Send Braze Push With Zapier Push

Confused? Intrigued? Me too. Read more to find out.

Demo

By the end of this post, you’ll be able to send yourself daily Push encouragement messages like this at the click of a button:

Or customized messages like this with whatever input you choose:

Zapier Push

Zapier is one of the coolest tools used by agile teams to quickly launch automations in their workflows. Back when I was working at a startup, we relied heavily on Zapier for everyday tasks; honestly, the business would not have operated without Zapier.

Zapier also has this awesome Chrome extension, Zapier Push, which you can use to trigger Zaps (what Zapier calls “automations”). It kind of reminds me of the big, red “Easy” button (IYKYK), but Zapier Push allows you to easily start automations whenever you’re ready to trigger them. For example, I once set up a Zap where:

• Zapier Push was clicked

• Zapier ran a SQL query in our team’s database

• Zapier sent the returned data in a formatted message to a private Slack channel

Super cool, huh?

You can even set up Input Fields in your Zapier Push and use the inputted values in your Zaps. That’s a game changer as the Input Fields unlock the ability for customization in your automations.

Braze Push

For today’s super fun Zapier use case, we will use Zapier Push to trigger an API-Triggered Braze Push Campaign. Yup, it’s that 3rd Delivery Type, all the way to the right, where many of you probably haven’t had a chance to launch (unless you’re a developer). If you’ve never set up an API-Triggered Campaign, you’re in good hands, because this post will cover the step-by-step instructions for this use case. I’ll go over how to build both a standard Push with the same copy each time as well as a customized Push with Input Fields.

First, I’ll clarify each of the 3 Delivery Types so that we’re all on the same page:

1. Scheduled Delivery

This is your classic, batch-and-blast delivery where you have a fixed launch date for a one-time or regularly recurring campaign send. Perfect for newsletters, ad-hoc announcements, policy updates, etc.

2. Action-Based Delivery

This delivery method is triggered by your end user’s action. A strong Lifecycle Marketing program would have at least a handful of Action-Based Campaigns/Canvases set up to message users in real-time as they progress along the User Journey. Perfect for cart abandon, onboarding journeys, any action-confirmation, etc.

3. API-Triggered Delivery

This delivery method is triggered by the brand, or in our case, by you clicking the Zapier Push. The end user doesn’t get to decide when to trigger this delivery; the brand does. Most teams set up an automated script that will trigger this campaign based on a specific server-side logic. Perfect for server outage announcements, “order shipped”, etc.

Step 1: Build Braze Push Campaign

First, we start in Braze by building a Push Campaign. The first page looks the same as any other Push campaign you’ll build. The screenshot below is an example of a standard Push with the same copy each time.

This screenshot below is an example of a customized Push with values from your Input Fields. I chose the names push_title and push_message for my fields. The Liquid snippet to template them are below:

{{api_trigger_properties.${push_title}}}

{{api_trigger_properties.${push_message}}}

If you’re a bit confused at this point, no worries; the later steps will clarify this part.

Step 2: Choose API-Triggered Delivery

On page 2, we choose API-Triggered Delivery, and the nice part is that there isn’t anything else we can do on this page if we choose API-Triggered Delivery.

The only thing you’ll need for later is the Campaign ID, highlighted in blue in the screenshot below. Note that my Campaign ID is obviously a fake one; anytime you deal with IDs, you want to make sure to obfuscate them as they are highly sensitive. For example, if the Campaign ID and an API Key got in the wrong hands, they can trigger this campaign a 1000 times at once, which would be a bad experience for your users.

Step 3: Choose Your Audience

For your audience, you have some flexibility. You can set this page like you would for any other campaign and include your target audience who will receive this push each time you click the Zapier Push. However, you also have the option of overriding the targeted audience and specifying the exact list of users who will receive the push. For simplicity, this blog will cover the former, although I’ll share some information about the latter in the later steps.

For now, I restricted the audience to my own External ID, so I can safely send some test Push messages later.

At this point, you’re welcome to launch the Campaign. Launching the Campaign won’t send any Push messages because it’s going to be waiting for the API-Trigger. However, note that as soon as we send the API-Trigger via Zapier Push, the Campaign will send the Push to everyone in the audience list, although for now, it would just be to External ID 1.

Step 4: Set Up Zaps

Zapier time! Create a Zap and choose Zapier Chrome Extension as the Trigger. This is the Zapier Push trigger.

There’s only one option for the Event which is called New Push. Click Continue.

Step 5: Set Up Trigger/Input Fields

For the standard Push, nothing to do on the Trigger step. Click Continue.

