Customer.io is a behavioural messaging platform built for product-led SaaS companies and tech-forward businesses. Its strength is triggering emails based on what users actually do in your product — signups, feature usage, trial milestones, and purchase events. This makes it a natural fit for countdown timers tied to real user deadlines.
This guide shows you how to embed Tickvio timers in Customer.io emails and how to use Liquid templating for fully personalised countdowns based on subscriber data.
A free Tickvio account and a Customer.io account. Setup takes under two minutes for basic timers, slightly longer if you’re using dynamic personalisation.
Log in to Tickvio and click Create Timer. For Customer.io’s behavioural workflows, you’ll typically use:
Evergreen — each user gets a personal deadline from when they trigger the event. Perfect for trial expirations, onboarding deadlines, and feature adoption nudges.
Dynamic — the end date is passed via a URL parameter, which you populate with Customer.io’s Liquid helpers. Best for renewal dates, billing deadlines, and account-specific expirations stored in your user attributes.
Fixed date — shared deadline for company-wide events, product launches, or pricing changes.
Customise the design, set your expiry state, and copy the embed code.
In Customer.io, navigate to your campaign or broadcast. Open the email in the drag-and-drop editor or code editor.
In the visual editor, add a Code or HTML content block. If using the code editor, you can paste the timer anywhere in your template HTML.
Paste the Tickvio embed code. For basic fixed-date or evergreen timers, this is all you need.
For dynamic timers with Liquid: Customer.io supports Liquid templating. To create personalised countdowns based on user attributes (e.g., trial end date, renewal date), replace the date parameter in Tickvio’s dynamic timer URL with a Liquid variable:
{{ customer.trial_end_date | date: "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" }}
This renders a unique countdown for each user based on their actual data — the most powerful timer setup for SaaS and product-led businesses.
Use Customer.io’s preview with a test profile to verify the timer renders correctly, especially if using dynamic dates. Send a test email to yourself. Check our inbox support guide for client compatibility.
Customer.io’s event-driven architecture makes it ideal for timer campaigns:
Trial expiration: When a user starts a trial, trigger a campaign with an evergreen or dynamic timer showing exactly when their trial ends. "Your free trial expires in:" with a live countdown is far more effective than a text-based reminder.
Feature adoption: "Complete your setup in the next 48 hours and unlock a bonus" with an evergreen timer. Nudge users toward key activation milestones.
Renewal reminders: Use a dynamic timer with the user’s renewal date from their Customer.io profile. "Your subscription renews in:" keeps the deadline front and centre.
Pricing changes: "Lock in current pricing before the increase" with a fixed-date timer. Effective for SaaS companies announcing price changes.
Win-back: For churned users, send a limited-time reactivation offer with an evergreen timer. "Come back within 72 hours for 30% off your first month."
Liquid is your superpower: Customer.io’s Liquid support + Tickvio’s dynamic timer type = fully personalised countdowns driven by any user attribute. Trial dates, billing dates, contract expirations, custom milestones — if it’s in your user profile, it can power a timer.
Segment by behaviour: Customer.io tracks product behaviour natively. Send timer campaigns to users who’ve shown intent (visited pricing page, used a key feature, hit a usage threshold) rather than blasting everyone. See our deliverability guide.
Webhooks and events: Customer.io can trigger emails from custom events. Pair this with Tickvio’s API to programmatically create timers when specific product events occur — true automation at scale.
Create your free Tickvio timer — 20,000 views/month, dynamic and evergreen timers included, no branding. Paste into Customer.io and start driving urgency in your product-led email campaigns.
For more, see our complete guide and integrations page.
