Beacons, WiFi and other spots

How to Add Geofence

1. Pick a name for your Geofence spot.
2. Choose Geofence as a Spot Type.
3. In Search type in the address of the place around which you want to create Geofence. The Geofence will appear below.
4. You can adjust your Geofence on a map (to show the map please allow browser to determine your current location).
5. You can also define Geofence coordinates manually by entering Latitude and Longitude.
6. Choose size of Geofence radius (in meters).
   
   
   
   

Geofence is less precise than beacons or wifi spots therefore we recommend at least 200 meters as a minimal radius. If you are not able to receive Geofence campaign try increasing radius to 500 meters or moving the pin on a map slightly (geofencing uses operating system location services and sometimes they are not able to assign your position to a specific address).

If you place two Geofence spots in close proximity to each other, users of your app may receive two campaigns at the same time and spot analytics can be doubled.

How to Add QR code

QR codes are just another type of spot. QR codes have the same ability to initialize a proximity campaign on a user's mobile phone. You can assign any type of campaign to a QR code, just as you would assign it to a beacon. The only difference between QRodes and other spots is that user needs to manually scan the printed QR code with a phone's camera to initialize the campaign on the phone. QRodes are great if you want to grant somebody a coupon, point or stamp for the purchase made - they guarantee that you as a seller have control over who receives it and who doesn't. Here are all barcode standards supported: UPC_A, UPC_E, EAN_8, EAN_13.

1. Pick a name for your QR code spot.
2. Choose QR code as a Spot Type.
3. In Code type in a unique combination of letters, digits and special characters. You can also click on Generate button next to it to populate a generic code automatically.
4. Preview shows you how this QR code looks like. You can print it now.
   
   
   
   
5. Once you add a campaign, you can now choose the created QR code as a trigger. To scan the QR code you or your customer need to access QR code scanner through the sidebar of the Bleesk app:
   

Eddystone Beacons

Visit our Eddystone & Physical Web guide for more info.

Universal URL Links

Universal links enable you to send a link to your customers, so after they click on it, it will show them a particular campaign you created:

• Scenario 1: Users have Bleesk app installed - after clicking on the link the mobile app will open automatically showing the particular campaign. It works for both iOS and Android platforms. This concept is called Mobile deep linking.


• Scenario 2: Users don't have Bleesk app installed - Universal links also work for customers who do not have Bleesk app installed. In this case, after they click on a link, they will be offered to install the Bleesk application from the Appstore or Google Play.


• Scenario 3: Users open the link on desktop - if your customer opens a universal link on a desktop, it will show the campaign in the device's native internet browser.

NFC Tag Campaigns

NFC tags can be used as an alternative way to deliver proximity campaign even if your customer doesn't have a dedicated mobile app installed on the phone!

For example an NFC Tag could be attached to a For Sale sign. Once a customer taps the Tag with his phone, his phone can call the real estate agent or will open a dedicated page (campaign) created in Bleesk with more details about this house. It is up to you and your specific business case to create meaningful connection - the possiblities are limitless.



How to create NFC Tag Campaign:

1. Buy NFC Tags
2. Create Campaign in Bleesk
3. Download an app that writes NFC Tags - for example NFC Tools (for Android | for iOS).
4. Write a Universal URL on your NFC Tag
   
   
5. Place an NFC Tag where you want your customers to use it.

Introduction to Eddystone & Physical Web

Bleesk is fully compatible with Eddystone™ protocol and receives campaigns assigned to Eddystone beacons. Eddystone is an open bluetooth protocol, that currently consists of three packets: Eddystone-URL for broadcasting URL addresses, Eddystone-UID for broadcasting beacon’s ID, and Eddystone-TLM for beacon telemetry.

Google stops serving Nearby Notifications on December 6th, 2018.

Make sure you have Physical Web properly set on your device: Setting up Physical Web in Chrome on your Android or iOS device.

Adding Eddystone-URL Beacon

1. Go to Beacons & Other Spots list and click Add Spot.
2. Pick a name for your Eddystone-URL spot.
3. Choose Beacon as a Spot Type.
4. Choose Eddystone-URL as a desired Protocol.
5. Click Save Beacon and that's it.
   
   
   

Create Eddystone-URL Campaign

1. Add Eddystone-URL beacon (see above).
2. Create a content.
   

   Please note that if you want to change or update content, it takes minimum 10 minutes for the changes to be seen live on devices that receive Eddystone URL campaign.

3. Create a campaign with the content you created above as Default Content and Eddystone-URL beacon as Trigger.
4. Go to your Beacons & Other Spots list.
5. Export Eddystone-URL created in Bleesk to your beacon (there are two ways to do it):
   
   
   1. Please copy the URL next to the Eddystone-URL beacon to which you have assigned your proximity campaign (highlighted in yellow):
      
      
      and paste the copied URL in the Eddystone-URL field of your physical beacon. This can be done either in beacon provider's admin panel (for example Estimote Cloud) or beacon provider's mobile app (for example Estimote App). Here are more detailed articles how to do it for Estimote beacons.
   
   
   2. If you have previously Imported Beacons from Estimote or Kontakt.io cloud into Bleesk, you can now export Eddystone-URL created in Bleesk to your external beacon cloud automatically by using Sync Beacons button. This needs to be done only once for a beacon and after that every time you update your campaign in Bleesk, the change will be automatically reflected in your Eddystone-URL beacons as well.
      
      

      Please note that using Sync Beacons feature only syncs with your beacon cloud - it does not mean that Eddystone-URL will automatically be synchronised with your physical beacons. In most cases you still need to use phone with Estimote or Kontakt.io app that is in proximity of physical beacons in order to synchronise data from the beacon cloud with them.

Eddystone Analytics

Each Eddystone-URL created in Bleesk is measured to reflect how many times it was viewed. The data collected by our platform is displayed in the Analytics dashboard

Eddystone-URL Tips & Troubleshooting

• If you can't receive campaigns broadcasted by your Eddystone beacons please make sure your device is configured properly by following instructions available on the Physical Web project page.
• Please be aware that Google caches and filters URLs that are being detected by your phone. Before anything is displayed on your phone, Eddystone-URL packets are sent to Google and it's ultimately Google that decides what and when is being shown to an end-user.
• Sometimes however, especially with Android devices, the problem might lay in a Bluetooth hardware on your phone. Different manufacturers use different Bluetooth chipsets, antennas, drivers, OS versions, etc. Those combinations can result in a varying quality of Bluetooth scans. We've already received a number of reports from customers saying that the same beacon, in the same app is detected easily on one phone, but not the other. Unfortunately, that's beyond our control.