Overview
A rule is the core unit of Activate personalization. It pairs a set of targeting conditions with one or more actions, then evaluates in the visitor's browser through the Activate SDK. When the conditions match, the rule pushes its actions to the data layer so your own tags can react. Rules are always-on: every visitor who matches sees the same outcome, which makes them ideal for persistent personalization like cart nudges, returning-visitor messaging, or geography-specific promotions.
Rules run from a single script tag, so they work on Shopify, WordPress, or any custom site without engineering work. Each rule carries a priority and a status, and only active rules are bundled into the GTM code you generate and deploy.
Open the Rules list
Go to Activate > Rules from the left sidebar. The list shows every rule on the property with columns for application, priority, status, activation count, and last modified. From here you can click Create Rule to start fresh, or Browse Playbooks to clone a proven template.
Enabled rules sort to the top, then by priority, then by title. Each row has icons to edit, clone, enable or disable, and delete the rule. The activation count tells you how often a rule has fired, which is the quickest way to spot a rule that is live but never matching.
Pick a mode
When you create a rule you choose between Simple and Advanced mode, and the choice is permanent. Simple gives you a visual condition builder, audience targeting, and an action builder, which suits most straightforward personalization. Advanced opens a raw SDK rules JSON editor with variables, JsonLogic, filters, and aggregates, which supports multi-rule cascades and complex cart logic.
Start in Simple unless you already know you need the power of the JSON editor. You cannot convert a rule between modes later, so if you outgrow Simple you clone the rule into a new Advanced one.
Set targeting
In Simple mode, choose Inline Conditions or Use Audience. An inline condition is built from a context, a property, an operator, and a value. Contexts include cart, session, user, utm, referrer, url, device, geo, time, localstorage, sessionstorage, cookies, and querystring. Add several conditions and they combine with AND logic.
Operators range from equals, contains, and starts with through to greater than, in list, regex match, and exists. If you prefer to reuse a segment across many rules, switch to Use Audience and reference a saved audience instead of repeating the same conditions.
Define actions
Every action pushes a data layer event. Give it an event name and, optionally, a set of event parameters as key and value pairs. When the rule matches, the event fires into the data layer; the visible change on the page is rendered by your own GTM tags listening for that event. This keeps the rendering implementation in your hands and the targeting logic in Activate.
Because actions only emit events, a rule does nothing visible until you wire a GTM tag to its event name. The Generate GTM Code page walks you through creating those triggers.
Set priority and status
Use the priority slider (1 to 100) to control evaluation order; higher priority rules evaluate first, which matters when rules could conflict. Set the status to Draft, Active, Paused, Completed, or Archived. Only Active rules are included in generated GTM code, so a rule left in Draft will never fire on your site. Use the Fire Once toggle to limit a rule to once per session.
Rules emit data layer events only; the visible change is rendered by your own GTM tags, which the Generate GTM Code page helps you wire up. Clone a Playbook to start from a proven pattern instead of building from scratch. Events from rules are captured by Echo automatically, so you can route them server-side to ad platforms without extra configuration.
Simple and Advanced modes cannot be swapped after a rule is saved. If you need the other mode, clone the rule into a new one and pick the mode you want.
Troubleshooting
Rule is Active but never fires
Check the activation count in the list. If it stays at zero, the targeting conditions are likely too narrow or reference a context value that does not exist in the visitor's session. Open your site in a private window and inspect the actual session, cart, or UTM values against each condition to find the one that fails.
Rule fires but nothing changes on the page
Rules only push data layer events. If you see the event in the data layer but no visible change, the GTM tag that renders the change is missing or not wired to the event name. Use the Generate GTM Code page to create the matching trigger and render tag.
Status change didn't take effect
Generated GTM code includes only the rules that were active at generation time. After you change a rule's status, re-generate and re-copy the Init Tag into GTM. The SDK will not pick up a status change until the updated code is published.