For the customized Push, add as many Input Fields as necessary. In Braze, you’re able to customize any Push field where you see a blue + symbol. In my previous setup, I only added push_title and push_message, but I included a few more below to show you some possibilities. Also, note that they don’t have to be spelled exactly the way we inserted them in Braze. The Input Field names below are simply how they’ll show up in our Chrome Extension.

On the Test tab, any record should work fine. Click Continue to move on to the next part. If you’ve never used Zapier before and have questions about this part, please reach out to me.

Step 6: Webhooks by Zapier

For our next step, choose Webhooks by Zapier. It is a premium action, so you won’t be able to do this on a Free Zapier account.

Choose the Event Custom Request, and click Continue.

Step 7: Build the Webhook

For Method, choose POST.

For URL, you’ll first have to find the REST ENDPOINT URL for your dashboard cluster. To do this, look at the URL of your Braze dashboard and find the matching root link from the URL column in the screenshot below. Your REST ENDPOINT will be the corresponding link in the REST ENDPOINT column.

For example, if you scroll up to the very first screenshot I posted, you’ll see that the root link of my Braze dashboard is https://dashboard-02.braze.eu/. Therefore, I know that my REST ENDPOINT URL is https://rest.fra-02.braze.eu.

Once you’ve found your REST ENDPOINT URL, you’ll have to add the specific API Endpoint we’re using, which is /campaigns/trigger/send. My full link looks like this: https://rest.fra-02.braze.eu/campaigns/trigger/send

Your full link should be one of the below links:

https://rest.iad-01.braze.com/campaigns/trigger/send

https://rest.iad-02.braze.com/campaigns/trigger/send

https://rest.iad-03.braze.com/campaigns/trigger/send

https://rest.iad-04.braze.com/campaigns/trigger/send

https://rest.iad-05.braze.com/campaigns/trigger/send

https://rest.iad-06.braze.com/campaigns/trigger/send

https://rest.iad-08.braze.com/campaigns/trigger/send

https://rest.fra-01.braze.eu/campaigns/trigger/send

https://rest.fra-02.braze.eu/campaigns/trigger/send

Braze Resources:

• Braze API Overview

• /campaigns/trigger/send API Documentation

For Data Pass-Through?, leave blank.

Step 8: Create The API Data

Remember the Campaign ID from earlier? We’ll need that now.

For standard Push, this is the data below:

{

"campaign_id": "YOUR-CAMPAIGN-ID-1234-ABCD",

"broadcast" : true

}

Make sure your syntax is character-perfect. Any missing quotes, commas, or brackets will cause an error. Copy and paste the bold code snippet above and simply replace YOUR-CAMPAIGN-ID-1234-ABCD with your actual Campaign ID.

Btw, setting broadcast to true is what makes this Push message get sent to the users you segmented in the Target Audience page in Braze.

For the customized Push, this is the data below:

{

"campaign_id": "YOUR-CAMPAIGN-ID-1234-ABCD",

"trigger_properties": {

"push_title" : "ZAP DATA",

"push_message" : "ZAP DATA",

"push_deep_link" : "ZAP DATA",

"push_icon_image" : "ZAP DATA",

"push_button_text" : "ZAP DATA"

},

"broadcast" : true

}

This is the part where you’ll be passing the Trigger Properties to Braze. The Trigger Properties are the Input Fields that we set up earlier in our Zapier step.

For each of the field names (push_title, push_message, etc.), make sure to spell this precisely as what you used inside Braze.

For each of the field values where I wrote “ZAP DATA”, you won’t actually be writing “ZAP DATA”, but see below for the actual setup. Once again, if this is your first time using Zapier and are not sure how to do this step, please reach out to me. As long as your final product looks like the screenshot below, you’re good to go.

Step 8: Create A Braze API Key

Braze —> Developer Console —> Create New API Key —> campaigns.trigger.send. This is the only box you’ll need to check. Scroll down, and click Save API Key. API Keys are even more sensitive than Campaign IDs, so please make sure to not share them publicly.

Step 9: Webhook Headers

These are the 2 Headers that you’ll need for every single Braze API call:

Content-Type: application/json

Authorization: Bearer YOUR-API-KEY-1234-ABCD

As long as your Zap looks exactly like the screenshot below, you’re done! Test the Zap, and Publish.

Step 10: Celebrate!

That’s it! Try sending a few Zapier Pushes from your Chrome Extension, and see the Braze Push messages get sent to your own device. Once you’re ready to expand the audience to your live users, remove the External ID filter that restricted the audience to just yourself, and you’re ready to send a Braze Push to your end users with a Zapier Push.

Thank you!

Thank you for reading, and please reach out with any questions!

fornowmarketing.com

allan@fornowmarketing.com