This article explains what the Recurring assignment and relative duration mode is, how to set it up when creating a campaign, and how automatic user assignment and reassignment behave.
What is a recurring campaign?
A recurring campaign is not a separate campaign type: it is an assignment mode available when scheduling most SMARTFENSE campaigns, from Campaigns > Calendar > New campaign > [Component] > More options > Mode.
There are two modes:
- Single initial assignment and specific expiration date: all recipient users are assigned when the Start date arrives. Changes made to the groupings after that date are not taken into account.
- Recurring assignment and relative duration: the campaign periodically checks which users meet the recipient conditions and assigns them automatically. Each user's expiration date is calculated based on the defined Duration in days, starting from the moment they are assigned.
Unlike single assignment, where the expiration date is the same for all users, in a recurring campaign each user has their own expiration date, calculated from the moment they entered the campaign.
Available components
The Recurring assignment and relative duration mode is available for:
- Interactive Modules
- Videos
- Video Games
- Newsletters
- Exams
- Surveys
- Phishing, Ransomware, and Smishing
How to set it up when creating the campaign
- From the main menu, go to Campaigns > Calendar.
- Click New campaign and select the desired component.
- Fill in the campaign's basic data (Groups, Topic or Course, Start date, Expiration date).
- Click More options, at the bottom of the screen.
- Under Mode, select Recurring assignment and relative duration.
- Set the Duration in days: this is the time each user will have to complete the activity, counted from the moment they were assigned.
Planning: what to do with users who don't finish
When you select Recurring assignment and relative duration, you can define what happens to users who don't finish the activity within the deadline. This is set in the Planning section, with these options:
- Reassign the campaign.
- Specify the number of times you want to reassign it.
- Assign it indefinitely until the user finishes it.
How automatic assignment works
- The platform periodically checks which users meet the recipient conditions and assigns them without manual intervention.
- Users added to a recipient grouping after the Start date are assigned automatically, but on the day after the change and at the same time as the Start date: assignment is not immediate.
- Users removed from the grouping after being assigned remain assigned to the campaign; removing them from the grouping does not unassign them.
The Number of assignments column, available under Audit > Campaign Detail > Users assigned to the campaign, shows how many times each user was assigned within campaigns with automatic reassignment enabled. This data is also available in the Excel or CSV export and in the corresponding API endpoints.
Relationship with each component's assignment settings
Automatic reassignment respects each component's own assignment settings, available under Settings > Awareness > [Component] > [Component] Assignment. That setting defines whether a user can receive content again that they already previously finished, both outside a campaign and within a recurring campaign.
When you add an Exam as a Derived action of an Interactive Module or Video, it has its own option, Exam user assignment, which defines whether the exam is assigned to users who already previously finished the main component's topic selected in that campaign. This option is set when building the Derived action and is independent of the campaign's Mode.
💡 Best practices
- The Recurring assignment and relative duration mode works with any type of recipient (Groups, Functional areas, Hierarchical levels, Smart groups, or Individual users). Combining it with Smart groups is a useful option for automating onboarding campaigns for new employees, not a requirement.
- Use this mode when you expect frequent additions or removals of users during the campaign's duration.
- Set a Duration in days that matches the content's complexity, to avoid premature expirations.
- Review the Number of assignments column in the audit to identify users who need several reassignments before finishing.
- Set the campaign up as a Test campaign to validate how the recurring assignment behaves without affecting reports or audit data.