Here are some further handy tips on targeting and scheduling messages.
If you aren't clear on the difference between a broadcast and a triggered message, this article may be helpful.
Maximising broadcast audience size
Say you want to send a broadcast message to everyone in a region (or regions) at the message send time.
Here we'd recommend using a time range - say a 1 or 2 hour period before the message send time. If you use a single time (the system will default to 5 minutes prior to the send time) this will reduce the number of qualifiers - do this only if it is important to minimise false positives.
No requirement to use a minimum dwell time
If you are targeting a broadcast message to all the app users in a region (or regions), there is no requirement to add a minimum dwell. If you do add a minimum dwell condition, note that the system will be strict on selecting qualifiers. Consider reducing the minimum dwell threshold.
No requirement to add additional filters to a triggered message.
If you select "Triggered on entry or exit between two dates and times" as your scheduling option, there is no requirement to add filters on the third step of message creation. By definition, you have already created an audience segment of app users based on the entry/exit criteria.
When might you add a further filter to a triggered message? One good example is a "Welcome back" message. Here you want to target the message to app users you had previously seen say on site yesterday, returning today.
To do this, you'd set up a message triggered on entry to the site region, and add in an extra filter condition "who were present" in the site region using a time range that corresponds to the day before.
Using 'not present'
You can use 'not present' as a filter condition, but you must first have at least one "present" condition.
This is best illustrated with an example.
Say you want to target a message to app users not on site when you broadcast the message - perhaps because it is a specific message about live streaming of content that is only relevant to app users unable to attend the venue that day.
So you're wanting to exclude any app users on site.
On the 'Schedule message' step you'd choose either 'On a specific date and at a specific time' or 'When I click Send' - i.e. this is a broadcast message.
Then on the "Filter message audience" step, you should first select 'present in' a region (or regions) corresponding to where offsite app users might be located. Note here that this region (or regions) should be completely contained within the GPS activation area.
Then add a second filter, selecting 'not present' in a region corresponding to the site.