Configuring paywall rules
Use the Rules page in Subscriptions Paywall to create content access strategies and manage when readers see paywalls based on their behavior.
Rules combine targeted content and audience criteria with consumption limits and your offers. This approach allows you to define different subscription models, as follows:
Hardwalls - require a subscription for any access.
Paymeters - limit readers to a specific number of articles.
Freemium - provide your customers with access to free basic content and require a subscription to enter premium content.
Registration wall + Paymeter - require your customers to register and gain access to a specific number of articles.
Section-specific limits - set different limits for different content categories.
Offer pop-up escalation - show your customers different subscription prompts based on their content consumption.
As a digital subscriptions administrator, you notice that the Sports section attracts lots of mobile readers who rarely become subscribers. To fix this, you create a rule targeting mobile sports readers, allowing them to view eight articles before seeing a paywall.
Behind the scenes, Arc XP's Paywall system checks each reader's history against your rules. When one of them hits their eighth sports article view on their phone, the system displays their subscription offer.
Procedures
To create a new rule, complete the following:
Navigate to Subscriptions > Paywall > Rules. The Rules page opens, showing all rules filtered for your website.
Tip
If your organization manages multiple websites, you must first select your desired website on the Overview page.
Click Create Rule. The New rule page opens.
Complete the following fields:
Rule name - enter a descriptive rule name of 45 characters maximum.
Entitlement - Configure which user types or subscription plans bypass the current paywall rule.
The options include:
Registered user - allow users with a registered account (paid or unpaid) to bypass this rule.
Subscribed user (Products) - select a specific subscription product from the drop-down menu to allow users with that product to bypass the rule.
Subscribed user (Entitlements) - select an entitlement from the drop-down to grant users with that entitlement the ability to bypass the rule.
Content Criteria - toggle on—default option—to include all your content in the paywall rule. Toggle off to target specific contents.
If you toggle off this option, you can choose from the following options to target your paywall rule:
Content type - select a format like story, video, gallery, or graphic.
Content restriction status - assign specific paywall statuses to specific pieces of content.
Content section - target specific sections of the website, for example, Sports, Business, Finance, or Politics.
Audience Criteria - toggle on—default option—to include all your audiences. Toggle off to target specific audiences.
The options include:
Device class - select a mobile device type from mobile, tablet, or desktop.
Country code - shows a drop-down menu to select a country. Each country you select appears as a tag in the Content criteria.
CDP User segment - shows a drop-down menu to select a user segment previously configured in your Customer Data Platform (CDP).
Budget - set the time frame for resetting the count of content articles your readers can access.
The options include:
Monthly - resets the count on the first day of each month.
Weekly - choose from the drop-down menu which day of the week to reset the count.
Rolling daily - select the number of days after which the count resets.
Read Count Criteria - set the number of content articles a user can access per budget period.
For example, if you chose Weekly in the previous field and entered 3 in this field, your readers would be able to access three free articles per week before your paywall appears.
Associated Campaign - enter the Campaign URL or the Campaign code of an associated offer page.
To learn more, see Configuring your offers.
Click Save at the top of the page.
This suggests that copying rules might be useful for creating similar but slightly modified versions of existing rules, but this is speculative without direct evidence from the provided search results.
To copy a rule, complete the following:
Navigate to Subscriptions > Paywall > Rules. The Rules page opens, showing all rules filtered for your website.
Click the ellipsis icon
next to the rule you want to copy > Create Copy.The Create a Copy window opens.
Enter a new name for that rule.
Click Copy. The Edit rule page opens.
Make the necessary changes to the fields listed in the Creating a rule procedure.
The new rule appears on your site's Rules page. Click on the rule's name to edit its content.
To delete an existing rule, complete the following:
Navigate to Subscriptions > Paywall > Rules. The Rules page opens, showing all rules filtered for your website.
Click the ellipsis icon
next to the rule you want to delete > Delete. The Delete Confirmation window opens.Click Delete.