# Birthday Gift Cards Birthday Gift Cards automatically sends a gift card to customers on (or around) their birthday. The campaign uses a customer query to find customers with matching birthdays each time it runs, then creates and delivers a personalized gift card to each one. **Each birthday gift card costs 5 campaign credits.** ### πŸ’‘Common Use Cases **Daily Birthday Campaign** β€” Send a $10 gift card to every customer on their actual birthday, every day at 9:00 AM. Perfect for: Stores with a large customer base who want to celebrate every customer's birthday. **Monthly Birthday Campaign** β€” Send a $15 gift card to all customers with birthdays in the current month, on the 1st day of each month. Perfect for: Smaller stores or those who want to batch birthday communications. **VIP Birthday Rewards** β€” Send a $25 gift card to VIP customers only on their birthdays. Perfect for: Rewarding your most valuable customers with special birthday treatment. **Birthday Month Welcome** β€” Send a gift card at the beginning of the month to all customers with birthdays that month. Perfect for: Building anticipation and encouraging purchases throughout the birthday month. **Regional Birthday Campaign** β€” Send birthday gift cards to customers in specific locations with region-appropriate values. Perfect for: Stores with different strategies for different markets. ### How It Works 1. The campaign runs on your configured schedule (e.g., daily at 9 AM) 2. It executes a Shopify customer query that you define β€” this query is evaluated with today's date to match customers whose birthday is today (or this month, etc.) 3. For each matching customer, a gift card is created and delivered via your chosen method 4. Results are logged in the campaign run history ### Creating a Campaign Navigate to **Campaigns > New Campaign > Birthday Gift Cards** to create a new campaign. #### Title Give your campaign a descriptive name (e.g., "Daily Birthday $10 Gift Card"). This is for your own reference only. #### Customer Query This is the most important field β€” it defines which customers receive a birthday gift card each time the campaign runs. The query uses **Shopify's customer search syntax** with **Liquid date filters** that are evaluated at run time. This lets you write dynamic queries that match customers based on today's date. **Example β€” match customers whose birthday is today:** **Example β€” tags in `birthday-MM-DD` format** (e.g., `birthday-06-07`): ``` tag:birthday-{{ "now" | date: "%m-%d"}} ``` When the campaign runs on June 7th, the Liquid template renders to `tag:birthday-06-07`, matching customers with that exact tag. This is the recommended tag format because it allows a clean exact match. **Important: Shopify search only supports prefix wildcards** (e.g., `birthday-*`), not suffix wildcards (e.g., `*06-07`). This means you cannot use a wildcard to match the date portion at the end of a tag. Your tag format must put the known prefix first, followed by the dynamic date part. **What about `dob:YYYY-MM-DD` tags?** (e.g., `dob:1992-06-07`) This is a common format used by birthday collection apps. However, because the year varies per customer, you cannot match just the month-day part with a Shopify search query β€” suffix wildcards like `dob:*06-07` are not supported. If your customers have `dob:` tags, you have two options: * **Add a second tag** in `birthday-MM-DD` format (e.g., use Shopify Flow to automatically add `birthday-06-07` alongside `dob:1992-06-07`) * **Replace the tag format** β€” re-tag customers using the `birthday-MM-DD` format instead **How to set up birthday tags:** Customer birthday tags need to be added to your customers in Shopify. Common approaches: * Collect birthdays via a form on your storefront and tag customers automatically using Shopify Flow * Import birthday tags via CSV * Use a third-party app that collects and tags customer birthdays You can use the **Test Query** button next to the field to verify how many customers currently match your query. The campaign supports up to 250 matching customers per run. Need help writing a query? Contact us at or read our [Customer Query documentation](https://docs.giftcardfactory.app/misc/customers-query-selector). #### Gift Card Value The fixed monetary value of the birthday gift card (e.g., `10.00` for a $10 gift card). Every customer receives the same value. #### Gift Card Message An optional customer-visible message attached to the gift card (max 200 characters). For example: "Happy Birthday! Here's a gift from us." #### Gift Card Expiry Control when the birthday gift card expires: * **Never expire** β€” The gift card has no expiration date * **Expire relative to creation date** β€” The gift card expires after a set period (e.g., 30 days, 6 months, 1 year after creation) * **Expire on a specific date** β€” The gift card expires on a fixed calendar date #### Schedule Configure when