How to Use Engage Variables to Personalize Landing Pages

Introduction

You can personalize your Mapp Engage landing pages in two different ways:

• by using Engage variables, which display profile-based values such as a contact’s name, location, or preferences, and

• by using conditional logic (InsertIf/InsertElse), which controls the visibility of content based on segments or contact attributes.

This article focuses on Engage variables – simple placeholders that allow you to insert contact-specific data into landing pages. They are typically used to personalize text, links, or content blocks for known contacts in a campaign or automation journey.

Prerequisites

To use variables in landing pages effectively, the following conditions must be met:

• The contact must be identified.

  Engage variables are only resolved if the contact is known at the time the page is loaded. Otherwise, they will remain empty.

• The variable must exist and be populated.

  The corresponding field in the contact profile must contain a valid value.

Important:

Engage landing pages are designed to be used with identified contacts only – typically as part of a Whiteboard journey or via a link in a personalized message.

If a contact accesses the page outside the intended context (e.g. via a forwarded link, from a different device, or after deleting cookies), identification may fail and variables will appear blank.

To minimize this risk:

• Avoid placing critical content solely inside variables.

• Use default values in contact profiles where appropriate.

• Ensure campaign links include proper identifiers to maintain contact recognition.

Procedure

Step 1: Open Your Landing Page

Go to Content > Landing Pages and create a new landing page or edit an existing one.

Step 2: Insert Variables and Insert Ads

You can personalize your landing page using two types of dynamic elements, both available in the Mapp Engage Variables panel during the Build & Design Landing Page step.

a) Contact Variables

These placeholders are resolved using values from the contact profile.

Use the format:

%%variableName%%

Examples:

<h1>Hello, %%city%%!</h1>
<p>Your current loyalty status is %%status%%.</p>

You can use variables in:

• Text

• Buttons

• URLs

• Custom HTML blocks

b) Insert Ads

Insert Ads are reusable content blocks – such as banners or disclaimers – that are defined elsewhere in your Engage environment and inserted dynamically.

• In the Mapp Engage Variables panel, go to Content / Attachment > Insert Ad.

• When inserted, the following default placeholder appears in the HTML:

  <%InsertAd:"URL"%>

• You need to replace "URL" with either a static content reference or a personalized URL, depending on your use case.

• A maximum of two Insert Ad blocks is allowed per landing page.

  Using more than two may negatively impact loading performance.

Note

Insert Ads are resolved server-side and are not based on individual contact data. They are shared components, not personalized values

Optional: Insert Ads with personalized URLs

You can also modify an Insert Ad to call a personalized URL, for example, to show user-specific content based on a profile attribute.

Example:

<%InsertAd:"http://www.example.com/${user.customAttribute['Hobby']}.html"%>

This will insert the contact’s Hobby value into the URL path.

Make sure to:

• Use the full protocol (http:// or https://)

• Format personalization values as ${user.customAttribute['attributeName']}

This allows you to combine Insert Ads with contact-based personalization logic for advanced use cases.

Step 3: Preview and Test

Use the Preview function to simulate how the landing page appears for a known contact.

• Select a test contact to verify that values are correctly rendered.

• If a variable remains empty:

  – Ensure the contact is identified.

  – Confirm that the profile field contains a value.

  – Double-check the variable name (case-sensitive).