One of our top 3 requested features has released, Custom Fields. We have been building this feature behind the scenes for a while. The VAN ID was built out as a default Custom Field for everyone in early 2020. We had a few state-wide campaigns use Custom Fields in 2018 and our Support Team could add a new field if requested. We found most did not need a Custom Field, the ones that did really needed a custom field.

One major piece of us waiting to build out custom fields is that we wanted it to be extremely useful. Database design is tough, and we had enough use cases to understand what everyone wanted. We built out three different types of custom fields, Text, Decimal, Lookup. Most systems only have Text as a custom field, not very useful if you wanted to search based on a number. Lookup was another type provided by a campaign for when you only need a handful of values. I’m sure everyone has seen an Excel file with data in the wrong column, or 3 columns worth of data in one. Lookup helps by limiting what you can enter. Lets say you have a lookup of A, B, C. Your searches/segments are quick and easy, it will always be either A, or B, or C.

Custom Fields can be searched for in the Universe Search as well.

If the Type is Decimal you can search by greater or less than for your searches. If type Text/Lookup you can search by equal, starts with, contains.

Custom Fields are also available during Imports. Decimals support values of $1,500 or 1500.24. Text supports up to 255 characters and Lookup supports the values you pick. In the example above that would be A, B, C. Lookups also support “a “, or “b” to try to find a match.