Countdown timers in AWeber, Kit and Drip

Of these three, only Kit documents a countdown of its own for email. AWeber’s help articles send you to outside timer services, and Drip’s countdown sits in its onsite pop-up builder. All three will take a timer image from elsewhere, each in a different place and with a different field tag.

Jump to AWeber, Kit or Drip. If your platform is not one of these, the integrations index lists the rest, including MailerLite and GetResponse.

The three side by side

One rule on all three

A timer from here is an image with a signed address, and the HMAC signature covers every parameter in it. No merge tag can go inside that address, because the platform fills the tag in after signing, the signature stops matching, and every subscriber gets a grey “image unavailable” card. It arrives with HTTP 200, so none of AWeber, Kit or Drip has an error to show you.

That leaves two shapes. The first is one address for the whole send, pasted as it is. The free plan covers it, and readers still see the time left at their own open, because the number is drawn when their mail client fetches the image. The second is one address per subscriber, generated before the send with the REST API’s batch endpoint or from a recipient set exported as a CSV. It lives in a custom field whose tag becomes the src, and it needs Growth or Agency.

Merge tags still belong in the link around the image and in its alt text, neither of which is signed.

AWeber

Does AWeber have its own countdown timer

Not that AWeber documents. Its knowledge base has step-by-step articles for timers from other services instead. One covers adding a Sendtric timer to a message. Its landing page article says “You can embed content from sources like Sendtric, Countdown Mail, Mailtimers, Promofeatures, and MotionMail.”

Where the timer goes in AWeber

The Sendtric article gives a route that works for any timer image. Copy the image URL out of the timer code. Then, in AWeber’s words, “paste this link to the Image URL field using an image element in your message.” For a shared deadline, the signed address goes there and nothing else.

To paste the whole snippet instead, AWeber’s own HTML article names the blocks that accept it: Paragraph, Article, Product, Coupon and Signature. Click the block, choose the Source icon from the toolbar, paste, and click OK. The builder strips a long list of elements, including script, style, iframe and form. An image inside a link is not on it.

The field tag in AWeber

AWeber’s variable list gives {{ subscriber.first_name }} for a first name and {{ subscriber.custom_field['Name of custom field'] }} for a custom field. Case matters: “make sure that the letter case matches exactly what you’ve entered into the list information.” A field named et_image_url holding a signed address goes in as the image source:

<a href="https://yoursite.com/offer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  <img src="{{ subscriber.custom_field['et_image_url'] }}" alt="{{ subscriber.first_name }}, your offer ends soon" width="600" height="200" border="0" style="display:block; width:100%; max-width:600px; height:auto; border:0;" />
</a>

AWeber documents these variables in message content, not specifically inside an image attribute. Check the result in a real send before you rely on it.

Testing in AWeber

A test message leaves personalization out unless you supply it. From AWeber’s test message article: “Unless you manually add the value for your personalization field for your test message, the system will omit that field for your test message.” So in Preview & Test, put a real signed address in the image field before sending.

Kit

Does Kit have its own countdown timer

Yes. Kit’s article How to add countdown timers describes a Countdown Timer in the content block menu for broadcasts, email sequence emails, forms and landing pages. You set an end date and time, and pick one of three styles: Plain, Squared or Rounded. The expired message “is limited to 60 characters”. The time zone “is synced to the time zone set for your account”.

Check one thing before you duplicate an email. Kit says a timer is linked to its record, and so “any changes made to the duplicated email will alter the countdown timer on the original broadcast or email sequence.” Add a new timer to the copy instead.

If one deadline in one of those three styles is what you need, Kit’s block does it. A signed timer from here adds the other timer styles, which the plan listing puts on Starter, an expired image of your own, and a deadline per subscriber from Growth.

Where the timer goes in Kit

Kit’s media article describes an HTML Block. “Selecting HTML Block from the content block menu will insert an empty HTML block into your email”. Click Edit, paste the snippet into the modal, and click Save. Kit’s Image option opens the media gallery, and the article describes no field for an outside image URL, so the HTML Block is the route.

