This article covers how to set up automation for Subscription Products. If you’re using Single Products, learn how to set up Single Product Automation.

When setting up your Subscription Products, you may want to setup subscription-specific purchase and billing automations to tailor customer communication, and internal processes for individual plans.

For example, your subscription gives access to an online course, and if someone cancels a specific subscription plan, you want to make sure access to a specific course is removed, specific tags are applied, specific emails are sent with tailored messaging to that membership, etc.

We’ll walk through how Subscription Products are structured, and how to organize your Subscription Options and Plans to create the most effective automation setup and customer experience.

• Subscription Structure: Products, Options & Plans
• Subscription Automation Levels: Products vs Options
• Product Level Automation for Subscriptions
• How to Use Subscription Options
  • Creating Subscription Options
  • Move Plans to a New Option
  • Option Level Automation for Subscriptions
• Subscription Automation Events

Subscription Structure: Products, Options & Plans

Subscription Products are the main, overall subscription that you are offering (e.g., a membership).

Subscription Options are commonly used in a tier-based pricing model, typically seen when selling products or services that have different levels, with different features (for example: Gold, Silver, Bronze – or – Basic, Premium, Pro)

Subscription Plans are what you typically think of when you think of a subscription, it’s the amount of money and the amount of time between each payment (for example: monthly, annual, etc.)

Subscription Automation Levels: Products vs Options

Subscription Automation can be set up at the Product level and at the Options level.

Use Product Level Automation when you have integration actions that need to trigger for anyone who purchases that Subscription Product, regardless of what Plan they choose (for example: add/remove access, add/remove a tag, send a welcome email, etc).

Use Options Level Automation when you need to set up specific integration actions to trigger for certain tiers or plans, but not for others (for example: Gold, Silver, Bronze members each get different levels of access, different tags, etc).

Product Level Automation for Subscriptions

Use this for general integration actions that you need to run for anyone who purchases the Subscription Product, regardless of what Plan they choose.

1. From the Dashboard for your Subscription Product, click on the Automations tab
2. Under Product Automations, click Add Action. If you don’t have any actions set up yet, click the hyperlink add a new one
3. Select the Event you want to set up an Integration Action for
4. Select the Integration you want to trigger an Action in
5. Select the Action you want
6. Configure your Action
7. Click Finish to save

How to Use Subscription Options

Options level automation adds more flexibility and control to your internal processes and enhances your customer experience. Even if you don’t have a tier-based pricing model, you can use Subscription Options to add more customized automation to your plans.

If you have multiple subscription plans, and you DO want to set up a different follow-up or processes based on what plan your customer is subscribed to, you can set up multiple Options, add a single plan (or multiple plans) to each Option, and then set up the different automation events needed for each Option.

Creating Subscription Options

Subscription Options can be created as part of the advanced pricing set up when creating your Subscription Product.

If you didn’t create Subscription Options when creating your Subscription Product, or if you want to create more Subscription Options, follow the steps below.

1. From the Dashboard for your Subscription Product, click on the Product tab
2. Scroll down to Product Options and select Add a Product Option
3. Set a name for your Option. And click Create Option. The Option name is not customer-facing, so it will not show up on your Checkouts, Receipts, or in the Customer Portal
4. You will see your new, empty Option added to the Product Options section
5. Add plans to your Option by clicking Add Plan
6. Follow the prompts to enter the name, price, and billing frequency for the plan
7. Then click Create Plan

Move Plans to a New Option

Your plans have a Mover icon that you can click to move existing Subscription Plans to your new Option. Simply click the three dots (…) next to the plan you want to move. Click Move Plan and then select the Option from the dropdown list.

Once you’ve added your Plan(s) to your new Option, you can set up Subscription Automations that will run only on the Plans within that Option.

Option Level Automation for Subscriptions

Be sure to set up the desired groupings of Subscription Options and Subscription Plans first, before proceeding with the below steps.

1. From the Dashboard for your Subscription Product, click on the Product tab
2. Find the Subscription Option and click Manage
3. Select Automations
4. Click Add Action, or select the hyperlink add a new one
5. Select the Event you want to set up an Integration Action for
6. Select the Integration you want to trigger an Action in
7. Select the Action you want
8. Configure your Action
9. Click Finish
10. Click Save Changes

Subscription Automation Events

The same integrations you can run for Account-Level Billing Automation, and Checkout-Level Purchase Automations, you can also run for subscription-specific events on Subscription Products and Options.

These are the Subscription-related Automation Events available to setup Integration Actions when they occur:

• Product Purchased
• Payment Success
• Payment Failed
• Payment Refunded
• Payment Disputed
• Payment Verification Required (3DS)
• Subscription Started
• Subscription Unpaid
• Subscription Canceling
• Subscription Resumed
• Subscription Canceled
• Subscription Expired
• Subscription Swapped From
• Subscription Swapped To
• Subscription End of Trial
• Upcoming Subscription End of Trial
• Subscription Payment
• Upcoming Subscription Payment

You do not need to set up Integration Actions for all of these events. You can even decide to run all your billing automation at the account-level, and leave Subscription Automations unused too. These are just tools in your tool belt to create the perfect customer experience and/or internal process for your business.