Countdown timers in Moosend

Moosend has a countdown of its own, the Timer item, and one sentence in its documentation decides whether it is the right one for your campaign. For everything the Timer item does not cover, Moosend’s HTML item takes a signed timer image, and a custom field can carry a different deadline for each recipient.

Does Moosend have its own countdown timer

Yes. Moosend’s campaign items article lists timers among the default items of the campaign editor, next to images, text, social share, social follow, videos and products. The click path is short. In the left pane under Items, click Timer, drag it into an empty full-width layout, then click it to open the Timer settings on the right.

The settings are:

• Theme, either Plain or Boxes. Boxes puts adjustable boxes around the days, hours, minutes and seconds, with a box colour, box radius, border colour and border width.
• Expiration Date, the date and time the timer runs out.
• Font Family, for the label letters and the counter numbers.
• Timer Color, the colour of the numbers.

Then click Generate Timer.

The sentence that matters sits under the expiration date: “The timer expiration date and time is based on your time zone and expires at the same time for all users.” Moosend’s example is a timer set to expire in five hours, which “expires for everyone, regardless of their time zone, in 5 hours.”

When the Timer item is enough

For a single sale with one cut-off for the whole list, that behaviour is correct, and the Timer item does the job without anything from here. One deadline, one moment, every reader counting down to it.

It stops fitting in three cases. The first is a deadline that should differ per recipient, such as a trial that ends on each person’s own date. The second is a design the four settings cannot reach, since fonts and the number colour are what you control. The third is an automation email, where a fixed expiration date written once keeps being sent long after the date has passed. In those cases a signed image from the countdown timer generator goes into an HTML item instead. Like every timer from here, it loops.

Where the snippet goes

The same campaign items article documents the HTML item. In the left pane under Items, click HTML, drag it into an empty layout, and click it to show the HTML settings. Then, in Moosend’s words, “In the HTML content field, copy and paste the HTML code snippet you want to use in the design and then press Enter on your keyboard.”

<a href="https://yourstore.com/sale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  <img src="https://img.emailtimer.app/i/k7mQ2pXd.gif?w=w_8ha3fq&v=3&sig=YOUR_SIGNATURE" alt="Sale ends Friday at 9am" width="600" height="200" border="0" style="display:block; width:100%; max-width:600px; height:auto; border:0;" />
</a>

Replace the src value with the address the generator gives you, unchanged.

Moosend’s image item is the other candidate. You can drag an image into it, or double-click it and use the image picker “to use an image from another source”, and its pane takes a link URL and alternative text. The article does not say that the picker accepts a remote address and leaves it remote, which a live timer needs, so the HTML item is the documented route.

Where merge tags may go

The image address from here is signed, and the signature covers every parameter. A merge tag typed inside that address is filled in after signing, so the two no longer match, and every recipient is served a blank, transparent image from the Worker in front of the image service. The response is HTTP 200, so Moosend has nothing to report.

That leaves two safe shapes. One address for the whole send is on the free plan, and each reader still sees the time left as of their own open. The other is one address per recipient, minted before the send by the REST API’s batch endpoint or from a recipient set exported as a CSV, on Growth or Agency. Batch minting covers both. Merge tags stay free to go in the link and the alt text, which are not signed.

The field tag in Moosend

Moosend’s personalization tags include #recipient:name# and #recipient:email#, and a custom field is #recipient:custom field#, with #recipient:Country# as Moosend’s example. Create the field first. Moosend’s custom fields article gives the path: Audience, then Email lists, then the list, then Create custom fields, then Add new custom field. Choose the Text data type for an address.

A field named et_image_url becomes #recipient:et_image_url#, and that tag is the entire image source:

<a href="https://yourstore.com/offer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  <img src="#recipient:et_image_url#" alt="#recipient:name|Hello#, your offer ends soon" width="600" height="200" border="0" style="display:block; width:100%; max-width:600px; height:auto; border:0;" />
</a>

Fallbacks have two levels. Inside the campaign, Moosend’s article on adding tags shows the form #recipient:name|fallback#, where the text after the bar is used when the recipient has no value. On the field itself, a “Default fallback value” appears “when the recipient leaves the custom field empty”, and a fallback written in the campaign takes precedence over it. For the image field, the field-level default is the tidy place for a complete signed address for a shared deadline, so a subscriber with no address of their own still sees a working countdown.

Moosend documents these tags in campaign content, not specifically inside an image attribute. Check one real send before you rely on it, as described below.

What breaks in automations

An automation email is written once and sent for as long as the workflow runs. A Timer item with a fixed expiration date in a welcome sequence is accurate for a while and misleading afterwards, and the workflow will not tell you when it crossed over. Every recipient also counts to the same moment, because that is how Moosend documents the item, so a deadline meant to be relative to each subscriber’s sign-up cannot come from it.

A per-recipient address in a custom field avoids both, on one condition. The value has to be on the subscriber record before the automation reaches the email step, so the import of minted addresses runs ahead of the workflow rather than alongside it.

What your recipients will see

After delivery, the mail client decides. Classic Outlook on Windows draws HTML with the Word engine and shows only the first frame of an animated GIF. Timers from here put the real time left into that first frame, so an Outlook reader sees a correct countdown that does not move. Apple Mail Privacy Protection fetches images around delivery time, and Gmail serves images through its own proxy. The detail is on the email client support page. It is drawn from documentation; I have not watched a timer from here render in a real inbox.

Test before you send

Moosend’s testing article gives two tools. Preview Mode shows changes as you make them. Send test, in the top menu of the campaign editor, sends to up to six addresses.

Then the warning that matters for a per-recipient image: “The unsubscribe link and personalization tags do not work on test campaigns, since you are not sending them to actual subscriber lists.” A test send of #recipient:et_image_url# therefore proves nothing about the field. Use the test to check layout and a shared address. For the field, send a real campaign to a list or segment that holds only your own address, with your record carrying a real signed address.

Questions and answers

Does Moosend have a countdown timer?

Yes, a Timer item with Plain and Boxes themes, an expiration date, a font family and a number colour. Moosend documents that it expires at the same moment for every recipient, based on your time zone.

Where do I paste custom timer code in Moosend?

Into an HTML item. Drag it into an empty layout, click it, paste the snippet into the HTML content field and press Enter.

Why does my Moosend test show no personalized timer?

Because Moosend documents that personalization tags do not work on test campaigns. Send a real campaign to a list containing only your own address to check the field.

Can I put a merge tag inside the timer image URL?

Not inside a signed address. The value is written in after signing, and every recipient gets a blank, transparent image. Store a complete signed address in a custom field and use #recipient:et_image_url# as the whole src.

What does a timer cost here?

One deadline for the whole send is on the free plan, with 5,000 image opens a month. A deadline per recipient needs Growth. The countdown timer generator makes a timer without an account, which works for 500 opens, or 1,000 once you sign in and claim it. Each plan is on pricing.