In addition to storing profile properties, BlueConic captures time-based events—such as orders, page views, and clicks—on each profile’s Timeline, preserving the timing and sequence of interactions. Events are tied to individual profiles and can also be linked to groups (e.g., households, companies, or accounts). This structure enables more granular analysis and segmentation.
Timeline events enable deeper insights, targeting, and personalization by capturing time-based customer interactions. They support improved recommendations, segmentation, and AI-driven analysis while allowing marketers to evaluate behavior over time for better data activation.
Types of timeline events
Custom timeline event types: Created independently and uploaded to your tenant.
Standard, preconfigured timeline event types: Preconfigured event types that can be downloaded from the BlueConic plugin gallery. Examples include:
Abandoned basket event type
Email delivered event type
Email link clicked event type
Email opened event type
Order event type
Order refund event type, with three statuses: refund requested, returned, refunded
Navigate to timeline events
Timeline events are visible in the Profiles tab for a particular profile:
Select the Profile Timeline tab.
Use the All event types dropdown menu to select the event types to appear in the timeline.
See details for specific dates or events.
Manage timeline event types
Select More > Timeline events from the BlueConic navigation menu.
Click the Timeline event types tab. The Timeline events page shows the standard and custom event types in your tenant.
Click on an event type to see the data they store on the timeline or customize its settings.
Save your settings.
Create custom event types
To create a new, custom Timeline event type:
Select More > Timeline events from the navigation bar.
Click the Add timeline event type button.
Enter a name for your new Timeline event type.
(Optional) BlueConic creates a unique ID for the event type based on this name. You can change the ID now, but as soon as you save the new event type, the ID becomes read-only.
Adjust the priority setting if needed. Events have high or low priority, and this determines how long they are stored on the timeline.
Set the retention period to indefinite (default for high priority events), or a fixed period of days (for low priority events).
In the Properties section, set up the event attributes you want to track for each event. By default, the Event ID and Event date/time are stored for all events.
(Optional) Click Add property to add additional event properties and fill in the name, description, data type, and data sensitivity setting (PII or non-PII) for each one.
(Optional) Use the Add nested property and Add subproperty buttons to further define the information to be collected for each event type. Each event type can have one nested property.
Save your settings.
Next steps
Query timeline event data and roll results up into profile properties.
Learn about timeline event priority levels and retention periods.
FAQs
Can timeline events track when a profile property was updated?
Yes. Since BlueConic doesn’t store profile property timestamps, you can track changes by configuring a date-time profile property that updates whenever the property changes. Ensure all data sources (e.g., SFTP connections, listeners) update this property accordingly. Alternatively, you can use a custom Timeline event type and leverage Timeline event rollups to store timestamps in profile properties.
How can I deduplicate timeline events?
To prevent duplicate events being added to a timeline, you can set an "externalID" field. It is not possible to add an event with an externalID that already exists.
How is timeline event storage and priority handled?
BlueConic stores events (max 1kb) on profile timelines with customizable retention (days or indefinite), based on the addition date, not the event date. Event count and retention limits are independent. Events have high or low priority; high-priority events take precedence, limiting low-priority events when numerous. Standard subscriptions have a 250 total event limit, with low-priority events defaulting to 30 days retention and capping at 50 if there are 200 or more high-priority events. Retention changes affect only new events, and cleanup is based on the oldest event date.
If I change the retention period for a timeline event type, what events are affected?
Only newly created events of that type will be affected by the change in retention period. Existing events will retain their original retention settings.
How do I add the System Event Types Plugin?
Adding the System Event Types Plugin to your BlueConic tenant will create the following additional Timeline event types:
Page view
Variant view
Variant click
Variant conversion
To add this plugin, go to Settings > Plugins in the navigation menu and click the Add plugin button. This opens a window with several options to add a new plugin to your tenant. Go to the Register external URL tab and paste this URL:
http://plugins.blueconic.net/eventtype_systemevents/index.xml
Once you've added the plugin to your tenant, no additional configuration is needed for these Timeline event types to appear.
How does the default order timeline event type work?
BlueConic provides a default order timeline event type you can use for importing product orders via the SFTP Connection. To use this order event information to enhance your product recommendations, you need to do two things:
In the order details, you need to store the BlueConic product store ID in a property called "bcStoreId".
The Product IDs in the order event must exactly match the product IDs in your BlueConic product store. You select the product store name in Step 5 of the order data import via the SFTP Connection.