The field tag in Kit

Kit’s Liquid article gives {{ subscriber.first_name }}. A custom field uses the field’s name, and Kit says to “replace any spaces with underscores”. A field named et_image_url is therefore {{ subscriber.et_image_url }}. Kit also says the name must use only Latin letters, underscores, hyphens and numbers, starting with a letter or an underscore.

Kit’s fallback form is {{ subscriber.first_name | strip | default: "there" }}. Its double quotes close a double-quoted attribute, so keep it out of alt and src.

Testing in Kit

A plain preview will not show the timer. Kit says field shortcodes in preview emails show up as placeholders such as [FIRST NAME GOES HERE], and a placeholder is not an image address. Use Preview as subscriber and pick a subscriber whose field holds a real signed address. Kit’s editor overview lists sending a test email to an address of your choice among the Preview options, so send one from there.

Drip

Does Drip have its own countdown timer

Not for email, as far as Drip documents. Its Countdown Timer article sits in the Onsite Pop-up Builder section. It says the timer “is compatible with all campaign types and positions, including Sticky Bars”, and mentions a campaign’s “Teaser and Success Step”. That is a pop-up on your website, running in a browser, not an image in an inbox.

Where the timer goes in Drip

Drip’s Visual Email Builder lets you set an image’s Source. There, it says, “you can enter the URL to an external image you might be hosting outside of Drip.” A shared deadline’s signed address goes in that field.

For the whole snippet, Drip has a Custom HTML editor, which “is exclusive to the Text Builder”. Two warnings come with it. “If you switch to Custom HTML, whatever you type or paste will be what Drip sends.” And “switching views will delete the current email content”. The editor also requires the unsubscribe and postal address shortcodes before it saves.

The field tag in Drip

Drip’s Liquid objects include {{ subscriber.first_name }} and {{ subscriber.email }}. A custom field is called by its identifier, as {{ subscriber.custom_field_identifier }}, so a field with the identifier et_image_url is {{ subscriber.et_image_url }}. For its profile fields, Drip adds that when a profile has no value, “the liquid will render as a blank space”. In a src, a blank is a missing image, so check the field is filled for everyone in the segment.

Testing in Drip

Drip’s Visual Email Builder article has one instruction to follow exactly. “In order for personalization Liquid shortcode to render in a test email, you must first select a person under the Preview as drop-down before using the Send a test feature.” Pick a person whose field holds a real signed address.

What your subscribers will see

On all three, the mail client decides what the image does after delivery. For Outlook, Microsoft’s support page says “If only the first frame of the animation appears, you have animations, or animated GIFs, disabled.” A reader in that position still gets a correct number, because the first frame of a timer from here is drawn with the time left in it. The email client support page covers the others. It is built from what the mail vendors document, and I have not yet checked a timer from here in a real inbox.

Questions and answers

Does Kit have a countdown timer for emails?

Yes. Kit’s Countdown Timer block works in broadcasts and email sequence emails, with an end date and time, three styles, and an expired message of up to 60 characters.

Does AWeber have a built-in countdown timer?

AWeber documents none. Its knowledge base walks through timers from third-party services, and places them through an image element’s Image URL field.

Does Drip have a countdown timer for email?

Drip documents its Countdown Timer in the Onsite Pop-up Builder, for pop-ups and sticky bars on a website. In an email, use an image with an external Source URL.

Can I put a subscriber field inside the timer image URL?

Not inside a signed address. A value written in at send time breaks the signature, and every subscriber gets the grey “image unavailable” card. Store a complete signed address in a custom field and make that field’s tag the entire src.

Which plan covers a timer in AWeber, Kit or Drip?

A single deadline for everyone fits the free plan, which includes 5,000 image opens a month. A deadline per subscriber needs Growth, at $49 a month. The tiers are on pricing.