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Overview

Plays run on individual records, such as companies or people. Triggers define when a Play should run and what data should be provided to it. Below are the triggers you can choose from when creating a Play.

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How triggers run

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Timing

Most automated triggers run on a recurring schedule. When the schedule runs, Unify checks which records currently match the trigger, removes records that have already run through the Play, and starts new Play executions for the remaining records. For Record matches criteria and Record enters an Audience triggers, this means a record can run when it already matches at publish time or when it starts matching later. By default, the same record will not run through the same Play again after it has already started a Play execution. To allow the same record to run again after a waiting period, configure Play settings. Automated trigger schedules are managed by Unify. Record match and Audience triggers are evaluated about every 15 minutes. Lookalike company triggers are evaluated about every 30 minutes.

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Outputs

The record type you choose in the trigger determines the output of the trigger and which actions can connect directly to it: If a company-triggered Play needs to enroll people in a Sequence, add a Prospect or Get People action first. Prospect can find net-new or existing people, while Get People only returns people that already exist in Unify.

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Available triggers

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Champions

This trigger is a shortcut for running a Play on champions that Unify has tracked for your business. Once selected, you can customize the matching criteria similar to the record match trigger. This trigger always returns People.

The configuration panel for a champions trigger.

In order to use this trigger, you must have enabled and configured champion tracking in your settings. For more information, see Champion tracking.

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Find lookalike companies

This trigger runs a Play on companies that are similar to a set of companies you specify. This is useful for finding new companies that are similar to your existing customers or ideal customer profile.

The criteria panel for a lookalike companies trigger.

Once you’ve defined the criteria that specifies which companies to find lookalikes for, you can define some additional options for the trigger, such as additional filters to apply or exclusions to enable and disable.

The configuration panel for a lookalike companies trigger.

This trigger is powered by Ocean.io. The integration is fully managed by Unify and included in your plan, so no additional subscription or setup is required.

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Record enters an Audience

This trigger runs a Play on companies or people that are in an Audience and have not already run through the Play. A record enters an Audience when it meets the Audience criteria for the first time.

The configuration panel for an audience trigger.

When you select an audience trigger, you will be prompted to select an audience from the list of audiences you have created. Audiences are reusable in Unify, which means you can use the same audience in multiple Plays. You also have the choice to run the Play on either companies that enter the audience or people that enter the audience. If you select companies, the output of this trigger will be a company record. Otherwise, the output will be a person record.

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Record matches criteria

This trigger runs a Play on companies or people that match a set of filters and have not already run through the Play. This trigger behaves the same as the Audience trigger, but it doesn’t require that you already have an Audience created. Instead, you can define the filters directly in the Play.

The configuration panel for a record match trigger.

When you select a criteria trigger, you will be prompted to add filters to select the companies or people that the Play should run on. Just like building Audiences, you can add as many filters as you like and preview the records that match the filters before saving the trigger. As with audience triggers, you can choose to run the Play on either companies or people. This will determine what type of record the trigger outputs.

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Website visitors

This trigger is a shortcut for running a Play on companies that visit your website. Once selected, you can customize the matching criteria similar to the record match trigger. This trigger always returns companies.

The configuration panel for a website visitors trigger.

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Record manually added

This trigger runs a Play on a company or person that is manually added by a user. Unlike automated triggers, this trigger does not run on its own. It only fires when someone explicitly sends a record to the Play.

The configuration panel for a record manually added trigger.

When you select a manual trigger, you will be prompted to choose whether the Play should accept companies or people. This determines the type of record that the trigger outputs. Once the Play is active, you can manually add records to it from anywhere in Unify where you can select companies or people. This is useful when you want full control over which records enter a Play, rather than relying on automated signals or filter criteria.

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Coming soon

There are lots of additional triggers in the works including webhooks, third-party events, schedules, and more. If you’re interested in one that isn’t available yet, let us know! We’ll get you in the beta as soon as it’s ready.

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FAQ

Audience triggers and record match triggers can both be used to accomplish the same goal. The main difference is that Audience triggers require you to create an Audience ahead of time, while record match triggers allow you to define the filters directly in the Play.Audiences can be reused in multiple Plays, which is useful if you have a set of filters that you use frequently. Audiences can also be viewed, edited, and exported from the Audiences tab.Record match triggers are a great option for quickly iterating on a Play or if you don’t want to create an Audience for a one-off Play. You can always come back later, convert the filters into an Audience, and then swap the trigger out for an Audience trigger.
Audiences are dynamic lists of companies and people that can change over time according to the filters you specify. For example, an Audience might capture all companies that have visited your website in the last 30 days.When you send an Audience to a manual trigger, you are sending the current list of companies or people that are in the Audience at that moment. This is useful if you want to run a Play on a snapshot of the audience but not on a recurring basis.By contrast, an Audience trigger will keep checking the Audience over time and run the Play for matching companies or people that have not already run through that Play. This is useful if you want the Play to run on records that match now and records that match in the future.
Automated triggers evaluate matching records when the Play is published and on future scheduled checks. If you only want future matches, add a time-based condition to the trigger or Audience, such as a recent activity date, created date, or signal timestamp that represents the future window you want to target.If you need a one-time snapshot instead, use a manual trigger and send the selected records to the Play manually.