Events

Events are actions and behaviors that people perform. Every time someone does something meaningful, you can track it as an event. This behavioral data powers your segmentation, automation, and analytics.

What is an Event?

An Event is a record of something that happened. It includes:

• Who: The person who did it (identified by email)
• What: The event type (a name you define)
• When: The timestamp of when it occurred
• Details: Optional additional data about the action

Examples of events:

• $purchase with details like amount and product
• $view with the URL they visited
• $signed_up when they create an account
• $watched_video with the video title
• $submitted_support_ticket with the ticket details

Built-in vs Custom Events

Bento tracks some events automatically:

• $view from Bento.js tracking
• $click when someone clicks an email link
• $unsubscribe when someone opts out
• $spam_report when someone reports an email as spam

As well as some events via our integrations such as with Shopify, Stripe, and more.

Custom events are ones you define and send. Name them whatever makes sense for your business.

Sending Events

Events can be sent to Bento through:

1. Bento.js: Track front-end behavior on your website
2. API: Send events from your backend application
3. Integrations: Connected platforms send events automatically

Event Data

Events can carry additional data as key-value pairs:

{
  "type": "$purchase", // this is a description of what the user is doing
  "email": "customer@example.com", // the email of the user who did the action
  "details": {
    "value": 99.00, // the value of the purchase
    "currency": "USD", // the currency of the purchase
    "product_name": "Annual Subscription", // the name of the product purchased
    "product_id": "prod_123" // the ID of the product purchased
  },
  "fields": {
    "first_name": "John", // the first name of the user who did the action
    "last_name": "Doe", // the last name of the user who did the action
    "customer_type": "new" // the type of customer who did the action
  }
}

When an event comes into the system it will create a user if they don't already exist and it will also update custom fields on the user's profile. This means you do not need to hit the API multiple times to get a profile into the right state.

Using Events in Flows

Events are the primary trigger for Flows and automations in Bento:

• When someone performs $purchase, send a thank you email
• When someone performs $view on a specific page, send a personalized email
• When someone performs $signed_up, start a welcome sequence

Events make your automations respond to real behavior in real-time. You can use events to trigger emails, add tags, update fields, and more.

Event History

Every event is stored on the person's profile, creating a complete timeline of their interactions. You can:

• View their full event history
• See exactly when each action occurred
• Access the details attached to each event
• Filter and search their activity

How Events Connect to Other Concepts

Events tie everything together:

• People generate events through their actions
• Segments filter by event history
• Flows trigger from events
• Emails can be personalized with event data
• Fields can be updated when events occur

Strong event tracking is what makes Bento genuinely useful for behavior-based marketing.