and how often the campaign runs: * **Start date** β€” The first date the campaign should run * **Start time** β€” Hour and minute (in 15-minute increments) * **Timezone** β€” The timezone used for scheduling * **Repeat** β€” Optional recurrence: * **Non-recurring** β€” Runs once at the specified date/time * **Recurring** β€” Runs repeatedly at a set interval (e.g., every 1 day, every 1 week, every 1 month) For birthday campaigns, a **daily recurring schedule** is the most common setup β€” it ensures every customer gets their gift card on their actual birthday. #### Delivery Choose how the gift card is delivered: * **Shopify Email** β€” Uses Shopify's built-in gift card notification (default, no setup required) * **App Email** β€” Sends a custom-designed email using your configured email template. Allows full control over branding and design. * **Shopify Flow** β€” Triggers a Shopify Flow event with gift card data. Build your own delivery logic in Flow. * **Klaviyo** β€” Triggers a Klaviyo event for use in Klaviyo flows When using App Email, select an email template. Available template types: * **Birthday Gift Cards** β€” Pre-built template designed for birthday campaigns * **Custom** β€” Any custom template you've created **Template Variables** The following variables are available in your email template: * `gift_card.code` β€” Full gift card code * `gift_card.initial_value.amount` β€” Gift card value * `gift_card.balance.amount` β€” Current balance (same as initial value at creation) * `gift_card.expires_on` β€” Expiry date (if set) * `customer.first_name` β€” Customer's first name * `customer.last_name` β€” Customer's last name * `customer.email` β€” Customer's email * `shop.name` β€” Your store name * `shop.url` β€” Your store URL ### Campaign Dashboard After creating a campaign, access its dashboard from the campaigns list. The dashboard shows: #### Metrics * **Gift cards sent** β€” Total birthday gift cards delivered * **Value issued** β€” Combined monetary value of all sent gift cards * **Gift cards redeemed** β€” Number of birthday gift cards that were subsequently used * **Redeemed value** β€” Monetary value of redeemed gift cards * **Order total** β€” Total order value from orders where birthday gift cards were used Each metric includes a line chart showing trends over a selectable time range (7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 1 year, or year-to-date). #### Campaign Runs A table showing each time the campaign ran, including: * Run number and date * Status (In Progress, Finished, Error, Limits Error) * Number of gift cards sent * Number of skipped customers #### Settings The campaign configuration can be edited directly from the dashboard using the settings panel. #### Activate / Deactivate Toggle the campaign on or off. When deactivated, the campaign will not run on its next scheduled time. When reactivated, the next run is recalculated based on the schedule. ### Tips * **Run daily** β€” For the best customer experience, run the campaign daily so every customer gets their gift card on their actual birthday * **Test your query first** β€” Always use the "Test Query" button to verify your customer query returns the expected results before activating * **Set a reasonable expiry** β€” A 30-90 day expiry creates urgency while giving customers enough time to shop * **Personalize the message** β€” A warm birthday message makes the gift card feel personal, not automated * **Monitor your dashboard** β€” Track the redeemed rate to understand how effective your birthday campaign is at driving repeat purchases *** ### Troubleshooting #### "Found 0 customers matching the query" **Possible causes:** * Customers aren't tagged with birthdays * Tag format doesn't match query format * Liquid syntax error in query * No customers have birthdays today (for daily campaigns) **Solutions:** * Verify customers have birthday tags: `tag:birthday-*` * Check tag format matches: `birthday-MM-DD` with leading zeros (e.g., `birthday-03-05` for March 5th) * Test query with a fixed date first: `tag:birthday-06-15` * Check a few customer records manually in Shopify Admin #### "Found more than 250 customers" **Possible causes:** * Query is too broad * Using wildcard incorrectly * Missing date filters **Solutions:** * Add more specific filters: `AND email_marketing_consent:subscribed` * Check your Liquid syntax β€” make sure the date format is correct * Verify the query when tested versus when running * Segment customers across multiple campaigns *** ### Need More Help? * [Customer Query Selector Guide](https://docs.giftcardfactory.app/misc/customers-query-selector) β€” Detailed query creation * [Email Template Guide](https://docs.giftcardfactory.app) β€” Customize email design * [Klaviyo Integration](https://docs.giftcardfactory.app) β€” Set up Klaviyo * [Shopify Flow Integration](https://docs.giftcardfactory.app) β€” Set up Flow * Contact support: