# Optimal send time with AI

### Overview

Sending the right message at the right time can significantly increase engagement with your marketing campaigns. AI-powered **Send Time Optimization (STO)** takes the guesswork out of deciding when to reach your audience by analyzing behavioral patterns and predicting the best time to send messages to each individual recipient.

This guide explains how AI-based send time determination works and how to leverage it to improve your campaign performance.

#### What Is Send Time Optimization (STO)?

**Send Time Optimization** is an AI-driven feature that analyzes historical engagement data (such as opens or clicks) to predict when each recipient is most likely to engage with your content. It helps you:

* Increase open and click-through rates
* Avoid inbox fatigue
* Personalize delivery without manual effort

### How does it work

AI models use the following data signals to predict optimal send times:

| **Data Signal**     | **Description**                                       |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| Engagement history  | When a user typically opens or clicks messages        |
| Timezone            | Adjusts for local time of each recipient              |
| Channel behaviour   | Channel-specific preferences (e.g., email vs. SMS vs) |
| Reach and Frequency | How recently and how often a user engages             |

The AI learns these patterns over time and updates predictions as new data comes in. Your workspace requires at least a few thousand data points for opens/clicks to train the model.

Note that currently we predict one optimal time per platform and per timezone. It is not individual to each contact.<br>

### How to use optimal send time in campaigns

\
You can follow these steps to apply optimal send time to your campaigns

* Under the Schedule section, select Sending type as Optimal send time

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* For the first time, you will need to enable send time optimization under your workspace settings. The settings page can also be accessed under User icon > Admin console > Marketing > AI > Send time optimisation

<figure><img src="https://3861485111-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FU9kiDiTGVD8kkbnKKyEn%2Fuploads%2F79o3uXTNWZ1IQT5NlvdE%2FScreenshot%202025-08-26%20at%207.27.05%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media&#x26;token=dde71951-226e-45e2-95c3-b6e2dade6f8b" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

* On this page <https://app.bird.com/preferences/marketing-ai/sto> you can turn it ON for different platforms

<figure><img src="https://3861485111-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FU9kiDiTGVD8kkbnKKyEn%2Fuploads%2FGG7fjdjykj9rXFU27VOo%2FScreenshot%202025-08-26%20at%207.29.27%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media&#x26;token=9984d834-b58e-40a7-bac4-7d067a1cb8bd" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

* Once you select Optimal send time, you can define the following options:
  * Date on which you would like to send
  * Fallback time for recipients who do not have sufficient past engagement data (clicks or opens) to determine optimal time for them
  * Timezone is fixed to be recipient's local timezone
    * Select what you would like to do if the timezone for a recipient has already passed on the selected date
    * Select what you would like to do if timezone is missing from the recipient

<figure><img src="https://3861485111-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FU9kiDiTGVD8kkbnKKyEn%2Fuploads%2FLAbWyHRloq0bxChIzP5Z%2FScreenshot%202025-08-26%20at%207.25.59%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media&#x26;token=36e6a7b0-548f-4539-ba63-bc03ecc150b1" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Best Practices

* **Not recommended for time-sensitive campaigns**: Optimal send time will send based on the best time for each recipient in their local timezone which may extend the campaign sending time over all timezone depending upon the recipient timezone differences (may take upto 48 hours to cover all timezones of the world). Hence, for sending any time-sensitive campaigns like announcements or limited time offers you can use fixed send time or send immediately
* **Segment Smartly**: STO works best when combined with audience segmentation for relevance.
* **Measure Results**: Compare STO campaigns with fixed-time sends to evaluate performance gains.
* **Use Fallbacks**: For users with insufficient data, AI will use global or segment-level trends.

### FAQs

**Will STO send messages at different times for each recipient?**\
Yes. Each recipient receives the message at their predicted optimal time within your defined date in their local timezone.

**Can STO work across channels?**\
We train the data individually for each channel like Email, SMS, WhatsApp as the engagement behaviours for same recipient may differ across channels

**What if a user has no prior engagement history?**\
The AI uses a fallback time that you can define

**What happens if the optimal time for a user is within the Quiet Hours?**

If the determined optimal time falls within Quiet Hours, we find the nearest edge of the Quiet Hours and schedule the message for the next allowable hour after Quiet Hours. The message is enqueued to send at the closest boundary of Quiet Hours relative to the optimal time.

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