are sent. Switch the toggle to On if you want notifications for this custom monitor to be sent to your home page in Klaviyo when triggered.

By default, the Owner, Admin, Manager, and Analyst user roles will receive notifications on Klaviyo’s home page.

To add email alerts, select Add channel > Email. Email alerts are sent daily in the morning in your account’s time zone, with a digest of the custom monitors that are in an alert state and have email notifications enabled.

Select the user roles that should receive email alerts.

Select Save to create the monitor. Klaviyo opens its Monitor summary page.

Your custom monitor is first checked during the next monitoring cycle, around 2 a.m. in your account’s time zone. Custom monitors are evaluated daily.

Monitor alerts

On the main Monitors page, you can see a list of your existing custom monitors, and an alert log.

Monitors list

On the Monitors page, the Custom monitors section lists your existing custom monitors. Each monitor shows the following information:

• Monitor name
  The name of the custom monitor.
• Status
  The status of the custom monitor. These can be:
  • Active
    The custom monitor is enabled and an alert was not triggered during the previous check.
  • Alert
    The custom monitor is enabled and the alert was triggered during the previous check. The next check will be in 24 hours.
  • Disabled
    The monitor is not currently enabled.
• Alert rule
  A preview of the alert rule set for the associated custom monitor.
• Monitor type
  The monitor type itself (i.e., single flow, single metric, single segment).
• Notifications
  Whether notifications are on or off for the custom monitor.
• Last run
  The last check appears beneath the monitor name. Before the first check, this shows Not checked yet.

If you expand a custom monitor on the list, you’ll also be able to see:

• The object that is being monitored.
• The last time an alert triggered.

Open the actions menu next to a custom monitor to Edit, Disable, or Delete it. A disabled monitor has an Enable option. To finish editing, select Save. To disable or delete a monitor, confirm with Disable monitor or Delete monitor in the dialog.

Alert log

On the Monitors page, select Alert log to open a timeline of alerts from your custom monitors and auto-monitors. Expand an alert to see more information, including:

• The object that experienced the alert
• The associated metric
• The rule that was broken resulting in the alert

Monitor summary

Select a custom monitor’s name in the Custom monitors section to open its Monitor summary page. You’ll see:

• Description of key information
  A summary of the key details of the monitor.
• Metric preview
  A preview of the metric over time that can be grouped by day, week, or month.
• Activity log
  A timeline of the most recent alerts created by your monitor.

Recommended use cases for custom monitors

Monitor site visitors

With a Single metric monitor you can proactively monitor the number of Active on Site events captured in Klaviyo, and receive alerts if there is a drop in website traffic.

Below is an example of a custom monitor you can set up for the Active on Site event. Once you set the Monitor type and Metric name, you can use the Metric preview to see the daily, weekly or monthly numbers of Active on Site events to use as a benchmark for the values in the alert rules.

For the alert rule, create the following 2 conditions, as shown in the example below:

• Alert when Sum of Total number of Active on Site is less than 9300 in the last 7 days
  

Or

• Alert when Average of Total number of Active on Site is relatively decreased by more than 15% in the last 30 days compared to Average of previous 30 days.

Use values that match the volume of Active on Site events in your account based on the metric preview.

This first condition in this monitor calculates the number of Active on Site events during the last 7 days and compares it to a threshold of 9300. If the number drops below this threshold, an alert triggers.

The second condition in this alert calculates the average number of Active on Site events in the last 30 days and compares it to the average for the prior 30 days. If the daily average decreases by more than 15%, an alert triggers.

Monitor unsubscribe rates for a flow

With a Single flow monitor, you can monitor the unsubscribe rate for key flows on your account and investigate unusually high rates.

After selecting Single flow as Monitor type, choose an available flow under Flow name. Select Unsubscribe rate under Metric name. Select Email or Text message under Message channel. Use Metric preview to see daily, weekly, or monthly unsubscribe rates and choose values for your alert rules.

For the alert rule, create the following 2 conditions, as shown in the example below:

• Alert when Unsubscribe rate for [flow] is greater than 0.5 in the last 7 days

OR

• Alert when Unsubscribe rate for [flow] is absolutely increased by more than 0.2 in the last 1 day compared to the previous 1 day

Use values that match the unsubscribe rates for your flow based on the metric preview.

This first condition in this monitor checks the flow’s unsubscribe rate in the last 7 days and compares it to a threshold of 0.5%. If the unsubscribe rate exceeds 0.5% an alert triggers.

The second condition compares the flow’s unsubscribe rate in the last day with the prior day. An increase of 0.2 percentage points, such as from 0.5% to 0.7%, triggers an alert.

Monitor conversions for a flow

With a Single flow monitor, you can monitor the total number of conversions for key flows on your account and investigate drops in conversions.

After selecting Single flow as Monitor type, choose an available flow under Flow name. Select Total conversions under Metric name. Choose Placed order as the Conversion metric for this example. Select Email, Text message, or Email and text message under Message channel. Use Metric preview to see daily, weekly, or monthly conversion counts and choose values for your alert rules.

For the alert rule, create the following 2 conditions, as shown in the example below:

• Alert when Sum of Total conversions for [flow] is less than 1000 in the last 7 days

OR

• Alert when Average of Total conversions for [flow] is absolutely decreased by 20 in the last 3 days compared to Average of the previous 3 days.

Use values that match the volume of conversions in your account based on the metric preview.

This first condition in this monitor checks the number of conversions from the flow in the last 7 days and compares it to a threshold of 1000. If the number of conversions drops below this threshold, an alert triggers.

The second condition compares the daily average number of conversions from the flow in the last 3 days with the daily average for the prior 3 days. If this average drops by 20, an alert triggers.

Monitor segment growth

With a Single segment monitor, you can create a monitor that proactively monitors the total number of added profiles in key segments. If you have any important segments on your account, this is a way to check that the segments are growing at expected rates so you can quickly investigate drops in growth rates.

Below is an example of a custom monitor you can set up for a segment. Once you set the Monitor type and Metric name, you can use the Metric preview to see daily, weekly or monthly numbers of added segment members to use as a benchmark for values in the alert rules.

For the alert rule, create something similar to the following 2 conditions:

• Alert when Average of Added members for [segment] is less than 1400 in the last 30 days
  

OR

• Alert when Sum of Added members for [segment] is relatively decreased by 15% in the last 7 days compared to Sum of the previous 7 days.

Use values that match the number of added members you are seeing on the metric preview.

The first condition checks the daily average number of added members in the last 30 days. If this average falls below 1400, an alert triggers.

The second condition checks the number of added members during the last 7 days in comparison to prior 7 days, and if there is a decrease of 15% between these periods, an alert triggers.

Monitor inbound data syncing

With a Single metric monitor, you can proactively monitor the health of custom or 3rd-party integrations using counts of key inbound metrics.

Below is an example of a monitor you can set up for an event called Filled out form that is being synced from a 3rd-party integration.

Once you set the Monitor type and Metric name, you can use the Metric preview to see the daily, weekly or monthly numbers of your events to use as a benchmark for the values in the alert rules.

For this example, the alert rule has the following condition as shown below:

• Alert when Average of Total number of Filled out form is relatively decreased by more than 50% in the last 3 days compared to Average of previous 7 days.

This condition calculates the average number of Filled out form events during the last 3 days and compares it to the average from the previous 7 days. If there is more than a 50% drop from the average of the previous 7 days, a notification will send and may indicate a problem with the health of your integration.

Additional resources