LiftIgniter is able to generate recommendations when the recipient opens the email by leveraging our existing recommendation service for the web, and our heavy-duty infrastructure. Put simply, all that's needed is to include a specific URL as the source (src) URL for an image in your email's HTML. This URL will have query string parameters that can be filled in automatically by nearly any ESP or email/marketing automation platform on the market.


When the "src" URL request reaches our model server, it triggers a series of events. First, the model server calculates which items to recommend and then generates images for each one, on the fly. This results in personalized recommendations (and a clickable destination URL!) appearing within your email in the same amount of time as it takes for an image to load.



Step-by-Step


Sample HTML:

<a href="DESTINATION URL"><img src="RECOMMENDATION IMAGE URL" /></a>


Destination Lookup URL: "https://api.petametrics.com/v1/email/link/<newsletterId>/<templatename>/<location>?jsk=<account key>&userId=<userId>"


Recommendation Image URL: "https://api.petametrics.com/v1/email/image/<newsletterId>/<templatename>/<location>?jsk=<account key>&userId=<userId>"


  1. The Recommendation Image URL for each available placement (location) in the email goes to our dedicated email image server. The parameters on the URL contain everything we need to know to generate the recommendation image.

  2. As soon as the first image request reaches our server, we start calculating all of the recommendations that will be needed for that template. 

  3. After our recommendation server has determined which items to show, it sends that information to our in-house thumbnail generator, and stores which destination URLs correspond to which recommendation in our lookup server. 

  4. We take the template you’ve specified, fill in the template with the information for the recommendation, and take a screenshot of the final product. 
  5. That image is then returned to the image server and back to the email client for display in the email.



The Destination Lookup URL in the email contacts our lookup server. Each combination of person (userId), email (newsletterId) and placement in your campaign will have a unique URL value associated with it in our table.

When a recommendation is clicked the request comes to our server and then seamlessly redirects the user to the destination URL for the corresponding recommended item.